Stephen Merchant explains how he ‘got into comedy’ because of John Cleese

Virgin Radio

21 May 2024, 08:51

Stephen Merchant has explained how his love of John Cleese influenced his own journey into comedy.

The comedian, writer, director and actor joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar ahead of series three of his acclaimed comedy-drama The Outlaws, when the conversation turned to another recent visitor to Virgin Radio, John Cleese.

Stephen said that the Fawlty Towers and Monty Python star was “really one of the reasons I got into comedy, if not the reason, because, [I was] born in Weston-super-Mare near Bristol, went to school in Bristol, and for some reason, as a kid, I’m like, ‘Well if you need tall, funny guys from the West Country, I can fill that hole.’”

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With Chris comparing Fawlty Towers to The Office, the latter’s co-creator said: “I think my single ambition when I thought I could be the next Cleese was to write a sitcom that would be mentioned in the same conversation as Fawlty Towers, and the fact that we got there and that you mention that now has always been one of the highlights of my career.”

John Cleese recently joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar to talk about the new Fawlty Towers stage show. Stephen said: “Annoyingly, I was gonna go to Fawlty Towers, and I couldn’t, and I’ve never met Cleese. He’s been a hero for years, and I’ve never met him. 

“The closest I got was my parents were on a cruise, because that’s the kind of people they are now, and Cleese was giving a talk on the cruise. My parents, of course, got the wrong day, missed the talk. But somehow, they managed to get a word saying, would he sign a book he’d written, for their son, Stephen? Anyway, so I get back to Bristol, I see them and they’ve got a little kind of shaky video cam… and it’s a voice message from Cleese. And he’s saying ‘Hello there, Ron and Elaine, I don’t know if your son is the same Stephen Merchant that did The Office, but I’m a big fan, more than happy to sign a book.’ And that’s the closest I’ve got. And in a way, that’s all I need, isn’t it?”

Regarding the fact that the Fawlty Towers TV series and The Office were both short in terms of numbers of episodes, Stephen said: “Fawlty Towers, famously, they only did the 12 episodes. And we did 12 episodes plus a couple of Christmas specials. I suppose we were sort of influenced to some degree by Cleese finishing it when it was still at its height. But if I look back now, I think it was also because we thought it was easy to write hit shows. Now when you discover actually, it’s quite hard, we’d have probably kept it going!”

When Chris suggested that it felt like there were more episodes of The Office, Stephen replied: “I think that just means it got under your skin. I think that’s the effectiveness of a show, when the characters are taken to heart by the audience, it feels like they’ve sort of stayed with you and they’re sort of members of your friend group or something.

“With Fawlty Towers it feels the same. It just feels like those characters are still running a hotel in Torquay.” 

Whist the star of The Office, Extras and The Outlaws has never met John Cleese, he did tell Chris about meeting the star of another iconic comedy. “The show I remember watching whenever I was off from school was Happy Days, and just the other day I was at a Bruce Springsteen concert in the States and I met Henry ‘The Fonz’ Winkler… and he was a Steve fan! I couldn’t believe it!” he said. 

“They’re the ones that really count, whether it’s Cleese or The Fonz, those people that you were a fan of that you had a little worship of when you’re young are the ones that always stick with you.”

The third series of hit BBC show The Outlaws lands on 30th May. Speaking about the creation of The Outlaws, its creator said: “It was the toughest thing I’ve ever done, because you’ve got all that crime plot stuff, which is this whole other project. You spend weeks just figuring out what the crime is and then you’ve add to have the humour, and the character and the emotional rest of it.”

He added: “The Office was just what awkward thing could David Brent do this week?”

“I’m genuinely proud of it,” Stephen told Chris. “It was a really difficult show to make, because there’s all those strands. And in this series, I’m very pleased, because my character is a lawyer. We’ve never seen him in court, and I finally get my big court scene!”

Read what Stephen told Chris about Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning, who reprises her role in The Outlaws, here.

The Outlaws series three begins Thursday 30th May at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.