The star of Toast of London and king of the 'part bounty hunter, part 70s porn star' voiceover reveals why he never takes a holiday
• Listen to John Plunkett's interview with the Toast star
Matt Berry never wanted to be a comedian. The star of Channel 4's absurdist sitcom Toast of London, and a familiar face to fans of The IT Crowd and The Mighty Boosh, says he "got into this by the back door".
He was working in the London Dungeon, sending tourists to the gallows every five minutes for being German, when he got the call to be in the Channel 4 comedy, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. A keen musician, he knew its creators Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade from Mighty Boosh gigs where Berry was a warm-up act.
"I didn't have any plan to go into comedy," says Berry. "We became sort of mates and Matt said, 'we're doing this horror thing, do you want to play this Spanish doctor?' I was in the London Dungeon. It was an easy decision to make."
Had it not worked out, Berry might have gone back to the dungeon. "I think my mum was worried when I was in the dungeon," he remembers. "She thought, hang on a minute, you're in your late 20s, but she didn't say anything. I used to say, 'you wait, I'm going to take care of business at some point'."
A decade after Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Berry appears to be doing just that. Toast of London, which he co-created with Father Ted's Arthur Mathews, has been recommissioned for a second series and is up for Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild awards in the next few weeks. He appeared with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer in BBC2's House of Fools and will star in one of the BBC's seven iPlayer-only comedies, announced last week after the decision to axe the BBC3 TV channel.
So when did he realise he was funny? "I don't think I am and anyone who does is a wanker."
More introverted in person than on screen – no-one could possibly be as bombastic as Toast or Douglas Reynholm, his manic boss in Graham Linehan's sitcom The IT Crowd — Berry describes himself as a "site-specific extrovert". His booming voice, described as "part bounty hunter, part 70s porn star", has made him a king of the voiceovers, most notably on Absolute Radio. "I am quite shy," he says.
It was his voiceover work that fed into the character of Steven Toast, the jobbing (and largely jobless) ham actor whose surreal misadventures built a small but devoted audience on Channel 4. "I would work with a certain type and age of actor and just sit there and listen to their tales," he says. "They would be really angry, things might not have gone their way, and you only had to mention another actor's name and they would go to Defcon One.
"It became like a game: 'So what about Ian McShane?' and suddenly bang, you had this tirade. Everything you see basically happened in one way or another."
Berry had previously worked with Mathews on his blackly comic BBC3 sketch show, Snuff Box (with Rich Fulcher) and Radio 4 comedy I, Regress (in which he plays a twisted regression therapist). Snuff Box, like Darkplace, never made it beyond a first series. "That's been my trend with things," says Berry. "Darkplace, one series. Snuffbox, I thought they would pull halfway through, so the fact any episodes went out was a massive bonus. I kind of thought Toast would be the same."
Saddled with a late-night Sunday slot, Toast became a word of mouth hit on Twitter, embraced by celebrity fans such as the Shaun of the Dead director, Edgar Wright. "They put it out after a panel show [Channel 4's Was It Something I Said?] thinking they would keep the audience," remembers Berry. "But apparently that panel show didn't get any audience so I was fucked from the beginning."
Co-starring Doon Mackichan as Toast's agent Jane Plough and Robert Bathurst as his flatmate Ed Howzer-Black, Toast was also responsible for the unlikely catchphrase, "Yes, I can hear you, Clem Fandango". "There's [a Clem Fandango] in every voiceover agency in Soho," says Berry. "They usually come in twos, they are 26 or 27 and very scared of being fired. It's rich pickings, all that scene. I did one voiceover where the creative had his back to me the whole time. I thought it was hilarious, so that's going in."
When Berry is not making television, he's making music, and will tour the latest of his four albums, Kill the Wolf, next month. His band includes the former Bluetones singer, Mark Morriss. "Any gap [between TV shows] is great because it means I can do a song," says Berry. "Some would say any sort of voiceover is a sellout but it keeps the wolf from the door. I can buy guitar strings."
Berry claims never to take a holiday because "there's too much to do. I can't sit on my arse for the sake of it. While I've got all my arms and legs and my eyes working at the same time, I've got to make as much stuff as I can. It's kind of morbid, but I won't have all this forever".
David Arnold, the Sherlock and James Bond composer, is also a friend and regular collaborator and invited him to take part in the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Of his songs, which can be loosely described as pastoral folk with a touch of prog rock (but better than that sounds — newcomers should try the Toast of London theme, Take My Hand), Berry says: "It's the kind of music I grew up being frightened by. Most of the things I do are inspired by things that frightened me when I was young." A new album, Music for Insomniacs, is out in May, reflecting a mild obsession with the condition which he suffered from a few years ago.
Berry, who studied contemporary art at Nottingham Trent University and lives in south-east London, says: "There's no plan. I've just done exactly what I wanted to do. No one asked for any of these albums; it was the same with Toast. I can't do things I don't feel or I don't reckon I'm going to be much good in. It's important to be able to look at yourself in the mirror after doing a job."
Toast of London, made by independent producer Objective Productions, returns in the autumn, when it will see the titular anti-hero, among other things, have to do a voiceover while buried alive. Berry wants to open up the songs a bit more, to include dialogue between Toast and the other characters. He is also keen to use more sets, rather than locations, "so I can build things that look like they are in my head".
But suggest similarities to Flight of the Conchords, another TV series that mixed comedy and songs, and you'll draw a blank. "I never really had a TV until fairly recently. All of that kind of passed me by. A mate gave me one he got through work, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bought one."
When Toast's first series was finished, Berry took it home to show it to his father. "After the second one, he just turned and said, 'You're an idiot'. I thought that's fine, that's cool, that's how he sees it. And he's right." Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.
• Listen to John Plunkett's interview with the Toast star
Matt Berry never wanted to be a comedian. The star of Channel 4's absurdist sitcom Toast of London, and a familiar face to fans of The IT Crowd and The Mighty Boosh, says he "got into this by the back door".
He was working in the London Dungeon, sending tourists to the gallows every five minutes for being German, when he got the call to be in the Channel 4 comedy, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. A keen musician, he knew its creators Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade from Mighty Boosh gigs where Berry was a warm-up act.
"I didn't have any plan to go into comedy," says Berry. "We became sort of mates and Matt said, 'we're doing this horror thing, do you want to play this Spanish doctor?' I was in the London Dungeon. It was an easy decision to make."
Had it not worked out, Berry might have gone back to the dungeon. "I think my mum was worried when I was in the dungeon," he remembers. "She thought, hang on a minute, you're in your late 20s, but she didn't say anything. I used to say, 'you wait, I'm going to take care of business at some point'."
A decade after Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Berry appears to be doing just that. Toast of London, which he co-created with Father Ted's Arthur Mathews, has been recommissioned for a second series and is up for Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild awards in the next few weeks. He appeared with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer in BBC2's House of Fools and will star in one of the BBC's seven iPlayer-only comedies, announced last week after the decision to axe the BBC3 TV channel.
So when did he realise he was funny? "I don't think I am and anyone who does is a wanker."
More introverted in person than on screen – no-one could possibly be as bombastic as Toast or Douglas Reynholm, his manic boss in Graham Linehan's sitcom The IT Crowd — Berry describes himself as a "site-specific extrovert". His booming voice, described as "part bounty hunter, part 70s porn star", has made him a king of the voiceovers, most notably on Absolute Radio. "I am quite shy," he says.
It was his voiceover work that fed into the character of Steven Toast, the jobbing (and largely jobless) ham actor whose surreal misadventures built a small but devoted audience on Channel 4. "I would work with a certain type and age of actor and just sit there and listen to their tales," he says. "They would be really angry, things might not have gone their way, and you only had to mention another actor's name and they would go to Defcon One.
"It became like a game: 'So what about Ian McShane?' and suddenly bang, you had this tirade. Everything you see basically happened in one way or another."
Berry had previously worked with Mathews on his blackly comic BBC3 sketch show, Snuff Box (with Rich Fulcher) and Radio 4 comedy I, Regress (in which he plays a twisted regression therapist). Snuff Box, like Darkplace, never made it beyond a first series. "That's been my trend with things," says Berry. "Darkplace, one series. Snuffbox, I thought they would pull halfway through, so the fact any episodes went out was a massive bonus. I kind of thought Toast would be the same."
Saddled with a late-night Sunday slot, Toast became a word of mouth hit on Twitter, embraced by celebrity fans such as the Shaun of the Dead director, Edgar Wright. "They put it out after a panel show [Channel 4's Was It Something I Said?] thinking they would keep the audience," remembers Berry. "But apparently that panel show didn't get any audience so I was fucked from the beginning."
Co-starring Doon Mackichan as Toast's agent Jane Plough and Robert Bathurst as his flatmate Ed Howzer-Black, Toast was also responsible for the unlikely catchphrase, "Yes, I can hear you, Clem Fandango". "There's [a Clem Fandango] in every voiceover agency in Soho," says Berry. "They usually come in twos, they are 26 or 27 and very scared of being fired. It's rich pickings, all that scene. I did one voiceover where the creative had his back to me the whole time. I thought it was hilarious, so that's going in."
When Berry is not making television, he's making music, and will tour the latest of his four albums, Kill the Wolf, next month. His band includes the former Bluetones singer, Mark Morriss. "Any gap [between TV shows] is great because it means I can do a song," says Berry. "Some would say any sort of voiceover is a sellout but it keeps the wolf from the door. I can buy guitar strings."
Berry claims never to take a holiday because "there's too much to do. I can't sit on my arse for the sake of it. While I've got all my arms and legs and my eyes working at the same time, I've got to make as much stuff as I can. It's kind of morbid, but I won't have all this forever".
David Arnold, the Sherlock and James Bond composer, is also a friend and regular collaborator and invited him to take part in the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Of his songs, which can be loosely described as pastoral folk with a touch of prog rock (but better than that sounds — newcomers should try the Toast of London theme, Take My Hand), Berry says: "It's the kind of music I grew up being frightened by. Most of the things I do are inspired by things that frightened me when I was young." A new album, Music for Insomniacs, is out in May, reflecting a mild obsession with the condition which he suffered from a few years ago.
Berry, who studied contemporary art at Nottingham Trent University and lives in south-east London, says: "There's no plan. I've just done exactly what I wanted to do. No one asked for any of these albums; it was the same with Toast. I can't do things I don't feel or I don't reckon I'm going to be much good in. It's important to be able to look at yourself in the mirror after doing a job."
Toast of London, made by independent producer Objective Productions, returns in the autumn, when it will see the titular anti-hero, among other things, have to do a voiceover while buried alive. Berry wants to open up the songs a bit more, to include dialogue between Toast and the other characters. He is also keen to use more sets, rather than locations, "so I can build things that look like they are in my head".
But suggest similarities to Flight of the Conchords, another TV series that mixed comedy and songs, and you'll draw a blank. "I never really had a TV until fairly recently. All of that kind of passed me by. A mate gave me one he got through work, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bought one."
When Toast's first series was finished, Berry took it home to show it to his father. "After the second one, he just turned and said, 'You're an idiot'. I thought that's fine, that's cool, that's how he sees it. And he's right." Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.