91Èȱ¬ Four finds itself in a Tight Spot
Lift – writer Mark Watson and producer Mark Freeland
Mark Watson is a writer and stand-up comedian whom The Evening Standard branded "a Scholar, a gentleman and a brilliant stand-up."
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He won the if.comeddie Panel Award at Edinburgh 2006 for his stand-up show I'm Worried That I'm Starting To Hate Almost Everyone In The World which transferred to the Soho Theatre, was Perrier nominated in 2005 and has just won the Time Out Critics' Choice 2006 award.
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His first novel Bullet Points was published in 2004 and he makes regular television appearances on shows like Mock The Week and Nevermind The Buzzcocks.
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Mark has been nurturing the idea for Lift for some time, originally as a short film idea: "In fact it had its roots in a play I wrote at school, almost ten years ago.
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"At that point I wouldn't have believed this would happen. It was called Four Blokes And A Girl In A Lift. I wanted to replicate that 'you never know who you'll meet' sensation of getting into a small metal box with a bunch of strangers."
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Although Mark has been stuck in a lift once, in Australia, on his own, for about 15 minutes, he was actually mostly inspired by wondering what was the most confined situation he could put characters in: "People are always saying that the best sitcoms come from characters being 'trapped' and I thought it would be interesting to explore that idea literally.
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"A few years ago I wrote a script about hostages being kept in a room – and a couple of people were keen on the project – but then there were some high profile hostage-takings and it became less funny."
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However, the idea became a reality when Mark Watson met Mark Freeland, who is now at Hartswood Films: "At the time Mark was working at the 91Èȱ¬ and read some of my work. He then came to see my Edinburgh stand-up show 50 Years Before Death And The Awful Prospect Of Eternity."
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Mark Freeland takes up the story: "I loved Mark's original idea for Lift. He and I were thinking about ways in which we could get it made into a series of ten minute episodes like Marion & Geoff.
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It particularly appealed to me in that it was something so incredibly small but you could still talk about the big things in life. That was what was one of the things that was so fantastic about The Royle Family; it may look as if it's just people sitting on a sofa, but the show is all about the big things – life, love, marriage, death…
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So having four characters in a small, enclosed situation was very alluring to me; there are no hiding places – the polar opposite of another Hartswood production, Supernova, which we filmed in the Australian Outback!"
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He continues: "Lucy Lumsden at the 91Èȱ¬ had always liked the project. And then she discovered that she had four scripts that she liked, and they all magically fitted into the TIGHT SPOT theme and this comedy, which had always seemed a bit of an oddity, fitted the context. So we suddenly had to get our skates on."
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Mark Watson did not find it difficult to turn his short film into a 30-minute comedy: "Once the characters are in place, it's not so hard to keep escalating the drama and ratcheting up the tension between them. The challenge is to keep things interesting visually when there's only one location, but the cast and director did a superb job of that."
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Casting was key, as Mark Freeland explains: "Douglas came in and played the up-tight, everyman victim brilliantly. He just loved the script and fitted the part like a glove.
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"Douglas has done a good deal of theatre work, and this is quite theatrical in the sense that no one leaves the 'stage', so he was very much at home. When you're working with an enclosed space, you have to experiment a little and see how big or small you can go. As a stage actor, he has all these instincts."
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Siobhan Redmond is also a consummate theatre actress, having appeared on stage numerous times, most recently in the title role in Mary Stuart, The Lunatic Queen for the National Theatre of Scotland. "She's an excellent comedy actress and well known for her TV appearances in shows like The Smoking Room and The Catherine Tate Show."
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Mark continues: "Rasmus Hardiker sprang to mind immediately for the part of Rocco. We had seen him in Saxondale and Lead Balloon and when we met him he just looked so like the character – hoodie and everything. He has a great face and terrific warmth. He also has a vulnerability and is completely natural in the way he looks and in his personality."
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Mark knew Nina Wadia from his days at the 91Èȱ¬: "Again, she has done a lot of theatre and can play rather thick-skinned, tunnel-visioned characters very well – unaware of herself, but naturally positive – perfect for the part of Sunita."
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Mark Watson was equally delighted with the casting:
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"The four actors are all superb. Douglas Hodge does a brilliant, sour-faced job as the businessman; Nina Wadia is perfect as the maddening know-it-all; Siobhan Redmond gives a completely different quality to things with a mixture of dottiness and sharp-tongued wit; and Rasmus Hardiker is an obvious future star.
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"It was a thrill to me to have gifted actors working on the script."
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