Gadzooks, the man’s a perfect buffoon!
It started when sir James Martin insisted there were 12, not ten, Commandments. and by the time this fictional character in the new film Love & Friendship was marvelling at the peas on his plate — ‘little green balls!’ — it was hard to control wave after wave of laughter.
as embodied by tom Bennett, a 36-year-old comic genius from south London, sir James, the ultimate foppish fool, is one of the highlights of director Whit stillman’s film. It is adapted from Jane austen’s novella Lady susan, about a wicked widow seeking wealthy husbands for herself and her daughter.
Kate Beckinsale, giving the screen performance of her career as Lady susan, suggested Bennett was born with a funny bone.
turns out that’s exactly the case. Bennett’s father is actor-turned-writer Colin Bennett, who, over his long career, has played many comedic parts. But I particularly remember him as artist tony Hart’s sidekick on the television series take Hart.
‘He played the lovable, idiot caretaker who used to trip over at the back of the shot and spill paint on tony. that’s my old man,’ tom said proudly.
‘It’s kind of inevitable, it’s kind of genetic, and now I earn a living being a lovable idiot and tripping over,’ tom told me on the day of Love & Friendship’s London gala.
the father of two explained that comedy is all about rhythm and timing. ‘some people have got those, and other people haven’t.’
a lot of people have woken up to Bennett’s comic prowess. Christopher Guest hired him for a Hollywood film called Mascots, in which he plays the mascot of a south London non-league football team who attends a convention for mascots in the states.
ricky Gervais cast him as Nigel, a new face in the office, in the film david Brent: Life On the road.
He auditioned for the stillman picture and didn’t expect to be offered anything. ‘I was happy to have the audition — and I didn’t hear back for a year. I hadn’t even thought I was going to get it, so I was surprised,’ he told me.
But stillman had seen something in Bennett, and he would write new scenes for him — including the ones featuring the 12 Commandments and those little green balls.
‘I would be in the hair and make-up chair, getting my curlers put in and my sideburns brushed, and I would be given new lines for a monologue,’ Bennett said.
‘I’d bribe the hair and make-up ladies to drag it out a bit so I could learn the monologue, and then I’d be called on set to do it for real.’
He’s getting some attention for his performance now, but he knows what he’s good at.
‘I never have — and never will — play the sexy matinee idol,’ he said.
‘I do a fine trade in idiot best mates. don’t bite the hand that feeds you.’