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Charlie Higson |
The fast comedian behind Young Bond
Charlie Higson may be best known for his role in the Fast Show, but it’s for the Young Bond he really wants to be remembered, writes Tom Foot
CHARLIE Higson spent formative comic time with Harry Enfield on the appropriately named Merryville Estate in Hackney.
At university he formed a punk band, the unfortunately named Right Hand Lovers, with Paul Whitehouse.
Not a bad start for an up-and-coming comic, keen to make a career in television.
Born in Somerset in 1958, Higson first came to public attention in 1994 with the hugely popular BBC2 television sketch show The Fast Show.
He went on to work as a producer, writer, director and occasional guest star on the revival of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) from 2000 to 2001 and the Fast Show spin-off sitcom Swiss Toni.
In the mid-70s Higson left the Merryville estate and Harry Enfield to go to University of East Anglia where he met Paul Whitehouse.
Whitehouse was “removed” from university. “He never did any work anyway,” Higson says.
They were too busy writing comedy sketches that would later spawn popular characters like Stavros on Saturday Night Live.
“We made tonnes of money that generally let me do whatever I wanted,” he says. “We have had a great time and I’m still working on a film with Paul at the moment. It’s a kind of fun for all the family comedy. I still know Harry well – he’s still a c***,” he jokes.
But Higson, who lives in Holloway with his wife and children, is keen to distance himself from his career as television celebrity and comedian. He reveals he only ever wanted to be a writer.
Approached by the Ian Fleming Estate in the late 1990s he began to pen a series of James Bond novels, aimed at younger readers and concentrating on the character’s schooldays at Eton. The first novel SilverFin was released in March 2005 to great acclaim.
“I had an incredibly boring childhood,” he laments. “I don’t think you change with age. If anything you get more youthful as you get older.”
No surprise then that Higson, as he approaches his 50th year, has re-acquainted himself with the fantasy world of Ian Fleming’s fictional special agent 007.
“I would have the jet pack,” he reveals, excitedly, adding, “a jet pack or maybe invisibility powers.”
The cloak of invisibility does not feature in the James Bond series but the lure of a low-profile certainly appeals to Higson.
He spoke of his hatred for the cult of celebrity and is strangely resentful of being branded as the Fast Show’s Higson.
“I was writing long before I was on the television,” he says. “People know me as Fast Show Higson but I want to be known as that guy who writes the Young Bond stuff.”
In 2004 Higson appeared on Celebrity Mastermind answering every question on 007 correctly. But his glory was short-lived, losing the final in tragic circumstances.
He says: “I think even John Humphrey was surprised. But my general knowledge was so bad I ended up losing the show – I was beaten by Bill Oddie.”
Today (Thursday) Higson turns quizmaster with a difference at a book launch in Waterstone’s, Hampstead.
He was looking forward to the event, not simply to promote his latest work, but to recreate his image.
He says: “That’s what is nice about the children I’ll meet at the bookshop. They don’t know anything about the Fast Show – they will meet me as the guy who wrote Young Bond.”
Higson says one of the reasons he wanted to write the novels was to get boys to read.
He says: “There wasn’t as much around for young boys to get into in my age. If you grew up in the 1960s you would get into James Bond.
“There is a problem with young people reading today. People say ‘why do boys not read as much as girls?’ I think the reason is that there haven’t been the books there for boys to read. When I was first given the job to write the Young Bond books, I thought, I’d better go out and see who my competition is – who else is writing these types of action-adventure stories. And there really wasn’t anyone.”
As Young Bond writer, Higson has to find the right balance between what has always been a part of the novels – the violence, drinking, and “kissing many girls” and what is appropriate for the targeting age range in novels.
Not that Higson’s gone soft.
He says: “I thought the latest James Bond film was brilliant. Craig did a great job – he was everything James Bond fans wanted him to be.”
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