Dead funny

Comic Johnny Vegas has been giving away more about his next top secret project than he should to the assembled journalists. These worries are understandable as the sequence he's just described involved the outsize funny man leaping over tough guy actor Ray Winstone on a chopper bike.

The stunt - part of a pilot for a planned Friday night Channel 4 show produced by Chris Evans - went well, but Vegas suddenly realises that perhaps he shouldn't have been giving away so much to a roomful of reporters. "You don't understand. This gets me into trouble," he says.

He attempts to divert attention with flattery, "You seem like a nice bunch", followed by an exclusive story, "I have a third nipple, don't tell anyone".

Vegas has been wary of the press of late, following personal problems, awful reviews for his film Sex Lives Of The Potato Men and comments he made while inducting Cliff Richard into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

Before his appearance, the press officer ruled: "No personal questions". The humour of this remark isn't lost on the scribes as Vegas is here to promote a new ITV1 comedy series in which he plays a newspaper reporter.

Dead Man Weds is the first solo writing project from Dave Spikey, co-writer of Phoenix Nights. Set in the offices of a Northern local newspaper, it follows the efforts of the Fogburrow Advertiser's new editor (played by Spikey) to shake up the band of misfits and lazy blighters occupying the newsroom.

Once Vegas settles down, he's as funny as you'd hoped. First, he has to negotiate the question of whether he'd be any good as a newspaper editor. "I think I would but it's that kind of romantic idea," he replies. "I would struggle with some of the things that happen in newspapers on the gossip side.

'I'd like to think I was saving the world. I can't multi-task, ask me to do two things and I collapse and cry in the corner. And too much of my own opinions would leak in."

Then, reflecting on what he's said, he declares: "This is looking like the worst job interview in the world."

Dead Man Weds was inspired by Spikey's love of local newspapers - or rather, ridiculously amusing headlines such as PENSIONERS MAKE LOVELY RUGS, POLICE STAMP ON RENT BOYS RING and SOME TRAINS MAY BE LATE.

The idea was rejected by both C4 ("they decided it wasn't edgy enough, would I do rewrites?") and the BBC ("they wanted something more like The Office or Marion And Geoff") before finding a home at ITV1, which should be rewarded with a rare comedy hit.

The paths of Spikey and Vegas had crossed before on the stand-up circuit. Their partnership on Dead Man Weds was a fruitful one. Spikey says: "He surprised me for what he throws in. He came up with some amazing stuff."

Vegas himself doesn't find his own stuff funny, although "people seem to derive humour from me being fat and running around." In the series, he rides a bike and falls off a gate. "I'm very good on a pushbike," he insists.

"I like cycling but I don't like wind, rain or hills. And that wasn't the best bike in the world and didn't have the best set of brakes. I climbed over that gate myself. The actual fall came about by accident. They left that in and said, 'Can you do that again?'. It's nice to think that my in-built clumsiness can bring something to it."

He says, probably jokingly, only it's difficult to tell, that "I'm basically a very active person, it was nice to have a chance to show that. I've just found out I'm too heavy to go wing-walking. The Utterly Butterly plane won't take me up."

The most dangerous thing he did on Dead Man Weds was drinking with co-star Keith Barron. Vegas, who's sipping water despite the launch taking place in a pub, notes that he broke the record for keeping open the bar at the hotel where the cast were staying on location. The drinking continued through the night until 7.30 in the morning. He doesn't know how many pints he had. "If you're counting your drink, you're not enjoying it," is his philosophy.

He found Spikey open to ideas but admits there was a lot more pressure because someone else had sat down and done the hard work of writing the script.

"It's different to stand-up, where you take an idea out on stage and, if it's not working, you can change it. If you do something like Dead Man Weds, there it is, on paper officially," he says.

"You really have no control over it. You do projects you hope will be well received. With comedy, so much more humour can come from the director or just how it's shot."

Despite talking himself into what he calls "a complete dead end", Vegas harks back to how hard it was doing a play, Joe Orton's The Erpingham Camp, at the Edinburgh Festival a few years ago. "That was the first time I got my backside kicked," he says. "You don't have to be funny because it's written down. If you get a slow crowd you're desperate to break into Neil Diamond's Love On The Rocks to get things going.

"I have a bit more respect for what actors do in terms of approach and performance now. I'm expecting a backlash from actors, I'm waiting to see the bitchy side of acting."

He's already experienced the stings and barbs of film critics when Sex Lives Of The Potato Men, in which he starred with Mackenzie Crook and Mark Gatiss, was released in cinemas last year. "I was in the supermarket and bought the film - and I like it," he says.

"Sometimes it's made out that I should be apologetic about it but it was made for an audience of people I know. The film became this huge stick to beat the Lottery Commission with.

"I was disappointed because it was dragged off cinemas quickly. I don't think it was given an opportunity. It's still, when all is said and done, the funniest script I've read. I'm not going back and saying I wish I hadn't done it."

He accepts that with anything creative, you have to expect criticism, whether it's good or bad. But he'd be upset if he thought his being in the film was one reason that led to the film being slated.

"It's not put me off movies at all," he says. "The thing is with stand-up, you do all these gigs before you start being recognised. In films, you are sort of growing up in public if you make a film and it doesn't do too well. I really do feel for directors because it seems you have one go and then it's out."

He'll have another crack at big screen fame with The Libertine, due for release early this year, which stars Johnny Depp as the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet famed for his drinking and debauchery. Vegas plays Charles Sackville which "was probably the most challenging thing I've done because I'm playing the third richest man in the country".

He didn't manage many nights out on the town with Depp because the American star was recognised everywhere he went. "People just go up to him and stare," says Vegas. "I really wanted him to be a bad man, but he wasn't. He was really genuine."

Then, if the pilot show is liked, he'll be pressing on with the C4 Friday night show, which has yet to be named. The Vegas Files and Johnny Vegas Goes Grave-Robbing are two suggestions. "There are bands and guests but what we're trying to steer clear of is people pushing something. We want guests we genuinely like, not because they are plugging a book or something else," he says.

Or even a TV series like Dead Man Weds.

* Dead Man Weds begins on ITV1 tonight at 10pm.

Published: ??/??/2004