Brian Cox is back on home soil in a new run of hit comedy Bob Servant. But it’ll be a bit of a flying visit to our screens and Brian’s desperate for that to change.
“It was delightful to come back to it,” confides Brian from his Brooklyn apartment as the Broughty Ferry-set series starts a short run tomorrow.
“The BBC, in their own generosity, gave us three episodes you know what they’re like!
“It would have been good to have a six-part run, to have a go at doing something and getting it into the public domain again.
“It’s very hard to do that. I think in the first two series they had two lots of three episodes and put them out as a six.”
As one of Scotland’s biggest names with an enviable CV of Hollywood hits behind him, I reckon surely any production would bite his hand off to get him on board.
“The BBC never seem to bite your fingers off, never seem to go that far,” chuckles Brian, 68. “It’s a funny old place.”
But while Brian’s a little perplexed that there’s not more to show, there’s no doubting his affection for the would-be burger van mogul and ladies’ man Bob. And he reckons fans of the character previously brought to life in books and a radio show by creator Neil Forsyth will have plenty of midwinter cheer.
“It’s such a great joy to do,” he reveals. “The scripts are so good and so funny and it has quite a following. Neil has packed so much into three wonderful episodes, I look upon it as a film that’s split into three.”
Bob’s again joined by faithful sidekick Frank, played by Jonathan Watson, and Alex Norton is back as his nemesis Hendo in the new series screened now on BBC Scotland and nationally on BBC Four in January. Daniela Nardini is council official Megan who proves more than a match.
Getting back to his home city was a real pleasure for Brian as was getting to work in his native accent again.
“It’s lovely to shoot Broughty Ferry on screen because it always looks so lovely. We had just one bad day and some of the Glaswegians from the crew couldn’t believe how nice it was and were saying they must come on holiday. It gets so much sunshine, it looks stunning.”
The Emmy-winning star has a host of blockbuster films, like the Bourne and X-Men series, to his name and American producers regularly beat a path to his door. Just one recent project is The Game, produced by BBC America.
It’s a 1970-set Cold War spy thriller that has already been shown in the States to great acclaim.
“Vanity Fair just said that we might have lost Mad Men but now we’ve got The Game, and it’s had great reviews,” said Brian. “It’s cutting edge with a lot of wit.
“I’ve been in television for nearly 50 years and TV really is in a great state right now. The writing is first-class.
“BBC America have created their own productions and they really promoted The Game in a big way which has paid dividends. It’s getting an airing in the UK in February.”
The acclaim of the series, and decades at the top, means Brian’s recognised everywhere he goes in New York where he lives with wife Nicole and their kids.
“It’s hard for me to even go down the subway without getting noticed,” he admits. They might not know the name but they know the face and they turn round as soon as they hear the voice.
“But people are generally nice and it’s rare that you get bad behaviour.”
Bob Servant, BBC One Scotland, 10.35pm Monday.
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