Sense - Catalonia Today
'We all love toilet humour'
Nigel Planer (London, 1953) is still popular in Catalonia for his role as Neil in The Young Ones the BBC comedy that became iconic on the TV3 channel
Did you know how popular The Young Ones was in Catalonia?
I had no idea. It was great to find out that after so many years the series is still a thing and the character so well-loved. During the filming of TV3's Catalunya Experience, people were stopping me to take selfies; I couldn't believe it.
Why do you think that is?
The series was broadcast in other languages but Catalonia is the country in which it was most popular. In the 1980s, MTV showed it in the US, but now no one there remembers it. I think that it has something to do with English humour, but also with the concept of childish humour. In a way, it is also scatological humour and in Catalonia there is the figure of the Caganer (Crapper), which only exists here. Perhaps that explains why The Young Ones, with its toilet humour, was so well-liked by Catalans.
It was also a phenomenon in the UK, and yet they only made 12 episodes.
It was a shame. Part of it was because of the producers and scriptwriters; there were personal problems. But it was also a concept of a comedy format that was somewhat pretentious. For example, there were only 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers (1975-1979). They did not want to be commercial; they wanted it to be special and that is why they only made a few episodes.
Is there any of you in Neil?
Neil is part of me and I cannot leave him behind. Before the series, Neil existed as a character I created. He has a lot of me in him: I have photos of when I was 17, playing the guitar, with long hair, writing folk songs, before going to India.
What do you think of television today? Is there anything quite as groundbreaking as The Young Ones?
There are lots that I like. But there aren't any as revolutionary as The Young Ones. I love the IT Crowd. On Channel 4 there is Peep Show, which is like The Young Ones in that it is very disrespectful. In general I like what I see on television, but there is nothing like The Young Ones, which completely changed the comedy scene in England. The only thing as groundbreaking as The Young Ones was Monty Python.
TV3 has long shown British comedies, from Blackadder to Mr. Bean. Is England still the world capital of comedy?
It is like pop music: England has a lot to offer comedy. But it is not as professional as in America; they can make 26 episodes of Friends a year. For example, there were only 12 episodes of the Ricky Gervais version of The Office. Then the Americans made something completely different out of it. It was losing ratings and so the scriptwriter deliberately began to make the character of Steve Carrell more sympathetic to audiences.
Did you know Catalonia before coming to film for TV3?
I knew Barcelona, as I visited many times before, but not Catalonia. The TV3 programme came out of the blue: it has been a fantastic experience, and have been a type of holiday just for me! It has also been hard work, because there was a lot planned. I love travelling and I write about my trips in different newspapers and blogs.
Has it changed your idea of the country?
Yes, because I did not know how important the language was. When I say in England that I am going to Barcelona, they think Spain and that you need to brush up your Spanish. Until I did the programme, I was not aware of this difference. Nor about the variety of landscapes, mountains, beaches and cities. Girona seemed very Italian to me, the same as Tarragona; I was fascinated by the Roman history.
The flags hanging from balconies are part of the landscape. What do you think about the process?
Do you think it will happen? We have just had a referendum on Scotland in the UK. David Cameron was very clever to make a lot of concessions to Scotland and in the end independence was less attractive than his vision of the union. From what I can see, the Spanish government is much more rigid and that makes independence more desirable. Here the language is very important and if Spain wants to keep hold of Catalonia it will have to make more concessions... But I don't know much about politics.
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