Future famous five
by Imogen Edwards-Jones
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Simon Pegg
Comedian Simon Pegg has come a long way since he wrote his Marxist analysis of Star Wars while studying drama at Bristol University. One of the stars of BBC2's recent hit comedy series Big Train , written by the makers of Father Ted , he is currently writing Spaced , a weird and warped sitcom for Channel 4 and has just finished touring with Steve Coogan. On the road since September, with an extended run in the West End, Simon, 28, has certainly earned the right to look exhausted. "I'm a little bit tired of doing the show," he admits. "The whole day is geared towards those two hours. Afterwards we tend to go a bit mad, but I'm working a lot during the day, so I can't afford to be mucking about too much."
Not that Simon's ever really mucked about. Even as far back as his days in Bristol he was honing his art in a stand-up club with David Ike and the Orphans of Jesus , along with the likes of Dominic Diamond and David Williams. "The course was very theoretical," remembers Simon. "It made me look at the state of British theatre and realise that I didn't want to be an actor and participate in that awful meat market of auditions. I'd always been much more interested in comedy, even when I was little." Very little as it turns out. "I was doing it as a kid," he laughs. "I used to stand up and tell all these jokes in school on a Monday morning. A lot of people think that comedy is the hardest job in the world and it really isn't. If you've got the balls to do it and you've got some good material, it's a wonderful thing to make people laugh. The more they laugh the more you gain confidence."
Picked up by his agent after doing an open-mike slot at Screaming Blue Murder in Hampton Wick, Simon originally became known for playing Julia Sawalha's boyfriend in the ITV sitcom Faith in the Future. "I had a wonderful time working with everyone," says Simon. "And we won some awards. We won the award for best ITV sitcom, which isn't exactly hard, as there isn't much competition." But all the while the comedy was on slow boil. A show in Edinburgh three years ago led to a three-month tour of Australia and New Zealand with Funny Business. "I remember standing in the sea in New Zealand with Michael Smilie, Phil Kay and a couple of other comics and we all just stood up to our knees in the water, in 42 degrees heat, and someone said 'So this is our job' and someone said 'Yeah!' ."
Yet it wasn't always wonderful. Mention the Channel 5 series We Know Where You Live and the smile soon disappears from his face. "We decided to just take the p*** because we were bored. I'm just glad no one knew where we lived at the time," he laughs. "We would have been lynched."
But it is his relationship with Steve Coogan that has proved the most fruitful. "He saw my show and as I was a huge fan of his he could probably see me mimicking him," admits Simon. "It was terrifying the first time I met him, he was dressed as Alan Partridge." After playing a cameo role as the video director in I'm Alan Partridge , Simon was asked to do the recent tour. "We've become mates and I hope to work a lot with him in the future. We have a great rapport, we make each other laugh a lot and it's a really creative atmosphere."
The Big Train comedy series is not his only project with the Father Ted team. Simon is also starring in another Channel 4 sitcom, Hippies .
"Everyone is going to hate me next year," he says, "because I will be everywhere." Ask him where it's all leading and Simon just grins. "I'd like to do films or movies and a book, do as much as I can and keep enjoying myself. What I'd really like to do is go to America, live in Beverly Hills and be part of a massive sci-fi franchise and give up all my principles for a laser gun."