Al Murray's Happy Hour
Series 2 Episode 9
Friday 7 March 2008 on ITV1

Andy Serkis, Paul Daniels and Kelly Osbourne pop in for a chat. Bryan Adams provide the music.

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  external: Andy Serkis Official Website Feb 14, 2007 (Score: 47)
  

Although he wasn't discouraged from being a painter, his mother always wanted him to get a "proper job". (edit) Andy feels at home wherever he goes, due to him traveling around a lot as a child. (edit) In 2001, Andy directed a short film, Snake. (edit) Another passion of Andy's is mountaineering. (edit) Growing up, Andy wanted to be a painter or graphic artist. (edit)

Andy: (On the most challenging thing about performing in "The Cottage") When I first read the script, the thing I loved about it… Paul wrote this five years ago and it was prior to Shaun of the Dead and the modern stream of comedy-horror flicks. I just thought it was brilliantly written and a great character piece. You cared about the characters. It didn't feel like it was a horror film – it felt like it was a real film with real events happening to real people. So, I think the biggest challenge when we came to shoot it was to keep that as a straight arrow and to allow the comedy to come out of the emotional truth of the relationship of the characters and so on. There's a difference between reading it and actually pulling that off on screen… and yet appealing to the horror fans. (edit) Andy: If I hear someone say something and they're 100 per cent about it then it's almost inevitable that I'll take the opposite view. I guess I feel at odds with things like society. Absolutism is always a trigger for me. (edit) Andy: The human condition is taxed at the moment to quite a great degree. It's interesting because in this country we're not faced with oppressive regimes or wars or deep-seated cataclysmic events. It's still all about class. The divide [between rich and poor] seems to be getting larger. And there are so many people slipping through the net. Whereas for my generation people would sort themselves out with fist fights and it was a big thing to carry a knife, now it's almost become acceptable to carry guns. And that's quite a scary prospect. But you can see why it's happening. (edit) Andy: I do have anger management issues. Not clinical. Probably no more than most people. But you've got to keep yourself open so your tolerance levels can be blown off. I don't have a huge amount of actual rage in me but I've got a phenomenal amount of energy that bursts out and needs a conduit. (edit) Andy: (On his character of Ian Brady in "Longford") You can't go into something like that just playing a normal villain. You have to find a comparison with yourself. For Brady, the moment when he was most complete, most joyful, was when he was on the moors with Myra. Mine was when I was with my wife and our children were being born. Bringing life into the world, taking life out: there's a connection. (edit)

Star
Monkey Life Narrator (Season 1)

Guest Star
Al Murray's Happy Hour Series 2 Episode 9 Himself	Icons King Kong Himself
Late Night with Conan O'Brien Tyra Banks, Andy Serkis, Los Lonely Boys Himself	Late Night with Conan O'Brien Seth Green, Andy Serkis, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris Himself
Pie in the Sky Passion Fruit Fool Maxwell	Spooks Episode 8 Riff

Other
Oliver Twist (1999) Bill Sykes