5 MINUTES WITH...

Spandau Ballet superstars Martin and Gary Kemp, starring in a spoof documentary – playing themselves recording a new album…

How did this come about?

MARTIN, 58: I’d worked with Rhys Thomas [the award-winning film-maker] a few years back, so knew his style of comedy. It came to me and Gary as a draft script from the BBC, and we all threw ideas at each other for about nine months before we had a version we were happy with.

GARY, 60: We immediately trusted Rhys’ instincts for an idea – it seemed to suit that strange place Martin and I occupy of being actors as well as musicians. We also loved the idea of sticking a pin in the ego of our own celebrity.

And it’s a comedy?

MARTIN: The show is made to make you belly laugh. Not a sly grin or a puff of the cheeks, but proper laughter, which is perfect at the moment!

GARY: It’s funny! We corpsed a lot on set, which was great fun, but it did hold up the shoot a bit. It’s basically a mockumentary about our lives and relationship, presented by Rhys’ own character – Rhys Thomas OBE.

How much of it is scripted? MARTIN: We’d improvise the beginning and end of each scene to see if we could find a comedy moment, but we’d always nail what was on the page.

GARY: Some scenes we didn’t know exactly what was going to happen and we just let them play out, but we knew what kind of characters our real-life selves had become, if you see what I mean…

And what’s it like working with each other again?

MARTIN: Brilliant! Watching G take the mickey out of himself was so nice – he made me laugh so much! I think what you see on screen are heightened versions of both of us... or at least I hope so!

GARY: It’s a total joy – mining our own histories for comedy and pathos, as well as building on the fiction Rhys had given each of us. It felt totally mad at times, but we knew we had to commit to the idea 100 per cent or it wouldn’t work. Improvising with Martin came very easy, especially in the ‘interview’ sections, as we had so much of our own stuff to draw from!