Spell me no lies

It has been a meteoric year for comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

Last autumn, their radio sketch show was successfully reworked as That Mitchell And Webb Look for BBC2. Peep Show, the Channel 4 sitcom in which they star, has been commissioned for a fifth series and boosted by healthy DVD sales. In the past few weeks BBC Radio 2 has broadcast the pilot of their sci-fi comedy, Daydream Believers, in which Mitchell plays put-upon sci-fi writer who incorporates Webb’s banal interruptions into The Adventures Of The Alien Baron Amstrad.
Oh. And they have a movie out. Magicians, written by Peep Show scribes Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, stars Messrs. Mitchell and Webb as a successful conjuring act torn apart by an unfortunate spousal beheading. It hardly needs to be said that these illusionists have less in common with flashy contemporaries like Derren Brown than with old school tricksters of the Lovely Debbie Magee genus.
“That is what magicians are still doing in Britain,” says David. “I think they’re still all about top hats. Or, if you’re lucky, a very ‘80s twist on that.”
“Not that we’d know,” adds Robert. “But Andrew O’Connor who directed the film used to be a magician. So he knows that world very well.
“Sam and Jesse had to write the thing so they had to be the real experts. We just came along at the end and watched a few DVDs and learned one of the two tricks we had to do.”
If you’ve seen Peep Show, a show that boasts a mean interior dialogue over an already cruel British flat-share comedy, you might have some idea how paranoid one feels to sit across from Mitchell and Webb. They insist, however, that they are not like their televisual alter egos. Well, not much.
“We can always blame Sam and Jesse as well,” says Robert. “They write it. We only add bits. So the characters are more than a bit like them. There are certainly bits of me in Jeremy. I just hope I’m not quite as much of a total bastard.”
“So the disappointing answer is a bit,” says David.
They are particularly pleased with the success of That Mitchell And Webb Look, which was nominated for a BAFTA earlier this year. A second series is already in the works.
“We grew up watching sketch shows and we’ve always wanted to do one,” says Robert.
“And it’s very nice because we do the lion’s share of the writing,” continues David. “We’ve been doing it for radio for years and it’s great to get the boosted ratings of TV. Also, Peep Show is rooted in reality whereas ‘Look involves silly beards and costumes. There’s a lot to be said for the silly beard.”
It’s odd that Mitchell and Webb have become an overnight sensation. After all, the duo have been toiling away together since they met at Cambridge during a Footlights production in 1993. Mr. Webb, being a year older, was already part of the Footlights crowd when he met and clicked with Mitchell the freshman. The pair would work the comedy circuit for a decade before Peep Show brought them a wider audience.
They have worked solo over the years – David has worked on QI and Beauty And The Geek, Robert has starred in Confetti and The Smoking Room. But that’s still an awfully long time to spend with one person. Is it true they no longer socialise after office hours?
“We don’t get sick of working together,” explains David. “But we do get sick of the sight of one another sometimes.”
“And it’s not as if we can avoid socialising,” adds Robert. “We both live in London and have the same friends and drink in the same pubs so it’s not like we don’t run into each other. It’s just that after work we don’t feel the need to call each other up and see what we’re doing together that night.”
“Yes,” says Robert. “It’s not like we have any catching up to do.”
As part of their apparent campaign to conquer all known media, Mitchell and Webb can also be viewed on the internet in Mac’s PC versus Apple commercials. Having only agreed to front the ads because they wouldn’t be broadcast on television, the pair were surprised to find themselves in the ensuing crossfire between brand loyalists.
“It’s annoying,” says David. “We hope it’s going away now. People just don’t seem to realise that Apple paid for the ads so they are not very likely to show the PC in a positive light. We were hardly going to have a script telling you to buy a PC.”
I wonder, however, if it wasn’t personally devastating when the Daily Telegraph started calling them sell-outs for taking the Steve Jobs’ shilling?
“We’re getting over it slowly,” nods Robert. “It’s not as if we’re the first comedians to do an ad. It’s not even the first time we’ve done one. But we do wonder if these people think we’ve been working for charity up until now.”
“We haven’t,” adds David helpfully.
Magicians is released May 18.