At the turn of the century, the trajectory of Rob Brydon’s life changed. After years of toiling away on Radio Wales and flogging lawnmowers on a TV shopping channel, he finally had the breakthrough in TV comedy that he’d yearned for. Human Remains and Marion and Geoff, launched on the BBC in 2000, were both award-winning shows and remain cult favourites to this day. To any onlooker, he had made it. But at home, things were falling apart. “I suddenly had the success that I’d wanted for so long,” he says. “I was being interviewed in The Sunday Times and I won Best Newcomer at the Comedy Awards. But I was also in the process of separating from my wife and it was very upsetting, certainly in relation to the children. I learnt that professional success does not necessarily mean peace of mind and happiness. I was up on the stage, with everyone going, ‘You’re fantastic!’, but I was very unhappy.”
This is quite deep. Introspective Rob Brydon wasn’t what I was expecting. He’s a showman! Right? Brimming with gags and impressions! He tells me numerous times over our conversation that he just loves to entertain people, and with his array of accents and amusing bits he does feel like an old-fashioned entertainer. But his early years of rejection and that contrasting personal hardship and public success in 2000 also might be the key to the essence of so many of the characters Brydon plays: the kind that are hurting, but smiling through it all.
