Michael Elphick by Kate Elphick

Author:Kate Elphick
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750951647
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-09-05T00:00:00+00:00

Soon after The Quiz Kid, Dad appeared in a comedy series, this time linking up again with Jonathan Pryce, in a very different role than Hamlet. Pryce is the anti-hero of Roger Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a musician going through a divorce who finds solace with Rose, played by his real-life wife, Kate Fahy. The script, by John Fortune, explores Rose’s need for the titillation that adultery affords her, and so, when Roger’s divorce comes through, with the possibility of her romance fading, she swiftly gets married herself to an all-in wrestler. Dad played the part of the wrestler, Stanley. Each episode was treated as a separate play and there was, unusually, no studio audience. It was while Dad was working on this series that something happened, Mum told me later, that gave her such an insight, in a funny sort of way, of the sort of pressure he was under at this time. He was almost like a one-man repertory company, having read-throughs on one production, takes on another and performing on a third, all at the same time. One night, Dad had come home late when Mum was already in bed. He looked briefly at the script by the bed and then fell into a fitful sleep. Very early in the morning Mum was woken by Dad staggering round the bedroom, evidently asleep, but trying to get into the wardrobe. ‘What on earth are you doing, Mike?’ she asked, ‘Lookin’ for the jokes in this bleedin’ script.’ was his immediate, somnambulant reply.

The next script-writers were two of Dad’s trusted actor friends, Andy McCulloch and John Flanagan, who had already written a lot for television. This time, though, they were writing for the stage, a comedy set in a funeral parlour called Stiff Options. The play was premiered at The Theatre Royal, Stratford East, and starred Dad, as a gangster, and the great Brian Pringle, as the undertaker. As ever, when Dad was involved in anything, life always seemed to upstage art. First of all, two of the coffins were stolen from the theatre, before rehearsals started. New ones were acquired and installed. But as Dad recalled:

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