Now It's Keano, The Musical

“The Civil War, that’s right,” laughs Arthur Mathews, the Father Ted co-writer who has just completed a script for a planned musical based on the events in Japan last summer, provisionally-titled Macartacus! “Obviously, it was an extraordinarily emotive issue, people were very torn. Who’s side was I on? Ha! I couldn’t possibly comment on that – I’ve decided not to re-open old wounds. I suppose if we were to continue the Civil War metaphor, then Keane’s camp were the Irregulars, that’s all I’d say.”

Given that the FAI is practically a functioning, real-life sitcom all by itself, did Arthur feel that the entire episode was ripe with comic potential?
“Yeah, the whole scenario just seemed ready-made for this kind of treatment,” he concurs. “And taking the story and setting it in Roman times – and adding music to it – just heightens the absurdity, and that’s kind of what appealed to me. The whole thing was like an ancient Greek or Roman tragedy, and I want the show to be along the lines of an Andrew Lloyd-Webber/Tim Rice production – Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, say, or Jesus Christ, Superstar!

“I mean, I was partly inspired to write it after seeing Jerry Springer, The Opera! I thought if you could write a musical about that, you could probably do one about anything. It’s just the whole idea of building a show around something that’s not very obviously musical material.”
Though the venture is still in its early stages, Mathews has nonetheless mooted the Apres Match team for the lead roles, whilst – much to the author’s amusement – the script has already generated its fair share of pre-publicity.

“It’s kind of taken on a life of its own,” Arthur notes. “There was an article about it in the Sunday Tribune, and I actually assumed it would kind of be left at that. But then someone from The Times over here (in London) saw it, rang me up and did a quick little interview. And then just as I was going to bed last Thursday night, it was mentioned on Radio 5. I suppose I can understand, ’cos if I heard about a musical based around something so absurd, I’d probably think, ‘That sounds interesting’. I think the novelty aspect really appeals to people.”
In cahoots with writing partner (and fellow Hot Press alumnus) Graham Linehan, Mathews has built up one of the most formidable CVs around. Aside from authoring one of the all-time great Brit-coms (uniformly Irish cast and principal crew notwithstanding) in Ted, the duo also contributed to a roll call of shows that, frankly, reads like a best-of of ‘90s comedy: The Day Today, Brass Eye, Jam, I’m Alan Partridge, The Fast Show etc.

Good news for comedy fans then, that the duo are back working together on a special once-off project for Steve Coogan’s production company.
“It’s about Radio 1 DJs,” Arthur explains. “That would be BBC Radio 1, not Joe Duffy and Marian Finucane. Basically, Henry Normal (Steve Coogan’s partner in Baby Cow Productions) asked Graham if he had any ideas for a show. This was a concept we’d fiddled around with years ago, so now seemed like the right time to do it. It’s kind of based on this documentary we saw about the history of the station, specifically these day-trips the DJs used to take. Every summer they’d go off to Bognor Regis and places like that, and the DJs would spin records and meet the punters and what have you. It’ll be an interesting challenge, definitely – it’s not being done with a live audience, so that requires a completely different style of writing. We’re planning to shoot it in quite a naturalistic style, and Graham’s going to direct it. He wants to film it like Bloody Sunday!”

Do the duo have a particularly favourite comedic collaborator?
“Well, I’m very fond of Alexei Sayle and Griff Rhys-Jones, people who’ve been good to us,” says Arthur. “And then of course you have Steve Coogan and The Fast Show crew… but overall I’d have to say probably the Chris Morris stuff, just because we were big fans of his, and as you know a myth surrounds him, so he’s great to work with.”
Hand us a big fat juicy exclusive, Arthur – explode the Morris myth.

“I don’t know how to!” he insists. “There’s isn’t really much to say, beyond the fact that he doesn’t do too many interviews. I think people have a hard time getting a grasp on that these days, when everyone wants their 15 minutes. But that’s about it – he doesn’t have comedy writers nailed to the wall in his office or anything! He’s a really nice bloke.”
Finally on the Linehan/Mathews front, audiences can expect an American version of Father Ted to surface in the not-too-distant future.

“It’s been in negotiation for ages, but we don’t know very much about it,” offers Arthur. “We don’t know how it’s going to turn out, although I do hope it’s a big hit. Basically, if it’s successful, we’ll take all the credit, if it’s not, we’ll pretend it’s nothing to do with us. That’s always a good strategy in show-business, I find.”