The comedy legend was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, for ITV's Nolly. 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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00:00 Mark Gatiss, sir, if I might be so bold to say I bloody love you, mate.
00:05 I was such a huge fan of the League of Gentlemen back in the day and everything it did with,
00:10 well, you were involved in Doctor Who, I'm a huge fan of, Sherlock of course, Game of
00:15 Dose, and I took a friend to see The Motive and The Q on the West End just a few weeks
00:19 ago and it was spellbinding.
00:21 Thank you so much.
00:22 To sound a bit lovey at the start of an interview, but it was fantastic.
00:25 Thank you.
00:26 It's going back now, look, it's going back.
00:27 It's going back.
00:28 Finished on Saturday.
00:29 We are main in weeks.
00:31 How's that experience for you, stepping back onto the boards?
00:34 We know you from television, of course, but doing that night after night, does it take
00:39 a toll or are you still coming down from the buzz?
00:42 It does take a toll.
00:43 It's just, it's a big, amazing part and it was physically very tiring, 15 weeks of it,
00:50 and I finished on Saturday and I am slightly bereft at the moment.
00:54 It's amazing, you make such close friends and then it suddenly stops and I'm quite glad
01:00 to come out tonight because I was feeling a bit mopey.
01:04 But yeah, it was a really incredible experience and hopefully it might be more to the end
01:09 of it.
01:10 Television, I guess, is a microcosm of that experience as well, as opposed to maybe film,
01:17 because if you're doing a TV show you may be together for weeks or months as opposed
01:21 to maybe a week or a few days.
01:23 You're here to celebrate Nollie tonight.
01:25 Talk me through that experience for you, what it was like being involved with Russell again
01:31 and the fact that it's been so well received by people as well, that must be quite gratifying.
01:37 Very, yes.
01:38 I mean, the nomination is totally out of the blue.
01:40 I was chuffed, very surprised, but delighted.
01:43 Yeah, it was a lovely experience.
01:45 I mean, just saying, you know, when you get emails, they're usually, from your age, they're
01:50 quite dry because they'll tell you what the project is and then it just says casually,
01:55 "You have been offered the role of Larry Grace."
01:57 And I went, "Oh, wow!"
01:59 And then I texted Russell and said, "A three-parter about Noah Gawne!"
02:04 This is like gay gold.
02:06 Catnip.
02:07 And, you know, I just thought it was such a wonderful script and so funny and moving.
02:14 And you know what I really love is something that celebrates television.
02:19 And I love the idea that ITV made this prestige drama about one of the things it used to be
02:23 most embarrassed about.
02:25 But the brilliant thing about it, about Russell's script, is of course that it's so universal.
02:31 It's about a queen losing her crown.
02:33 You don't even have to know the ins and outs of crossroads.
02:37 PBS is showing it in America and, you know, they can get it because of their history of
02:42 slightly ropey daytime soaps, I think.
02:45 You don't even have to know the personalities, I think, but obviously it makes a difference
02:48 if you do.
02:49 Speaking of America, actually, finally, I read recently the creator of Sopranos had
02:55 kind of announced the death of quality television.
02:58 He said we were at the funeral of quality television.
03:00 But on nights like tonight and shows like we're talking about, that seems a bit far-fetched.
03:04 We're certainly in a different situation, a different landscape than we were in 20 years ago,
03:07 but it feels like the stories are still being told and there's some incredible things.
03:11 Of course they are.
03:12 I mean, you know, this is absolutely true.
03:14 I think it was somewhere at the turn of the 20th century, some great intellectual announced
03:19 that nothing else would ever be invented because that was the end of history.
03:24 It sounds a bit like that.
03:25 I mean, there are always golden ages and there always really aren't, you know.
03:31 But 20 years ago when Sopranos was being made, there was so much--that was the beginning
03:36 of the rebirth of television.
03:38 And we are going through another amazing period.
03:40 Amazing stuff.
03:41 There's a lot of stuff and we are slightly recalibrating, I think.
03:45 You know, the streamers are pulling their horns in a bit, mostly because they kind of
03:49 massively overspent.
03:51 And people are a bit scared because it's very quiet at the moment.
03:54 But a lot of that is a readjustment to the fact that it was--a couple of years ago,
03:57 it was like the Wild West out there.
03:59 People couldn't buy enough studios.
04:01 And so that's a very real thing.
04:05 But I think it's an incredible time and also very exciting because so much of it is changing.
04:09 I think the only issue is so many incredible programs in the last few years, as you say,
04:13 it's been like they're spitting out, don't get seen, I guess, because there's so much
04:17 great content out there.
04:18 But anyway, good luck tonight.
04:19 Thank you.
04:20 I think if we did stop inventing things 20 years ago, at least we wouldn't have Twitter
04:23 now or X, as we like to call it.
04:25 But I have seen--
04:26 You don't have to call it that.
04:27 I don't call it that.
04:28 One day, when he sells it for £10, we'll call it Twitter again.