{"id":152014,"date":"2015-05-31T09:58:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T09:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/05\/31\/its-great-to-laugh-at-yourself-he-says-but\/"},"modified":"2018-09-08T03:18:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T03:18:25","slug":"its-great-to-laugh-at-yourself-he-says-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/05\/31\/its-great-to-laugh-at-yourself-he-says-but\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-152014 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/05\/31\/its-great-to-laugh-at-yourself-he-says-but\/attachment\/152015\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/tumblr_m2d7bgyg3G1qf4ydzo1_500-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/tumblr_m2d7bgyg3G1qf4ydzo1_500-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/tumblr_m2d7bgyg3G1qf4ydzo1_500-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/05\/31\/its-great-to-laugh-at-yourself-he-says-but\/attachment\/152016\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/tumblr_m2d7bgyg3G1qf4ydzo2_500-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/tumblr_m2d7bgyg3G1qf4ydzo2_500-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/tumblr_m2d7bgyg3G1qf4ydzo2_500-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<blockquote>\n<p><small>\u201c<i><b>It\u2019s great to laugh at yourself<\/b><\/i>,\u201d he says, \u201c<i><b>but it\u2019s a side to me that nobody thinks exists. Everyone writes that I\u2019m the external miserable sod, but I\u2019m not<\/b><\/i>.\u201d He\u2019s never been asked to comedy and finds it frustrating, particularly as programmes such as Steptoe and Son, The Young Ones and Fawlty Towers were pivotal in his decision to become an actor. He loved Bond and wanted to be The Six Million Dollar Man. At school he was the class clown, the show-off who impersonated people off the telly. As a teenager he was a \u2018<i>Perry boy<\/i>\u2019 he says \u2013 Fred Perry shirt, Lois jeans. \u201c<b><i>The loon with the blonde streaks, the wedge haircut, the red shoes and the white socks.<\/i><\/b>\u201d Now that\u2019s comedy.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>Today, in the freezing Manchester canal-side drizzle, he\u2019s in buoyant mood, belting out Madonna\u2019s \u201cThe Power of Goodbye\u201d, followed by a rendition of the Spice Girls \u201cSay You\u2019ll Be There\u201d, the latter accompanied by a little jig for warmth. There then follows a show-and-tell ear demonstration so we can applaud their full surface area and a gorilla-chested impersonation of Eric Cantona, with whom he acted in Elizabeth. \u201c<i><b>Before Elizabeth everybody thought all I could do was angry and working class,<\/b><\/i>\u201d he complains.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>Hotline 1999<\/small><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great to laugh at yourself,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it\u2019s a side to me that nobody thinks exists. Everyone writes that I\u2019m the external miserable sod, but I\u2019m not.\u201d He\u2019s never been asked to comedy and finds it frustrating, particularly as programmes such as Steptoe and Son, The Young Ones and Fawlty Towers were pivotal &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/05\/31\/its-great-to-laugh-at-yourself-he-says-but\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3731,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152017,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152014\/revisions\/152017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}