John Uphoff

BBC Radio Jersey

June 17, 2005

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John Uphoff: He's been on our tellies for decades, in everything from coffee commercials to Little Britain, via Buffy and Monarch of the Glen. Anthony Head is also incredibly popular with the ladies and has recently presented Project Who for BBC Radio 2, plus a new DVD for the Discovery Channel, True Horror with Anthony Head. Anthony joins me now. Hello, nice to have you with us.

Anthony Head: Thank you, how are you doing?

JU: You seem to be working nonstop at the moment.

AH: Um, it's very nice, I have to say. But I'm still... when I'm out of work, I'm just like any other actor. It's a very insecure profession. You think you're never going to work again.

JU: I suppose the problem is, we see you on the telly in a few things and think "Golly, he's working nonstop". Whereas, truth of the matter is, you might be going through quite a lean patch.

AH: You never know. The great thing about being an actor is that you have absolutely no idea what is going to happen tomorrow or even this afternoon. And it's a wonderful ride because of that. But the same time, you know, it has it's ups and downs. But, I mean, as you said, I've had the opportunity to do some extraordinary varied things and for that I am eternally grateful. Please, please long may it continue!

JU: Please employ this man. Now you worked on Project Who for Radio 2. What was that like?

AH: It was fun. It was...you know, it was reading a script really basically. Listening to the various people they interviewed... I mean, I'm an old Who fan and it was very interesting to hear how they sort of put this new show together. In fact, who knows I might be in an episode of the next series.

JU: That would be good. Is there a chance that you could be in the next series?

AH: Who knows, I might be.

JU: We'll watch that with interest. There was quite a lot of speculation, I'm told, on various message boards that you would liked to have been the next Doctor Who. Is there any truth in that?

AH: I don't know, the first time it was mooted I kind of went, look one iconic character from a science fiction series is enough. Then when it came around again it was like mmmm maybe! It sort of came out of the fact that the readers of the Radio Times voted me as the person they would most like to. Because there aren't enormous dissimilarities between the Doctor and Giles and I don't think it would be a huge push for me to play the Doctor. But I think it was a very interesting change in path that they took with Christopher Eccleston, he's a wonderful actor and now I think it's going to go from strength to strength. But, um, it's just one of those things that comes along and you kind of make of - they didn't actually ask me, I don't think in the end. We talked a long time ago before Paul McGann did that... the American one. But, um, who knows?

JU: Who knows. I think that you are actually almost too famous now to be Doctor Who because they tend to go for someone slightly less well known that's been tied to a big part, don't they?

AH: I don't think you can call Christopher Eccleston 'slightly less known'. But he's -

JU: He's not as well known as you.

AH: (Laughs) That's very nice to know. I certainly...I mean...I can't thank the fates or whatever is responsible for doing... helping me to do what I've done, enough. In as much as, you know, you go from something like Buffy where - in my wildest dreams, I mean, I was hoping when I was signing the contract that it would be seen in England, otherwise I would be disappearing for five to seven years from the English screens and I was hoping it would be shown in England. Little in my wildest dreams did I think it would not only be shown in England, but shown worldwide and become this huge cult hit and at the same time a critical success. Which is the secret. Which is very very rare, you get quite a lot of cult hits where you get this incredible following that just supports it and keeps it going. But to have something which the critics actually rave about and to find it on the English syllabus, is the most extraordinary thing, as an example of modern playwriting.

JU: Was it thanks to Buffy then that perhaps you got considered for the True Horror project, which the new DVD is?

AH: I don't think it's a huge leap to - Yeah, when they first approached me, I was reluctant, I must admit. There had been a similar approach...there was a Fox show years ago that was presented by Leonard Nimoy which was about all things supernatural and we talked about me presenting that. But that was very much Leonard sort of topping and tailing reports and he would open and close the show. And this was...you know, I said "Well that's a bit boring, is that what you want?" And they said "Far from it, what we actually want is a personal voyage of discovery. We want to take you around the world and we want you to interview -" I went "Let me stop you there. I'm not an investigative journalist, I can't interview." "No, no no. It's easy. We'll just give you the script. We'll tell you what we want you to ask and you'll find it quite easy as you go along. You'll get interested and you'll ask your own questions."

Well, almost the first one up, I think was a journalist out in Romania and walking and talking to her in the cemetery in this little rural village where a body had been exhumed and the heart ripped out and burnt ritualistically because a family believed that their grandfather was a vampire. I found very quickly that I jumped in with my own questions and from there on in, it was the most extraordinary voyage.

JU: Because reading through the list of places you've been and the people you interviewed for this, it sounds like a real dream job, almost a holiday with someone following you around with a camera.

AH: It really was. I mean, to go from Romania and the mountains of Transylvania to the Vatican in Rome to the Syrian desert to the Temple of Baal in this ancient, ancient ruined city, beautiful, beautiful place to South Africa to investigate witchcraft and the inauguration of a sangoma, which is a spirit healer. Just the most extraordinary voyage. Just very beautiful, in some cases extremely emotional, very moving and quite scary.

JU: I was going to say, were you ever - because reading this list of places you've been and people you've talked to, were you ever scared? Because - some way out stuff, some people there.

AH: Most of the people I interviewed actually had their feet firmly on the ground, which was - I was hugely grateful for. There were a couple who were sort of a bit odd but they weren't scary. The scariest place was undoubtedly Haiti, where the lawlessness is pure. I mean, you can feel it in the air, there is absolutely no one in control. There's sporadic gunfire all the time, there's - I mean, six police men were beheaded and left in the street just in the short time we were there. The crew were kidnapped and held to ransom by a machete wielding mob and I was offered the chance by this very, very scary, benign smiling lady to go an see -

JU: She invited you in for coffee?

AH: No, she invited me to go to a cemetery and they'd dig up a body and I could - of a zombie and we could have a half an hour interview with it. She was scary because she was so matter of fact and so cool. And not...it was one of those...you knew she meant it. There wasn't any kind of -

JU: Did you do it?

AH: No. For two reasons. One, I did ask her at one point, I said "What of the family of this poor victim?" and she said "No, no, we won't involve them. Thanks very much." And I found the idea very distasteful anyway. But secondly, because we'd learnt very early on that there is no truth and whatever line of pursuit you had in Haiti, they would say one thing and then you'd arrive somewhere expecting someone to turn up and someone else would turn up and be asking for more money or basically a show of violence and demanding your money or - you never knew whether you were going to get out of anywhere alive.

JU: I would have been terrified.

AH: Well yeah. I was. I mean I have to say the crew, the production company looked after me and kept me as best they could out of harm's way. It was the crew, that was, as I say, hauled out of the camera car when they were on a late shoot, shooting some reconstruction - and the reconstruction, as well during the series is beautifully shot, great stuff. But they were shooting with some Haitian actors and this - basically the place is run by high priests who are also ganglords. They are incredibly violent and you have to check everything with them and they didn't go the right process and this guy came...turned up really hacked off with, as I say, a mob of people whose eyes were all rolling, so they weren't exactly people you could argue with or reason with and armed with machetes and they dragged the crew out of the camera car and at one point the police turned up and the director thought "Thank goodness for that. At least we're...something's going to happen now" and something did happen, they just beat up the Haitian actors and they were actually in on the act. The Deputy Mayor went off with the producer to the hotel and emptied the safe and then the crew were released. About two days before we left Haiti, the Mayor went on public radio decrying this act because he hadn't been given his cut (laughing in disbelief).

JU: Well, how mean can you get, it's dreadful isn't it? I tell you, we're glad you're back.

AH: I'm glad and so are my family!

JU: True Horror with Anthony Head, the DVD out Monday at £19.99. I must ask you this, for the ladies of the Island, because when they found we were going to be chatting with you today, the mention of your name seems to have an effect on the opposite sex. I can't think why...When will we see you back on our tellies in Great Britain, Anthony?

AH: I believe a thing that I shot last year called MIT: Murder Investigation Team is going to be on in July. I went to a gathering last week at the BBC and somebody told me that was happening. A movie I made that I'm hugely proud of called Click, that's coming out in September and I'm shooting some more Little Britain now.

U: Fantastic. You look so cool in it, you look so like Tony Blair, in the nicest possible way. You know you're sort of what Tony Blair would like to be.

AH: Apparently...he tells me his daughter thinks I'm more attractive (laughs).

JU: That's just great.

AH: He says it is the make-up, I get better makeup.

JU: I don't know. I just think it's hilarious. I don't know how you keep a straight face with Sebastian doing -

AH: I don't, that's the point. (laughs)

JU: Well, it's been lovely talking to you. Good luck with everything you do.

AH: Thank you.

JU: Good luck with the DVD True Horror with Anthony Head.

AH: Check it out. It is the most extraordinary series. It started off as something that we all thought was, you know, a bit - not naff but alright but it turned into something that we were all hugely proud of.

JU: Looking forward to it. We will be prepared to be scared, Anthony. Thanks for talking to us today on BBC Radio Jersey.