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Vicar of Dibley star Fleet plays the fopp (again)
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| Paddy Pantsdown: James Fleet plays another political role |
It's Friday afternoon at the Jerwood Space in central London and James Fleet is looking tired and dishevelled.
The Vicar of Dibley actor has just finished a long day's rehearsal for Richard Bean's new play, In the Club, which hits Richmond next week after a successful run in Hampstead.
"It's odd reviving things that you've done before," he mumbles, scratching his ruffled mop of salt'n'pepper hair. "Part of you has evolved since then, but you have to remember it all as it was. It's nice to move on a bit in life, don't you think?" he laughs nervously.
Fleet wants to get off home. Instead, he is in a box room, telling me about about his character Richard Wardrobe, an MEP who is struggling to start a family while also gunning to become president of the European Parliament.
Hapless' is the word used in the press release, though Fleet stresses that Wardrobe is neither Dibley's Hugo Horton nor his Four Weddings and a Funeral character, Tom.
"Wardrobe is a very shrewd man who manipulates the system to make money for himself," says Fleet. "I think he was a socialist once, but somewhere along the way he's got locked into this life of easy money and parties.
"Meanwhile, family life has passed him by and he is starting to worry about his future."
Bean's play is the third political comedy to visit Richmond Theatre after Rik Mayall's The New Statesman and Whipping It Up with Richard Wilson. Does laughter help us cut through all that spin we are fed from Westminster?
"It's certainly good writing material," says Fleet, who has played MPs on both the small and big screen. "But you listen to Radio 4 now and it's all about politics, even down to what Jack Straw's shopping basket looks like. It's celebrity culture for thinking people.
"I'm keen on politics, just not the trivial side," he adds. So much of that is led by journalists. They decide what the scandal is and who reads it.
"I was reading today that David Beckham was in such a muckfit over not being selected for England that he dumped the cystic fibrosis charity he was supposed to support last night. And you just know that's been made up!"
For the most part, Fleet, 53, has avoided the public eye, leading the quiet life with his wife and children in an Oxfordshire hamlet not unlike Dibley.
That rare case of an actor whose CV divides equally between theatre, film and television, has Fleet consciously spread himself around?
"There's been very little planning," he shrugs. "I've been stuck playing posh people since Vicar of Dibley. Once people recognise you from being funny on the telly, they worry about casting you in a serious part. Because you've gone down that corridor you can't go down this one."
Talking of corridors, it's time to go home. As Fleet guides me out of the labyrinthine building, I say how nice it must be to work in such a busy, trendy place.
"I suppose," he says, shuffling his feet. "I think I preferred the old days of draughty church halls when you didn't bump into anyone."
In the Club, Richmond Theatre, The Green, Feb 12-16, (Tue-Sat) 7.45pm, Wed/Sat mat 2.30pm, £18-£28, 0870 060 6651.
2:26pm Thursday 7th February 2008
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