‘Rick’s basically a what-if version of me. Had I not found success, that’s how I would have been – deluding myself into thinking success will come, or believing it’s not my fault that it hasn’t’
I was doing a lot of standup, working with other comedy writers. I was interested in the relationship between writer and performer. I wondered: “What if the writer is funnier than the performer?” I approached Pete Sinclair, who I’d written with for a long time, and said: “What do you reckon?” BBC4 commissioned a pilot.
We developed the world of Rick Spleen and his relationship with his writer and the public. Spleen is trumped by everyone in his life. His wife is more successful than him. Magda, his Polish cleaner, is more logically intelligent. His daughter and her boyfriend are cooler and his writer is funnier. Everywhere he looks, he’s bashed about by people better than him. He’s basically a “what-if” version of me. Had I not found success, that’s what I would’ve been doing: deluding myself into thinking it will happen, or believing it’s not my fault that it hasn’t.
Some of what goes on with Rick has happened to me, like when he hosts a corporate do. These things are always terrible: everyone is waiting to see if they’ve won an award, they’re all pissed, and nobody has come to see you. Rick finds that out the hard way.
