FAMILY MISFORTUNES
CHRISTMAS IS FAR FROM PERFECT FOR LUCY BEAUMONT AND JON RICHARDSON THIS YEAR, SAYS RACHEL CORCORAN
You’re kicking off the festive season with a Meet The Richardsons Christmas special. What are you bickering about this time?
Jon: We’re trying to generate the perfect family Christmas so that means, since we can’t take our daughter Elsie to a pantomime, Lucy’s mum Gill writes a pantomime for me, Lucy, Jason Donovan and Johnny Vegas to perform in our front garden.
Lucy: And Johnny Vegas dies because he drinks too much!
Jon, you said that Christmas specials are always s***. What made you want to tackle one?
J: Did I? Oh, that’s panel shows. I think I’ve done ten Christmas specials for Cats and Cats Does Countdown, and the gags and games are literally the same every time, so this was something different. If you can get a Christmas special right, it’s timeless, and I know how important the good ones are to me. The League Of Gentleman Christmas special I watch every year.
The show is filmed in your actual home in Hebden Bridge. Do the neighbours find it strange?
L: They just take it in their stride now – they’re used to us doing mad things. We had a man dressed in drag on a sleigh with an elf walking up the street and a lady I used to go to a playgroup with when Elsie was a baby opened the door to see what it was and she just rolled her eyes.
Has the show changed your lives?
L: It’s the first thing I’ve written that’s been on TV so it’s like I’ve broken a barrier. I wondered if I’d ever get a break on telly so it’s a starting point, really. It’s made me want to write, direct, produce and star in something that is all mine, like Victoria Wood. I don’t like sharing stuff and in this series I didn’t get everything I wanted.
J: I had a lot to do with that because for series one I said, ‘Do what you want’, and then in episode one you set me on fire in the garden. I’ve intervened a little more, purely on health and safety grounds, to make sure I’m not falling off the roof in the Christmas special.
Your real mum Gill stars in the show, Lucy. What’s it like working with her?
L: She’s not a performer so she doesn’t have anything to lose. The first five minutes she’s really nervous and then she forgets everybody’s there and says the most outrageous things. During one scene she said the most obscene thing I’ve ever heard a woman say on TV. She revealed in front of a mostly young male crew what she actually did before she went into labour with me. Her waters broke so I was actually born from an orgasm. I was like ‘What have I done getting her involved?’
Meet The Richardsons At Christmas continues tonight at 10pm on Dave. Catch up with the first episode on demand