TOTAL SCIFI ONLINE: Ben Miller Interview
The set-up of the ARC may have changed, but James Lester is still there, sarcastically in charge, and Ben Miller admits that he’s delighted to be back on Primeval – the show he describes as “resurrected from beyond the dead!” Words: Paul Simpson
Paul Simpson: Once you knew Primeval was returning, did you talk to Adrian Hodges and Tim Haines about what was coming for Lester this year?
Ben Miller: "I did talk to Tim. What we all felt had been very successful in the third series was Lester having somebody to battle with, and we very much decided we’d like to have that element in this series.
The big change from Lester’s point of view is that rather than the ARC being a government funded department, there’s this science and technology mogul, Philip, who has taken over the whole thing. It’s now a public/private partnership of the type that have proved universally disastrous across the whole of government!
Lester is now enmeshed in this messy situation where he has to deal with this mogul, who has a lot of say in what goes on in the ARC because he’s funding it. He is constantly compromised because this guy is his boss, so that’s been fun to play. He’s also dealing with the Minister, as ever, but this Richard Branson figure has his own agenda, and Lester constantly has to square things with him, and navigate around him. It’s fun for Lester too, because he loves politics.
The ARC also gets a massive upgrade and a major injection of funds, which doesn’t hurt in the sexiness of the whole thing. There’s this new building, a huge menagerie..."
Primeval is currently airing on Saturday nights (ITV1)[UK] and on BBC America at 9/8C.
No comments:
Post a Comment