Couch POTATO
Actor John Challis picks his dream viewing…
I’ve been watching Spiral on BBC4. I’ve got hooked on it – it’s fantastic! What makes it so watchable are all the interlocking stories. The acting is superb, and it has that wonderful French feel to the whole thing. It’s just edge-of-your-seat stuff.
I loved watching Requiem. Again, it was an experimental thing, but it’s a wonderful spooky story. It just grabs you, like one of those books you can’t put down after the first couple of pages!
I don’t watch any comedy that I’m not in. No, that’s not true – I watched Father Ted, which I was very fond of. And I loved Black Books, with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey. I loved the slightly surreal, dark quality of it. I like that sort of thing, but it can get too dark – I tried The League of Gentlemen, but that was a bit too much for me!
I have several favourite films. I love Jimmy Stewart, so It’s A Wonderful Life comes on every Christmas. I could just watch it over and over again. There’s probably something wrong with me, but I also quite like war films – I thought Saving Private Ryan was stunning. It’s about the awful situations that happen in war. Matt Damon is in it, and I also like him in the Bourne series of films.
I think those are absolutely brilliant!
I’ve always wanted to play Doctor Who. I did a Doctor Who about 100 years ago with Tom Baker, which was one of the happiest jobs I ever did. I’d also like to be on Question Time
– it’s a great opportunity to shout at the television!
Catch John as Monty Staines in Benidorm ITV Wednesday