Transcripts of Ian Wylie's interview with Philip Glenister
Philip Glenister was interviewed by Manchester journalist Ian Wylie while filming the third and final series of Ashes to Ashes. You can read the finished article from the Manchester Evening News here, but Ian kindly uploaded some audio extracts of the interview to his own blog and they are transcribed here.
Will there be any ambiguity about Gene at the end?
Erm, well that’s a very good question Ian, a very good question. Erm, I hope there’ll be some ambiguity. I mean we will know a lot more about Gene; we’ll know a lot more about all the characters and how they kind of all relate and how they all sort of fit together as a jigsaw in many respects. But I hope y’know…the great thing about Gene is that I’ve always maintained he’s a bit of an enigma – that’s one of the great appeals of the character – and as soon as you start taking away those layers and getting to know too much about his personal life… I remember talking ages ago about whether we bring in Mrs Hunt and I was vehemently opposed to it. I just said, ‘No. We must never see Mrs Hunt. We’ve got to maintain that kind of enigma. It’s something that the audience can have in common with the other characters – they know as little about him as somebody watching it.’ And fortunately they agreed with me on that so hopefully we’ll keep an air of ambiguity – unless I screw it up I my acting or something.
What will you miss most about Gene Hunt?
These little babies (Gene’s snakeskin boots) among other things. (Will you be taking them with you?) Yeh, bloody right I am. I’m taking everything. – anything I can get my hands on! It’s all good for charity in the years to come or eBay…I might need it.
It’s not one thing, it’s the whole thing, really. The working relationships we’ve had with everybody. It’s been really…I know it sounds a bit clichéd but we have all got on really well. And I think, when you’re on a gig for this long you have to get on with people otherwise it’s going to be miserable. And I think particularly this series we’ve really, really gelled as a group; we know where we’re going, we know we’re finishing and so there’s a common cause to have fun doing it and hopefully that will translate to the screen. And the crew…I won’t miss Bermondsey too much – sorry Bermondsey – it’s not the area, it’s the travelling. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse from where I live of a morning but other than that, everything else I’ll miss.
Giving up the role of Gene Hunt?
It’s a really tough call because it’s been such a fantastic part to play from my point of view, from any actor’s point of view, it’s a gift of a part. It’s the freedom of the character again to be able to sort of say to whoever says, ‘well you can’t say that’ well I can, it’s not me saying it, it’s Gene Hunt saying it. We’re an 80s cop show so bugger off please. We’re very much about self censorship; we know where to draw the line. We’re all grown up, we’re all reasonably intelligent so we’re not going to push the boundaries to the point where we’re going to take the mickey.”
Ashes and Mars bleeding into each other?
We learn a lot more about Sam Tyler as well and about the relationship he had with Gene. It’s kind of; it’s really difficult to talk about really. It’s tough but it does hopefully all come together and hopefully it will make some sort of semblance of sense to the audience, particular to the people who’ve followed the show right through from its beginnings and tie up a lot of loose ends.
Gene Hunt’s relationship with Jim Keats at the start?
Frosty to say the least. It’s a great new dimension in many respects. It’s sort of a carry on from Roger Allam’s character and Adrian Dunbar’s character; there’s a sinister underbelly going on with Jim Keats. He’s come into the station he’s and equal status to Gene and they have very different methods of working and it causes a sort of cataclysm for all the other characters who are sort of in the middle of this well war or feud or whatever you want to call it. They just play off one another - they’ve been real fun scenes to do with Danny; some really cracking scenes.
Has the way the ending has translated on screen exceeded your expectations?
Well we’ve still got to shoot some of the really sort of pivotal scenes coming up. But I shot the very, very final scene about two weeks ago which was really quite sad actually, it was quite poignant so hopefully that will come across on screen. It’s a weird one actually; it’s kind of strange. I hope that we’ve delivered but you never know at the end of the day. But Matthew and Ashley have written it so they can take the flack if it all goes tits up but hopefully, we’ve tried to do the best ending that we can, that it will encompass a bit of everything for the audience and that they’ll enjoy coming on the journey as much as we’ve enjoyed being their pilots and stewards and stewardesses so to speak.
Gene’s journey in this series? And will the ending divide opinion as Mars did?
Yeh, you’ll learn everything you need to know about Gene, really but I can’t tell you too much. Oh I’m sure [the ending will divide opinion]. When you’ve got 7 million people watching you it’s a really tough call to get every single one of them to come away going ‘perfect, that’s what I wanted’ you can’t, and I’m sure Matthew and Ashley will tell you this, you can’t sort of cater for that sort of mentality. You just have to go with your story; what you’ve written -0 they created it, they’re going to end it. We think it’s a great ending and we hope the majority of the audience will agree with us. We can only do our best and we have, I think. Everyone has worked incredibly hard. Particularly on this series because of the recession and everything. Like with every other industry money is tight and its important for us and everybody involved in the show that we put the money on the screen it’s about production values and storytelling and doing it to the best of our capabilities.
Catching up with the American adaptation of Life On Mars?
Fullily enough, I caught an episode…it was almost like destiny. I recorded an ep that was on last week. Cos I’d only seen the pilot and I thought well I ought to have a look at an ep that was well into the series it was ep 17 of 22 and it was this ep where they had been called to a bar that had been blown up…an Irish bar and the bar was called Glenister’s. And it was just really odd to switch on and to see all these characters come on going, [in American accent] ‘Oh man, y’know. What is this place?’ ‘It’s Glenister’s’ ‘What’s Glenister’s? This bar is iconic man, Glenister’s’. So I had a little chuckle there, called the wife in and said ‘There you go; cracked it. Cracked America.'
Are you going to take any souvenirs away from the set? Who’s taken the Luigi’s mural?
I don’t think anybody’s going to take it. (laughs) It’s too big. People have already been eyeing what they want. I quite fancied nicking the Quattro, actually. I might put a bid in for that. Put it in my garden. No, there’s a just little thing of a mock-up of Gene Hunt doing his firearms course, a certificate thing. I might nab that and put it on the wall.
Sadness on set as the end of filming nears?
It’s difficult to say, really, because we’ve been so full on, we haven’t had time to think about the ending, really. We’re just getting through it and just doing the best we can for it to reach its conclusion. So we’re just knuckling down and I’m sure the after-effect will be when we’ve actually finished filming and it’s out there and done and we’ve stopped talking about it.
Will there be any ambiguity about Gene at the end?
Erm, well that’s a very good question Ian, a very good question. Erm, I hope there’ll be some ambiguity. I mean we will know a lot more about Gene; we’ll know a lot more about all the characters and how they kind of all relate and how they all sort of fit together as a jigsaw in many respects. But I hope y’know…the great thing about Gene is that I’ve always maintained he’s a bit of an enigma – that’s one of the great appeals of the character – and as soon as you start taking away those layers and getting to know too much about his personal life… I remember talking ages ago about whether we bring in Mrs Hunt and I was vehemently opposed to it. I just said, ‘No. We must never see Mrs Hunt. We’ve got to maintain that kind of enigma. It’s something that the audience can have in common with the other characters – they know as little about him as somebody watching it.’ And fortunately they agreed with me on that so hopefully we’ll keep an air of ambiguity – unless I screw it up I my acting or something.
What will you miss most about Gene Hunt?
These little babies (Gene’s snakeskin boots) among other things. (Will you be taking them with you?) Yeh, bloody right I am. I’m taking everything. – anything I can get my hands on! It’s all good for charity in the years to come or eBay…I might need it.
It’s not one thing, it’s the whole thing, really. The working relationships we’ve had with everybody. It’s been really…I know it sounds a bit clichéd but we have all got on really well. And I think, when you’re on a gig for this long you have to get on with people otherwise it’s going to be miserable. And I think particularly this series we’ve really, really gelled as a group; we know where we’re going, we know we’re finishing and so there’s a common cause to have fun doing it and hopefully that will translate to the screen. And the crew…I won’t miss Bermondsey too much – sorry Bermondsey – it’s not the area, it’s the travelling. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse from where I live of a morning but other than that, everything else I’ll miss.
Giving up the role of Gene Hunt?
It’s a really tough call because it’s been such a fantastic part to play from my point of view, from any actor’s point of view, it’s a gift of a part. It’s the freedom of the character again to be able to sort of say to whoever says, ‘well you can’t say that’ well I can, it’s not me saying it, it’s Gene Hunt saying it. We’re an 80s cop show so bugger off please. We’re very much about self censorship; we know where to draw the line. We’re all grown up, we’re all reasonably intelligent so we’re not going to push the boundaries to the point where we’re going to take the mickey.”
Ashes and Mars bleeding into each other?
We learn a lot more about Sam Tyler as well and about the relationship he had with Gene. It’s kind of; it’s really difficult to talk about really. It’s tough but it does hopefully all come together and hopefully it will make some sort of semblance of sense to the audience, particular to the people who’ve followed the show right through from its beginnings and tie up a lot of loose ends.
Gene Hunt’s relationship with Jim Keats at the start?
Frosty to say the least. It’s a great new dimension in many respects. It’s sort of a carry on from Roger Allam’s character and Adrian Dunbar’s character; there’s a sinister underbelly going on with Jim Keats. He’s come into the station he’s and equal status to Gene and they have very different methods of working and it causes a sort of cataclysm for all the other characters who are sort of in the middle of this well war or feud or whatever you want to call it. They just play off one another - they’ve been real fun scenes to do with Danny; some really cracking scenes.
Has the way the ending has translated on screen exceeded your expectations?
Well we’ve still got to shoot some of the really sort of pivotal scenes coming up. But I shot the very, very final scene about two weeks ago which was really quite sad actually, it was quite poignant so hopefully that will come across on screen. It’s a weird one actually; it’s kind of strange. I hope that we’ve delivered but you never know at the end of the day. But Matthew and Ashley have written it so they can take the flack if it all goes tits up but hopefully, we’ve tried to do the best ending that we can, that it will encompass a bit of everything for the audience and that they’ll enjoy coming on the journey as much as we’ve enjoyed being their pilots and stewards and stewardesses so to speak.
Gene’s journey in this series? And will the ending divide opinion as Mars did?
Yeh, you’ll learn everything you need to know about Gene, really but I can’t tell you too much. Oh I’m sure [the ending will divide opinion]. When you’ve got 7 million people watching you it’s a really tough call to get every single one of them to come away going ‘perfect, that’s what I wanted’ you can’t, and I’m sure Matthew and Ashley will tell you this, you can’t sort of cater for that sort of mentality. You just have to go with your story; what you’ve written -0 they created it, they’re going to end it. We think it’s a great ending and we hope the majority of the audience will agree with us. We can only do our best and we have, I think. Everyone has worked incredibly hard. Particularly on this series because of the recession and everything. Like with every other industry money is tight and its important for us and everybody involved in the show that we put the money on the screen it’s about production values and storytelling and doing it to the best of our capabilities.
Catching up with the American adaptation of Life On Mars?
Fullily enough, I caught an episode…it was almost like destiny. I recorded an ep that was on last week. Cos I’d only seen the pilot and I thought well I ought to have a look at an ep that was well into the series it was ep 17 of 22 and it was this ep where they had been called to a bar that had been blown up…an Irish bar and the bar was called Glenister’s. And it was just really odd to switch on and to see all these characters come on going, [in American accent] ‘Oh man, y’know. What is this place?’ ‘It’s Glenister’s’ ‘What’s Glenister’s? This bar is iconic man, Glenister’s’. So I had a little chuckle there, called the wife in and said ‘There you go; cracked it. Cracked America.'
Are you going to take any souvenirs away from the set? Who’s taken the Luigi’s mural?
I don’t think anybody’s going to take it. (laughs) It’s too big. People have already been eyeing what they want. I quite fancied nicking the Quattro, actually. I might put a bid in for that. Put it in my garden. No, there’s a just little thing of a mock-up of Gene Hunt doing his firearms course, a certificate thing. I might nab that and put it on the wall.
Sadness on set as the end of filming nears?
It’s difficult to say, really, because we’ve been so full on, we haven’t had time to think about the ending, really. We’re just getting through it and just doing the best we can for it to reach its conclusion. So we’re just knuckling down and I’m sure the after-effect will be when we’ve actually finished filming and it’s out there and done and we’ve stopped talking about it.
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