"Max thinks he drives like Gene Hunt, but he nearly ran over a TV crew!"
Philip Glenister has enjoyed taking a break from stunt driving in his latest drama — and letting co-star Max Beesley have a bash at it. Phil — famed for “firing up the Quattro” as Gene Hunt in Ashes To Ashes — literally takes a backseat for the second series of Mad Dogs, which sees his character Quinn with a group of old schoolpals on the run from gangsters.
But after seeing Max behind the wheel, Phil — the king of the car chase — has no worries about his crown being hijacked. Speaking to TV Biz on set, he says: “I don’t do any driving in this. I just let Max think he’s Gene Hunt. And I’d like to emphasise the word think.
“I take the mick out of him, ’cos you can do that with Max. I’ll say, ‘Kid, kid, do you fancy doing some driving, our kid? Gene Hunt wouldn’t do that, our kid. He’s such a good driver. He left his handbrake off and nearly ran over the film crew. Another time he went off the road and into a ditch.Yeah, he’s a great driver, Max!”
The pair are joined by John Simm and Marc Warren in the ratings-busting show which is back on Sky1 tonight at 9pm. The last series saw the four stuck in a villa after their pal Alvo was killed by an assassin in a Tony Blair mask. This time they are forced on the run as the gangsters are still after them.
The series was filmed over the summer in Majorca — which proved to have its pitfalls along with the obvious benefits. Continuing the car-related theme, Phil says: “Some of the roads here are very narrow and some of the locals can get very cross when we cart our stuff across the island. The cyclists, they’re the pests, the micro-louts. Fifty points for knocking them off, depending on what nationality they are! That’s always quite fun. They come here to train for the Tour de France because of the terrain. But when we have four Winnebagos trying to turn around, they’re not best amused.”
The crew mainly filmed in fairly remote areas but occasionally had to go into the notorious party resort of Magaluf so they timed their shoot to make sure all the tourists were still in bed nursing hangovers. Phil says: “If you go to Magaluf it’s obviously very English... shamefully! When we filmed there it was a case of going in and getting out as quickly as possible. If you go in the morning, until 2pm, they tend to be in bed from the night before and the streets are pretty empty then. But in other areas it’s quite German and they don’t know me — I don’t think Life On Mars has been shown there.”
In between filming, the cast get on famously — even if that comes across in the form of taking the mickey out of each other. Everybody can do a Max impression which consists of a northern accent and ending every sentence with “boom!” They all rib Marc for having to learn the banjo for a stage play. As Phil explains: “Marc is learning the banjo and don’t we bloody know it. It’s like living next door to Deliverance. I keep expecting him to say, ‘Squeal like a pig, boy!’ He’s in the room next door and all I could hear was ‘twang twang’. It was like, here we go.”
Meanwhile all four enjoy a game of “lookalikes
Phil says: “We’ve got a running gag where if we see someone who looks like one of us we call after them. “So if there’s a skinny guy in his 90s with a little goatee we’ll shout, ‘John! John!’ at him. It’s stupid but if you’re going to spend eight weeks living in each other’s pockets then you’ve got to get on and find a way of laughing.”
The new series opens where the first left off — with Phil’s character Quinn recovering from having to shoot dead a corrupt policewoman. Phil says: “He’s very subdued at the start and there’s a reason for that. I’d just finished filming something for the BBC called Hidden on the Friday in Paris and I had to be on a plane to Majorca on the Sunday — and I was knackered. So I said to Chris, the writer, ‘Do me a favour in episode one, just do me a few ‘looks’. If you could give all the lines to the others so I can just be quiet. And bless him, he took me at my word so it’s ‘quiet Quinn’ and he gave me bugger all to say in episode one! “I just stand there looking mortified. They give me pained, concerned looks. Now and again I’ll go, ‘I killed someone!’”
The theme of death continues throughout the second series, with all the characters increasingly aware of their mortality. And it’s a theme that struck a chord with the cast in real life, too. Marc says: “It was weird because we had this big day of filming with the themes of death. “And it coincided with that terrible week in Oslo when the gunman killed all the students, followed by Amy Winehouse’s death. Going on to set that day, when there was a prosthetic body laid out, was a bit of a weird one. It was a real death day.”
Phil also revealed there is one scene that may upset the Church — thanks to a statue of the Virgin Mary and a bundle of money. He giggled: “We’re bound to upset the Church with what happens to the statue of Mary but we’ll worry about that when it comes to it. We’ll be throwing a few spanners in the works but, hey ho, it’s all about being a bit different.”
The cast are off to South Africa at the end of this month to film the third series — and reckon it could go on for even longer. Marc says: “I think the writer quite fancies doing South America, which would be nice. And then maybe we should suggest the Maldives. We should do all the continents, ending up in Antarctica. Why not? Let’s do it. I don’t know if everyone will get sick of us if we go on for ever. But it’s a really good product. I think we could do four. Four is a nice square number. But then five’s nice, too... let’s see!”
But after seeing Max behind the wheel, Phil — the king of the car chase — has no worries about his crown being hijacked. Speaking to TV Biz on set, he says: “I don’t do any driving in this. I just let Max think he’s Gene Hunt. And I’d like to emphasise the word think.
“I take the mick out of him, ’cos you can do that with Max. I’ll say, ‘Kid, kid, do you fancy doing some driving, our kid? Gene Hunt wouldn’t do that, our kid. He’s such a good driver. He left his handbrake off and nearly ran over the film crew. Another time he went off the road and into a ditch.Yeah, he’s a great driver, Max!”
The pair are joined by John Simm and Marc Warren in the ratings-busting show which is back on Sky1 tonight at 9pm. The last series saw the four stuck in a villa after their pal Alvo was killed by an assassin in a Tony Blair mask. This time they are forced on the run as the gangsters are still after them.
The series was filmed over the summer in Majorca — which proved to have its pitfalls along with the obvious benefits. Continuing the car-related theme, Phil says: “Some of the roads here are very narrow and some of the locals can get very cross when we cart our stuff across the island. The cyclists, they’re the pests, the micro-louts. Fifty points for knocking them off, depending on what nationality they are! That’s always quite fun. They come here to train for the Tour de France because of the terrain. But when we have four Winnebagos trying to turn around, they’re not best amused.”
The crew mainly filmed in fairly remote areas but occasionally had to go into the notorious party resort of Magaluf so they timed their shoot to make sure all the tourists were still in bed nursing hangovers. Phil says: “If you go to Magaluf it’s obviously very English... shamefully! When we filmed there it was a case of going in and getting out as quickly as possible. If you go in the morning, until 2pm, they tend to be in bed from the night before and the streets are pretty empty then. But in other areas it’s quite German and they don’t know me — I don’t think Life On Mars has been shown there.”
In between filming, the cast get on famously — even if that comes across in the form of taking the mickey out of each other. Everybody can do a Max impression which consists of a northern accent and ending every sentence with “boom!” They all rib Marc for having to learn the banjo for a stage play. As Phil explains: “Marc is learning the banjo and don’t we bloody know it. It’s like living next door to Deliverance. I keep expecting him to say, ‘Squeal like a pig, boy!’ He’s in the room next door and all I could hear was ‘twang twang’. It was like, here we go.”
Meanwhile all four enjoy a game of “lookalikes
Phil says: “We’ve got a running gag where if we see someone who looks like one of us we call after them. “So if there’s a skinny guy in his 90s with a little goatee we’ll shout, ‘John! John!’ at him. It’s stupid but if you’re going to spend eight weeks living in each other’s pockets then you’ve got to get on and find a way of laughing.”
The new series opens where the first left off — with Phil’s character Quinn recovering from having to shoot dead a corrupt policewoman. Phil says: “He’s very subdued at the start and there’s a reason for that. I’d just finished filming something for the BBC called Hidden on the Friday in Paris and I had to be on a plane to Majorca on the Sunday — and I was knackered. So I said to Chris, the writer, ‘Do me a favour in episode one, just do me a few ‘looks’. If you could give all the lines to the others so I can just be quiet. And bless him, he took me at my word so it’s ‘quiet Quinn’ and he gave me bugger all to say in episode one! “I just stand there looking mortified. They give me pained, concerned looks. Now and again I’ll go, ‘I killed someone!’”
The theme of death continues throughout the second series, with all the characters increasingly aware of their mortality. And it’s a theme that struck a chord with the cast in real life, too. Marc says: “It was weird because we had this big day of filming with the themes of death. “And it coincided with that terrible week in Oslo when the gunman killed all the students, followed by Amy Winehouse’s death. Going on to set that day, when there was a prosthetic body laid out, was a bit of a weird one. It was a real death day.”
Phil also revealed there is one scene that may upset the Church — thanks to a statue of the Virgin Mary and a bundle of money. He giggled: “We’re bound to upset the Church with what happens to the statue of Mary but we’ll worry about that when it comes to it. We’ll be throwing a few spanners in the works but, hey ho, it’s all about being a bit different.”
The cast are off to South Africa at the end of this month to film the third series — and reckon it could go on for even longer. Marc says: “I think the writer quite fancies doing South America, which would be nice. And then maybe we should suggest the Maldives. We should do all the continents, ending up in Antarctica. Why not? Let’s do it. I don’t know if everyone will get sick of us if we go on for ever. But it’s a really good product. I think we could do four. Four is a nice square number. But then five’s nice, too... let’s see!”
Original article can be found here.
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