The Death in Paradise star fancies a return to sketch comedy. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Do you ever look back on that and kind of long for the days of Death in Paradise,
00:03seeing what kind of a national treasure of a show it became and how the longevity it's had?
00:09Well, the Paraverse that it's created. Have you heard? That's what they call it.
00:12The Paraverse, yeah. So there's Death in Paradise and then there's Return to Paradise
00:18and then there's going to be a Death in Paradise set in Australia as well.
00:22Oh, wow.
00:23Yeah, so it's competing with Marvel, I think, really.
00:26I'd like to see another spin-off with you, maybe as a ghost, coming back.
00:33Solving Ghost Crimes. I think people would watch it. I'd watch it.
00:35Is that too much of a jump?
00:37I don't think it's too much of a jump. I mean, there's been quite a few jumps in that show.
00:40I think people will accept it by now.
00:42There have been enough.
00:43What I would also like to say, I know you're both very busy men,
00:46but I would like to see more Armstrong and Miller at some point
00:49because I absolutely adored those shows.
00:53Well, I'm very excited.
00:53I mean, there does seem to be a little bit of a return to sketch comedy.
00:57I don't know if you've heard, but there's going to be a Saturday Live.
01:00There's going to be a sketch show.
01:01I have heard. I've heard of that.
01:03I mean, obviously, the great lineage of kind of, there was the, what was it,
01:07Friday Night Live in the kind of the 80s.
01:09I brought like the Ben Elton's and stuff through.
01:11And there's the question of would it work in the UK.
01:13From your learned hands, do you think we have the right thing here?
01:19Yeah, I do. I do.
01:19I think by starting the show, you create, I mean,
01:23that then starts to create all the, you know, the acts and the writers to sort of feed it.
01:29We did do a kind of version of Saturday Live in the 90s.
01:35And we are, you know, Alexandra Armstrong and I were on it.
01:40As were, you know, Harry Hill and Al Murray.
01:42And it was brilliant, brilliant fun.
01:43And I loved it.
01:44So the idea that there might be something like that again, I think is fantastic.
01:47It is interesting that, like, we talk about these other shows
01:50and because they didn't have the longevity of, like, Saturday Night Live,
01:52you're like, oh, you almost think of them as things that didn't work.
01:55But you talk about the people like yourselves who came from it
01:57and the Brian Lurie, Harry Enfields and all these people.
02:01You're like, these are iconic names of comedy.
02:04And that's the thing.
02:05It is like a kind of, it is a sort of breeding ground
02:08for character comedians and sketch comedies.
02:10So I think it's a really, really exciting thing.
02:13I also did hear a showbiz rumour that Mitchell and Webb might be getting back together.
02:19For an actual...
02:20I heard that as a rumour.
02:21I don't know if that's true or not.
02:24But I heard that as a rumour.
02:25I don't know about other audience members,
02:26but for me, Mitchell and Webb and Armstrong and Miller,
02:29your shows kind of go hand in hand.
02:31Like, those, I would watch those shows kind of back to back.
02:34Before Comic Relief, we once did a, we once did a show called,
02:37I think it was called Mitchell and Webb and Armstrong and Miller.
02:40Perfect.
02:41So you never know.
02:42You know, that might be our way in.
02:44But yeah.
02:45Well, thank you.
02:45And tell me through what else you've been kind of getting into this year.
02:48So on ITV, a show on ITV called Professor T,
02:51which we're very, very excited about.
02:52The fourth season is coming out very soon.
02:56And I also have a show on right now called Austin,
03:00which is a comedy show.
03:02It's the first time I've done comedy, well, since Armstrong and Miller.
03:05Wow.
03:05And it's a really, really amazing show.
03:11So for the reason that the main character is autistic and played by Michael Theo,
03:17who is himself autistic.
03:18And he's an absolute brilliant comedy actor.
03:22So, yeah.
03:22And he's from, is he from like Australia?
03:24Love on the Spectrum.
03:25Yeah, it's Australian.
03:26It's from Love on the Spectrum.
03:26We've shot the show in Australia and it's on iPlayer now.
03:30And yeah, it's, have a look because I think it's great.
03:34I'll check that out.
03:35And was there anything else that you've been watching this year?
03:37Anything you're excited to kind of see the people from today?
03:39Oh my goodness.
03:39Very excited about Baby Reindeer.
03:41Oh, of course.
03:42Very excited about Billy Piper.
03:43I think Gavin and Stacey, I really, really, really hope Ruth Jones wins Best Comedy Actress.
03:50And I mean, there's so many brilliant, brilliant shows.
03:54Wild Horses and other really, slow horses.
03:56Slow horses, yeah.
03:56Another really wild horses.
03:58Wild horses.
03:58The Rolling Stones.
03:59It's one of my favourites sometimes.
04:00No, I think, yeah, I really hope that, yeah, there's so many really great shows.
04:08Well, I'll be crossing my fingers for more Armstrong and Miller.
04:11I'll be crossing my fingers for another Johnny English down the line at some point.
04:14It's always time to make one of them.
04:15Yes, yes, yes, please.