TEN QUESTIONS WITH
The Mandy star on comedy inspiration, working with Ricky Gervais and failing to learn her lines for Sean Bean
As the star of Philomena Cunk, Motherland and After Life, stand-up comedian turned actor Diane Morgan revels in playing quirky characters. But none is quirkier than Mandy — a beehive-coiffed, chain-smoking layabout. As a new series of Mandy begins on BBC2, Morgan tells RT where she gets her inspiration — and how she nearly messed up a job working with David Bowie’s son.
When you write, are you inspired by the TV from your childhood?
Yes. When I worked with the guys from Inside No 9, they were brought up with shows like Tales of the Unexpected. There was a lot of horror in those days: even the ads were frightening! That does seep into your work. I loved The Young Ones, though. Things that aren’t set in reality take you out of yourself.
Where do your fans recognise you from?
Whenever someone approaches me I try to guess what they’re a fan of: if it’s a man in his 40s he’ll be a Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe fan. If it’s a woman with a pram it’ll be Motherland. A lot of gay men like Mandy.
Mandy is just starting its third series — how did it come about?
The BBC offered several comedy writers a 15-minute segment with which to do whatever we wanted. To be honest, I didn’t think it would be picked up. There isn’t much of this kind of thing on TV – something completely stupid – except maybe Vic and Bob. There are a lot of comedy dramas, or the comedy has a bit of romance, which I hate. I hate people looking cool in comedies: they’re in an expensive house and look great. There’s nothing funny about that! Nobody should ever learn anything in comedy or improve themselves.
Is Mandy based on a real person?
She’s an amalgam. There were a lot of women like that in Manchester in the 1990s: the big beehive, sweary, smoky. I think people enjoy Mandy because she doesn’t care what people think of her, and we’d all like to be a bit more like that.
In this series Mandy has a rare bird lay eggs in her beehive and has an operation to stretch her legs. Where do you get your comic ideas?
It starts with a notepad where I write down funny things I notice from real life then think, “What’s the weirdest thing that could happen next?” Once I was trying on some jeans in a changing room and lost my balance and went to grab the curtain. I thought, “What would happen if the curtain came down and rolled out into the shop?” Did you see the video where the woman’s coat got caught in the shutters and pulled her up? There’s nothing funnier than that. I was so jealous I didn’t think of that for Mandy.
