What started you thinking about playing him again?

For the 10-year anniversary of , I did a sketch for Comic Relief. I had to think about, where would he be now? He’d still be in Slough. He’d be managing someone, thinking he’s the local Simon Cowell. Oh, a mixed-race rapper? Perfect, now he’s got a black friend. We did a song called Equality Street, I did a couple of gigs, and that’s where the idea for the film came. I thought, if this was a real person, and he was on a docu-soap 15 years ago, and now he was trying to make it as a rock

Were you hesitant to revisit the character who first made you famous? What does that say about all the projects you’ve done since?

If I’d have done The Office and then given up, going back to it might look a little sad. But I did so many other things — I’ve done Extras, I’ve done four [stand-up] tours, I’ve done Flanimals, 10 movies. It wasn’t like I went crawling back to it. It was purely for me. If you worry about criticism, you should give up. If you’re worried about someone not liking it as much as something else you did, you shouldn’t be in this game. You are going to get criticised.

You had a flirtation with pop-music glory in the 1980s. Were you channelling this in Brent’s story?

Most people ask, like, ‘Oh, you’re trying to relive your dream as a rock star.’ That’s odd that you’d say that when the guy’s

How do you write songs that are meant to sound authentic, but at their core have to be ridiculous?

I didn’t want the music to be the funny bit. I didn’t want him to be playing badly or singing out of tune. The back story’s the funny thing for me. You take a thing like Freelove Freeway, that’s a cracking tune. That could be a John Cougar Mellencamp or Tom Petty tune. But when you realise it’s about crossing America and picking up chicks, and being sung by a tampon rep from Slough who’s never been to America, that’s the funny bit.

Could you imagine any of today’s pop stars performing his songs?

If Adele doesn’t do Please Don’t Make Fun of the Disableds, I’ll offer it to Springsteen. — New York Times News Service