The cat’s whiskers
Rob Brydon is the bearded busker in Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson’s touching tale of feline friendship
Rob Brydon’s wife Clare Holland has gone to New York for the weekend and he’s home alone with Mabel, their 16-week-old golden retriever. “She’s absolutely gorgeous,” he says of the riot of fur and floppy ears chewing up their west London kitchen. “Say hello, Mabel!”
But Mabel has lurched into resentful silence, conscious, perhaps, that we’re on the eve of a very cat-friendly Christmas. Mog is meowing over on Channel 4 and, even worse for Mabel, her owner is playing Fred, an ageing busker who loves cats, in Tabby McTat, BBC1’s festive family animation based on the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler children’s book.
Brydon has been a permanent fixture in all the Donaldson and Scheffler films, made by Magic Light Pictures. He was the horse in The Highway Rat; Uncle Smoo in The Smeds and the Smoos; Crow in Superworm; the king in Zog and the Flying Doctors; the whale in The Snail and the Whale; Guards, Horse and other voices in Zog; Snail, Parkkeeper and Swan Dad in Stick Man; the cat in Room on the Broom; and the snake in The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child. “The snake was pretty straightforward,” says the Swansea- born actor. “I just gave him a Welsh accent. Let’s be honest, I’m the lemon drizzle on top of a beautifully baked sponge.” Brydon’s busker Fred in Tabby McTat is, l i ke him, Welsh- inflected and mellifluous; no more so than when he sings the recurring refrain, You, Me and the Old Guitar. “People always say, ‘Oh, the Welsh, they all sing.’ But I know plenty of Welsh people that don’t.” Welsh or not, at least Fred was a human – Brydon’s usually limited to animal noises for Donaldson. “I have a finite range of meows and journalists ▷
◁ have said, ‘ That’s only a meow! Any idiot could’ve done that.’ But I just love being a part of it. I’ve got five kids [two with Holland and three adult children from his f irst marriage], so I’ve spent a lot of time reading stories. Julia’s books flow so beautifully and there’s enjoyment to be had just from saying the words out loud.”
As well as playing Uncle Bryn in Gavin & Stacey, Brydon is also famous for The Trip, the comedy travel series with Steve Coogan. It means, Brydon says, he’s recognised if Mabel plays up when they go out on walks. “She just stands still and you can’t get anywhere.” Earlier this year, Brydon appeared in the Barbie film as Sugar Daddy Ken. “It’s hilarious, isn’t it? I’ve not missed any opportunity to say to friends and family, ‘I’m in the biggest film in the world.’” Time for Hollywood? “My youngest are 15 and 12, so I’m not going anywhere.” He’s been before, in any case, making HBO comedy The Brink with Tim Robbins and Jack Black in 2015. “I really enjoyed living in LA and I’m more than happy to have had that experience. Whereas Steve [ Coogan] would want to be king, because he’s got great ambition and drive.” Will he and Coogan take another Trip? “Say in about ten years, I think it will be a lovely thing to do. If Steve is still alive.” He’s also open to revisiting Gavin & Stacey: “I have no idea, though, if it will happen. I didn’t know last time until they [Ruth Jones and James Corden] had written it.” Coogan recently took the risk of playing Jimmy Savile – would Brydon follow him into darker territory? “I enjoyed playing [French revolutionary] Stanislav Fréron in the 2007 BBC drama Heroes and Villains. He was a darker character and you do think, ‘Ooh, right, am I now going to do that?’ Every actor says, ‘I’d love to be a Bond villain.’ But you find your thing, don’t you? Steve is a remarkable guy. But that’s not me.”
‘I’ve got five kids, so I’ve spent a lot of time reading stories’