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Picture
Shaun Williamson is playing George Pigden in Ray Cooney's Out of Order 
We chatted to him just before the tour kicks off.
Tell us how you got the part?  Did you get offered the part or did you have to audition?

Yeah,  I’m very lucky in the theatre, I shouldn’t say this out loud ‘cos my luck will change…

Touch wood

I rarely have to audition in theatre.  Television’s different, I have to audition for pretty much everything.  In theatre they just seem to say “would you like to do this” and I’ve been very lucky.  Basically what really attracted me to Out of Order, apart from it being very funny, was that Ray was directing because he is a master; and he's got all that experience, writer, producer, director and I thought, I’m gonna learn something from this man.  I might be 52 but I don’t want to stop learning.  Keep learning and keep fresh.

It’s nice to have the playwright directing you, don’t you think?

Exactly!  I think in a lot of ways, it’s tougher.  You might have heard that he’s a hard task master but he just wants it to be as perfect as he can get it and it’s his name going out on the show so he wants it to be as good as it can be.  It’s going to be good, y’know, rather than things being lazily accepted, he’s going to insist on it being perfect.  I can’t wait.

You want to be kind of driven into that part, don’t you?

Yeah, I think so, I’ve always regarded comedy as a bit of a forte.  I’ve been very lucky to have some lovely comedy parts, I mean, Barry in Eastenders was essentially a sort of comedy character [pauses] - apart from when he was killed…and he had a nervous breakdown…..and he lost his dad [laughs].  Anyway, these things happen but there’s obviously levels of comedy and I want to this to take me to  the next one.

I mean, you can play serious can’t you and as Ray says, the tragedy brings out the comedy doesn’t it?

Oh yeah, you can’t wink at the audience.  Actually George (Shaun’s character in the play) is put in a terrible situation.  I’m lugging a dead body around for half of it!  He’s also a bit of a mummy’s boy - he’s in his 50s and he’s a mummy’s boy, and he’s scared stiff of women, so when he has to seduce two women just to get them out of the room, it’s very funny.

I’ve only seen the play done by an am dram group?

Well so have I, ironically.  It was in Maidstone when I was an amateur.  We all entered into the Maidstone Drama Festival and I went to see someone else’s farce.  It is very funny.

So you went from am dram into drama school.

I did, I went to Webber Douglas, it doesn’t exist any more.  I was 27, I left at 30 and I got into Eastenders within 6 months.

That was quick!

And I was in 10 years in Eastenders.

Were they happy times, when you look back on it?

Yeah, I’d had enough by the end because you can only play the same character so many times, I think.  Good luck to people who are still in it and want to still be in it, I’m not knocking them in the slightest.

Do you prefer theatre to tv?

Yeah I think so, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d like to get back into television in a long running role again.  I’d appreciate it more this time.  I was never arrogant but I just think I’d appreciate it more, you know.  But theatre’s been very good to me, this is my 33rd show in 13 years.  I average three a year.
You’ve got to tell us a little bit about doing Extras with Ricky Gervais

Do you know what, again, I’ve been so lucky.  I was out in my garden and the phone went and it’s Ricky Gervais, and I’m like ‘no it’s not’.  I thought it was someone winding me up.  Les Dennis famously  hung up on him.  He was like, ‘stop wasting my time.’ And Ricky said, ‘I’m doing a new comedy, I’d like  you to be in it.’ I said ‘I’d love to, what’s it called?’ He said ‘Extras’, I said, ‘What’s the name of my part?’ He said ‘Barry from Eastenders.’!!  So, I knew I was in for a real ribbing but I thought, yeah, you know and in the end I was giving them ammunition against me.  

Really?

Yeah, I said I’ve had a hair transplant and all that.  Because I thought if we’re going to do it, let’s do it and just go for it.

The public loved it though, didn’t they and I think we love people who can make fun of themselves?

I think so, I think it’s a very British thing. And then they put me in a show called Life’s Too Short and a film called The Invention of Lying - it was only a tiny part.

I didn’t realise you were in that!?

I played his (Ricky Gervais’s) dad. The worst burglar of all time.  It was very short.  So those guys, Ricky and Steve (Merchant) did so much for me and I owe them big time.  

So how do you feel about touring?

I love it.  I love touring the country and seeing different places.  I’m normally in really big musicals, I’ve just finished Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I did an Elvis musical called Love Me Tender, Anything Goes, Saturday Night Fever, Guys and Dolls, so I rarely do a play.  When you do plays you tend to go to slightly smaller theatres, so I’m going to at least six venues that I’ve never been to, so that’s nice - never done Guildford, Truro, Brighton, Richmond or Swansea so it’s nice to go to places I’ve never been to.

You’ve been to Southend before then, I take it?

Not for a week’s run.  I’ve done one nighters there and I rehearsed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang there.

Have you met any of the other cast members before?

No, no.  Of course, I was a massive fan of Sue from Only Fools and Horses and Arthur (Bostrom) obviously from Allo Allo - I grew up watching that - don’t tell him that, it’ll make him feel really old. 

Are you going to make him say ‘God Moaning’?

I’ll leave it a bit longer for that. [Does impression] “I was just pissing your cafe and I thought I’d pop in.”  He must be sick of that!  There’s Susie of course - they all seem lovely people.  David (Warwick) he plays the body in the play.  He taught me farce at drama school - so it’s his fault if I’m crap!  [laughs] I can’t wait.  ​

Interview:  Kim Tobin
Click here for more information about Out of Order coming to Southend's Palace Theatre on 10th July

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