After 35 years as a Young One, Nigel Planer’s happy to be Marcella’s seedy old guy

ACTOR Nigel Planer gave himself the chills with a boxset binge of his latest project Marcella.

The former Young One star is among the cast of the second series of ITV’s disturbing cop drama Marcella.

And he did a bit of nocturnal boning up before his audition.

“When I knew I was meeting with the director I streamed and watched the whole first series overnight,” Nigel, who’s 64, told iN10.

“It’s probably not a good thing to do to my psyche.

“If anything, I think this second series is even darker than the first. It’s quite gruesome and heavy and I wouldn’t let kids watch it.”

Anna Friel is the blackout-suffering detective sergeant in the grim-but-gripping drama, investigating the death of a young boy who perished some years earlier.

Nigel plays the former drummer of a ’70s rock band who lives next door to where the body was discovered. He’s looked after by his manager, played by Keith Allen, as he has memory issues.

“His mind is a bit scrambled and he displays the symptoms of having had a stroke,” explains Nigel.

“But of course losing his memory could be quite a good cover-up.

“I was really pleased to be involved. These days I’m not so much interested in the type of programme as I am the kind of character.

“I want to make sure I’m really the best guy for the job. I liked the ex-rock star type and I’d worked with Keith back in the ’80s, so the chemistry felt authentic.

“I thought the pair of us playing these sad, seedy old guys seemed believable.”

Nigel’s been ringing the acting changes of late with ITV comedy series Timewasters, BBC’s Inside No. 9, David Walliams’ Sky festive treat Ratburger and a role in hit BBC1 comedy/drama Death In Paradise, filmed in sunny Guadalupe.

“That’s one you don’t turn down,” laughs Nigel. “It was a wonderful job, a fun programme and a really nice bunch of people.

“I think it’s a lot tougher for Ardal O’Hanlon who has months of having to do all the questioning and remember everybody’s names.”

In addition, Nigel found time to do a four-hour audio comedy/drama, called Jeremiah Born In Time, also starring Celia Imrie, Sophie Thompson and Tim McInnerny.

And previously he was the main reader for the audiobook versions of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels as well as appearing in the TV adaptations.

The Young Ones, in which he played Neil, alongside Adrian Edmondson’s Vyvyan, Rik Mayell’s Rick and Chris Ryan’s Mike, fellow madcap students, was an ’80s phenomenon.

Subsequently he did Filthy Rich & Catflap, among many other things, on TV and was also West End star. The Wizard, Rocky Horror Show, Evita and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory are just a few of his theatrical credits.

But he’s not bothered by being reminded of his Young Ones days.

“I look back on that pretty happily,” he admits. “They were very interesting times and I’m still in touch with some of the guys.

“I was working with Adrian recently and have worked with Chris Ryan on a few things.

“The only thing is that it reminds you of how old you’re getting. I saw something on Twitter a bit back about it being 35 years since it started and that’s really quite a long time ago.”

Nigel had already being doing Neil in his act before The Young Ones so he admits he could hardly complain about any typecasting that came with the character.

“You create this monster and after Neil became so big I moved on and created another alter ego character in the shape of the actor spoof Nicholas Craig.

“Through the ’90s and early 2000s we did radio, three TV series, a book and a one-man show.

“So after 35 years when people, even people I know, call me Neil then it can be a bit irritating.

“But the funny thing is that often it’s others I’m with who notice. They say that it must be really annoying but it will actually have passed me by and I won’t have picked up on it.”

Marcella, ITV, Mon, 9pm.