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Articles relating to Martin Freeman

Year 2009

Interview: Martin Freeman, Actor
By Siobhan Synnot
Scotsman.com
November 30, 2009

The Office made him famous, but there's a lot more to Martin Freeman than the avuncular Tim.

ALFRED Hitchcock once compared actors to cattle, but now they seem more like meat, portioned out as morsels for tabloids and reality shows. At best we're looking for hidden depths. At worst, we suspect that every star must have a guilty secret; all that power, money and spare time should give them opportunities for some Rococo quirks. Yet no-one can accuse Martin Freeman of being a lothario, a wildman or a raving egoist.

The greatest day-to-day hazards for British drama's most versatile Everyman is people shouting, "Oi, Tim!" as he passes, or garrulous strangers in pubs treating him like an old friend. This must be disconcerting, possibly even irritating but when he's asked, yet again, to pose for a quick picture today, he obliges without a fuss. "Actors are people who are doing a job they want to do, which isn't the case for many of the people who watch what we do," is his mantra. "We' are doing something we want and we get paid handsomely; why behave like an arsehole?"

Nor does Freeman have a dress-down disguise to hide behind when he's off-duty, such as a bit of facial hair or a hood. It's one reason he has had to give up travelling by Tube. In person, he's recognisable from 20 feet away: dark blonde, alert and with those familiar repetitive crunches in the pale, pensive space of his forehead. He also eschews casual scruffiness in favour of a modish, discreetly expensive knit top, sharply edged trousers and immaculate, highly polished shoes. Freeman is a fastidious dresser who drives his girlfriend mad by getting out the ironing board even when he is only going out to the shops.

The retro-styling goes deeper than his clothes: he doesn't drive and you won't find him on Twitter or Facebook because he doesn't like computers. He prefers his agent to send his scripts by post rather than e-mail. He has an extensive DVD library but his record collection is almost entirely vinyl and occupies many custom-built shelves in his Hertfordshire home, where he lives with long-time partner actress Amanda Abbington and their two young sons, aged three and one.

On the other hand, for an Everyman, he has some pretty trenchant views on some big topics. Inevitably, since his new film is called Nativity!, the conversation turns at one point to religion, and he affirms not only a belief in God but also impatience with a certain brand of complacent, reflexive atheism.

"When people have a go at organised religion, it's not necessarily people who have been reading Chomsky and come to this great idea by a lot of research," he says.

"A lot of it is laziness. Organised religion, organised anything, requires commitment and requires an engagement with something. A lot of the time, we don't want to commit. Of course, if you talk about the Spanish Inquisition, that's the bad end of organised religion. But organised means there's more than ten people involved, because it was an idea people liked. I don't see how you get round it."

Equal parts earnestness and ironist, on chat shows and in interviews Freeman is a man with his own mission to promote honesty and purge affectation. A recurrent theme is his appreciation of craft and competence: doing it right, getting the job done, part of a moral code that may be his bulwark against the upheavals of the actor's life. He was 27 when Tim and The Office made him a star. His parents split up when he was young and Freeman, the youngest of five children, lived with his father, Geoffrey, until he was ten, when his father died of a heart attack. He then moved back in with his mother, Philomena, and stepfather, James, who ran pubs.

Earlier this year he went a little deeper into his father's background for the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? beginning with his grandfather, who was known only to have died during the war, possibly at Dunkirk, maybe while making tea. "By the time it has got down to you, anything could have happened as far as the truth is concerned," he says. In the course of the show he found out that two of his great grandparents had been blind from an early age, and the grandfather had been killed by the Luftwaffe when they bombed retreating forces. A memorial in Hull has his name on it. The show was all the more moving for showing Freeman, initially politely interested but by this time rather affected, holding back the tears.

An artistic streak runs through Freeman's immediate family. His older brother, Tim, was in 1980s art-pop group Frazier Chorus; another brother, Jamie, is a musician and website designer; and his cousin, Ben Norris, is a stand-up comic. But as a child Freeman's interest seemed to lie in sport. Despite being asthmatic, prone to fainting and having recurrent hip problems, he was in the British national squash squad between nine and 14. "A contender," he agrees, "but never the best. And then I joined a theatre group and it was like coming home.

"There was very little drama and performance at my school, so I've never forgotten the people who did encourage me and I've thought whether it would be a good idea to even get in touch with them and just say thanks, because they really opened a door for me mentally and emotionally � that's really important."

After Teddington Youth Theatre and training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, he appeared in television dramas such as I Just Want To Kiss You, Men Only and sitcoms such as Black Books and World of Pub and is keen to point out that The Office did not pluck him from the dole queue.

"After I left drama school, I virtually hadn't stopped working for six years."

The problem that still dogs Freeman is that, to some people, he is still Tim-From-The-Office. "The Office is mostly what people recognise me from, and I'm only glad that it wasn't as a murderer in a soap that I became famous. But it's a bit disconcerting when you read about yourself in the newspaper and it says, 'This is what Tim did next', and people think I am going to be avuncular and jovial when they meet me because that's the way Tim was in The Office."

He has been asked this many times, but Freeman is polite and tolerant when questioned yet again about the chances of The Office returning after attracting an audience of 12 million with the two Christmas specials when they aired three years ago. "I think it would be a mistake," he says. "Unless you've got a fantastic reason for doing something, it always feels a little bit to me like a sign of failure or desperation. And no matter how much people think, 'Oh we want more,' I always think, 'You don't really.'" He might also point out that many of The Office workers are busy elsewhere now. Gervais and Merchant have just finished another film. Mackenzie Crook (Gareth) seems to be filling every movie gap for a hollow-eyed unfortunate.

And Freeman himself has had a full dance card, most notably recently with Micro Men, about the early bids for home-computer supremacy between Clive Sinclair (Alexander Armstrong) and Chris Curry (Freeman), directed by Scots filmmaker Saul Metzstein. It is ironic, given Freeman's technophobia. "I didn't think computers would take off," he agrees "But this was more about these two men and their rivalry. It's so easy and compulsory to laugh when you see Clive Sinclair being interviewed because he is a bizarre figure, but he kick-started a lot of stuff and I came away with an admiration."

There's also a more mainstream movie role in Swinging with the Finkelsteins, a rom-com with Mandy Moore, set for release next year, and at one point Freeman was linked to Doctor Who as a possible successor to David Tennant, before Matt Smith. "The points for it would have been that it would have been a laugh being Doctor Who, plus the money. But against that would have been being on jigsaw puzzles and lunch boxes."

Instead, it is his participation in Sherlock, an updated version of the Sherlock Holmes stories, that seems likely to tie up his availability for some time to come. Freeman plays a present-day, leather-jacketed Dr Watson, who returns from the war in Afghanistan war to accompany Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes. The League Of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat, the Paisley writer who modernised Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde for James Nesbitt, are the writers.

Before that is Nativity!, a good-natured British comedy that stars Freeman as a burnt-out primary teacher who rashly pretends his class nativity play has attracted the attention of his ex-girlfriend, who happens to be a big-time Hollywood producer, forcing him to coax his class of seven-year-olds into Primary School Musical mode. Freeman previously worked with director Debbie Isitt on her film Confetti, a more adult story of couples competing for the most idiosyncratic wedding. Nativity! has the same basic premise that nobody is given a script beforehand. Because there isn't one. "I know very few people who have literally improvised a film from start to finish," Freeman says. "There is an outline of story but, literally, not a word of script. Hardly anyone does that. It's hard to do all that well, and be funny.

"Debbie had to keep reminding me it was a kids' film because I swear so much. It quickly became clear that I wouldn't have the patience to be a teacher in real life. I sometimes resorted to the high-pitch shouting I do as a dad at home, to control the kids who are playing members of my class in Nativity!. It didn't always work, which is why I have the utmost respect for anyone who wants to get in a room with 30-odd children and teach them. I wouldn't have the patience."

After working with her on Confetti, Peep Show's Robert Webb was caustic about the experience of working with Isitt. In the film he played a naturist, and shot scenes of full-frontal nudity in the belief that they would never be shown in the finished film. They were, and a furious Webb has vowed never to work with Isitt again. Freeman, on the other hand, was happy to return for Nativity!. "I like Debbie," he says simply. "I wouldn't have signed up for another weird, mad film unless I really enjoyed the company of the director. She's someone I can definitely handle for a couple of months; there are some people who are too mad in a bad way, but she's mad in a very good way.

"Sometimes she can be wilfully vague 'Why haven't you said this?' 'Because you didn't tell me to do that.' She likes the uncertainty, and the fact that unexpected things happen that are maybe, hopefully, better than what she had in mind.

"But what I love about Nativity! is that it reminds you of watching your own children do stuff," he says, "and there is something undeniably emotional watching children, especially your children, do this kind of thing. There will be a lot of people in tears as soon as this starts. I was, because it's kids being kids and they're trying their best, and however that turns out I find it very moving."

That's as much home talk as you are likely to get out of Freeman, whose personal life is a gated community. He is knowing but, for all his affability, not telling. Get him on to the subject of music, however, and you should be prepared for long dissertations on the wonders of Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, the Specials or even Burt Bacharach, who he saw in concert recently. In his youth, Freeman was in several bands � not that he's a better actor than a musician, he says. "I'm happier to appreciate it rather than do it. The joy of playing a record was always important. And it still is.''

This year The Culture Show hired him to celebrate 50 years of Motown, during which he opened his fanboy soul to Martha Reeves and Smokey Robinson. Impassioned and obsessive, at one point he talked for five minutes about the changing record labels of the company, until finally catching himself in anorak mode. "Bored yet?" he inquired, cheerily. "All the women just switched off."

Freeman says he's not hectically ambitious, unlike his best friend Simon Pegg. There's no master plan to his career, no determination to alternate comedies with dramas, or to exclusively accept parts that run counter to expectations. That said, he was delighted when director Peter Greenaway asked him to play the artist Rembrandt in his film Nightwatching. "It's not the kind of thing that people usually offer," he says of playing the painter, who is naked in the film's opening scenes. "I get more lovelorn 30-something from Surrey than I get offered chances to play Dutch masters."

If Freeman doesn't like a script he won't audition for it, and he's always curious as to why someone wants him for a role. "I also want to know who else turned them down first. People can be quite reticent about telling you because they think it's going to damage your ego. But there's only ten people in the world, they always thought of someone else first. So I'm always interested in who they thought of before me."

In the case of Love Actually, Richard Curtis, a fan, wrote the role of a sex scene body double especially for Freeman, but Hugh Grant was the original choice for Arthur Dent in the movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Freeman doesn't have a problem with that. Nor does he struggle with offers that are too good to refuse. "Maybe if you're Tom Cruise that's more of a problem, but for most actors there are very few roles where you think, 'I have to do this.' And I'm a dad, so it does take a lot to get me out of the house."

Or out of the country. Freeman has appeared in US movies, most recently in Jake Paltrow's Good Night with Gwyneth Paltrow and Penelope Cruz, but he's not keen to follow Ricky Gervais or his Nativity! co-star Ashley Jensen, another Gervais alumnus, and relocate to America. "I would crawl over broken glass to work on something good wherever," he says. "And I've been out there to have focused meetings, but I never wanted to go over there and be waiting around by the pool, because any actor will tell you, you can do that here. And, whatever you want out of LA, your family might not want as well."

What he does like about Los Angeles is the relative lack of scrutiny. "It depends where I am in the States, but if I get recognised it's sometimes as Tim but it's often for Love Actually," he says. "Or just 'Martin Freeman' which is progress, of a sort."

BBC - BBC Four Programmes - Micro Men

Micro Men review - Den of Geek

Not quite warts and all for BBC's Micro Men // News

Chris Curry is played by Office star Martin Freeman, who admitted the digital revolution largely passed him by. "I'm not interested in computers at all," he said. "I do [have one], under duress, but I didn't think they'd take off! I honest to God didn't. But this isn't about computers, it's about these two men and the relationship between them and their hopes and dreams shattered on the way.

"I came away with an admiration. It's so easy and compulsory to laugh when you see [Sinclair] being interviewed because he is a bizarre figure, it's fair to say. I don't know whether he was a genius, but he was pretty close to it on both an inventing and marketing level. He kick-started a lot of stuff."

Micro men - The Inquirer

Martin Freeman and Mandy Moore in city filming
Cambridge News
August 28, 2009

ACTRESS Mandy Moore cooled off after plunging into the River Cam while punting with The Office star Martin Freeman.

And Mr Freeman, who played Arthur Dent in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, really did need a towel during his travels.

The pair are in the city to shoot romantic comedy Swinging with the Finkels.

But it was more a case of falling with the Finkels when they went punting along the Backs yesterday (Thursday, 27 August) afternoon.

The pair play husband and wife in the indie film, which also features Jonathan Silverman and Melissa George, as another married couple, and Jerry Stiller.

Their characters first meet while students at Cambridge University.

Writer-director Jonathan Newman developed the movie from his short film Sex With the Finkels, which debuted on the website Filmaka.

A spokeswoman for the movie said: "We have been filming in a few different locations in Cambridge for the last couple of days. It's a rom.com The couple first meet while they studying at Cambridge University and the film develops from there and covers the rest of their lives.

"Some of the scenes are being shot in the city. They are punting on the river and one of the stars falls in. We chose Cambridge because it is so beautiful and quintessentially English. The actors have had a really great time filming here."

The film company has been recruiting extras in Cambridge to take part in the movie playing students.

Madingley Road park and ride has been used as the base of operations for the film crews and technicians.

Mr Freeman didn't have far to come - he lives in Hertfordshire.

Pair reunites for 'Finkels'
Martin Freeman, Mandy Moore starred in 'Dedication'
By Gregg Kilday - THR.com
Aug 26, 2009

Martin Freeman and Mandy Moore, who appeared in the 2007 feature "Dedication," are reteaming for the romantic comedy "Swinging With the Finkels," which began production Wednesday in the U.K.

The pair will play husband and wife in the film, which also features Jonathan Silverman and Melissa George, playing another married couple, and Jerry Stiller.

Writer-director Jonathan Newman developed the feature from his short film "Sex With the Finkels," which debuted on the Web site Filmaka.

"Finkels" is being produced by Kintop Pictures/Reliance and Starlight Films in association with Urban Island and Filmaka. Filmaka co-founder Deepak Nayar and Rosanne Milliken are producing. Thomas Augsberger, Philip von Alvensleben, Albert Klychak and David Mutch are exec producing.

Foreign sales will be handled by Simon Crowe's SC Films International.

Freeman, repped by UTA and Creative Artists Management, next appears in the British feature "Nativity." Moore, who released the album "Amanda Leigh" this year, is repped by UTA and Storefront.

Freeman draws 6m to BBC1
broadcastnow.co.uk

The final instalment in the current series of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring actor Martin Freeman pulled in 6 million viewers for BBC1 last night, commanding a 27.9% share.

Life outside The Office for Martin Freeman
WalesOnline: Lifestyle
August 16, 2009

DESPITE his near-constant presence on our screens since appearing in The Office, no one knows much about 37-year-old Martin Freeman. Including the actor himself.

After finding fame in 2001 playing Tim Canterbury, The Office�s sarcastic yet loveable dose of normality, Freeman has been in programmes such as The Robinsons, Boy Meets Girl and big-screen offerings Love Actually and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Yet it's taken BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? To separate fact from fiction and find out the true story behind the actor.

In his episode, the last in the current series, Freeman researches his family tree, particularly his paternal side.

There are many blanks in that half of his family's history, he explains. His dad died when he was 10 years old and his parents divorced some time before that.

I've been interested in discovering more about my heritage for a few years now, says Martin.

There were certain things in my family history I had some idea about, but I wanted to discover more and see if they were true or false.

I've always been interested in history in the broader sense as well, so I thought Why not apply that to myself?

It's not the first time one of the Freemans has tried to trace their family tree.

A member of my family had a go once. It's really difficult to do, and the problem is, you end up with a kind of theory or a half truth. People then end up falling in love with that theory, but the difficulty comes when it's not necessarily the truth. It's good to let an expert, do it for you.

To begin, Martin started with his grandfather, Leonard Freeman, hoping to discover if there was any truth in the family story that he was shot while making a cup of tea at Dunkirk.

I hoped we would cover my grandparents, and from watching the show previously I knew it was possible to find out about great-grandparents and even further in some cases, says Martin.

In my episode, we go back as far as my great-grandparents, Richard and Ada, and that was enough for me as I felt I had information.

I was very surprised to find out they were both blind. That was a big surprise. I didn't realise anyone in my family had been blind, let alone both of my great-grandparents.

The shocks didn't stop there.

During the research, Martin discovers six of his great-grandparents' 12 children had died. Convinced their deaths couldn't be explained by the era's infant mortality rates, Martin visited a paediatric consultant to get his take on the children's death certificates. As the story takes an unpredictable turn, he discovers a dark and hidden chapter of social history.

I don't think anyone looks into their family tree and expects it to come up smelling of roses, he adds. I found people who I was very impressed with for overcoming issues in their lives and had shown tremendous strength of spirit and character. That all made me very proud.

I might do more research in the future, but at the moment I am just letting it all sink in and adjusting to the reality of what I found out. It has given me a great back-story to my dad's side of the family. In the course of two weeks, I went from knowing virtually nothing about my family history to knowing a lot.

Finding two weeks for such a project wasn't easy for the 37-year-old. He's been busy filming a Sherlock Holmes TV series, due on our screens early next year.

Martin plays Dr Watson in an adaptation which moves the action from the Victorian streets to modern-day England.

In the original Conan Doyle novels, Watson was a doctor returning from war in Afghanistan, a fact which will be used to ground the forthcoming tales in reality, and appease ardent fans of the classic tales.

As for doffing his cap to past actors who have played Holmes' dependable sidekick, Martin is full of respect, but says you can't take too much notice of the likes of Nigel Stock, David Burke and Raymond Francis who have portrayed him in the past.

I think you can get into a lot of trouble if you try to hang your hat too much on what other people have done, he offers.

It's just not your job. Those people haven't done this script. we're not playing the novels, we're not playing the films, we're doing this script by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

To know about the other stuff is interesting and helpful, but we can't play that. All we can do is this. I'm just treating it like it's a new script and no-one�s ever heard of it before. That's hard, because you have to say Mr Holmes and things, and when that comes out of your mouth, you hear 120 years of history right there.

Since getting the part, I am reading the books, he says. I'm fast learning Benedict Cumberbatch is perfectly cast as Holmes.

He has a really strong and assured way with language, and he's quick and able to play quick thinkers as a result, people who are mercurial.

It's a real gift he's got as an actor, and I know he's only acting, but you can't have someone who is slow in real life playing Sherlock Holmes.

He's the greatest detective ever.

Martin�s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? is on BBC One on Wednesday at 9pm.

Stars come out for BBC2's Office night
News - Broadcast
August 13, 2009

BBC2 will dedicate an entire evening to airing the first series of The Office later this month, including new footage of Ricky Gervais and the team talking about its impact alongside comedy stars such as Friends� Matthew Perry and Spinal Tap�s Christopher Guest.

The tribute night, scheduled for 30 August, will feature the full 6 x 30-minute run with an introduction and 10-minute inserts between the episodes.

Key cast member such as Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Mackenzie Crook, Lucy Davis and Martin Freeman will all appear to reflect on the show, as will comedy peers such as David Baddiel and Richard Curtis.

Additional original content has also been made for the BBC comedy website, which will appear online to coincide with the TV event.

The BBC is also understood to be planning a similar treatment for Gervais�s second series, Extras, although no plans are confirmed.

Dark tale of hidden history
By Andy Welch
Herald.ie
August 11, 2009

Despite his near-constant presence on our screens since appearing in The Office, no one knows much about 37-year-old Martin Freeman. Including the actor himself.

After finding fame in 2001 playing Tim Canterbury, The Office's sarcastic yet loveable dose of normality, Freeman has been in programmes such as The Robinsons, Boy Meets Girl and big-screen offerings Love Actually and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

It's taken BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? to separate fact from fiction and find out the true story behind the actor, from Aldershot, Hampshire.

In the last in the current series, Freeman researches his family tree, particularly his paternal side. There are many blanks in that half of his family's history, he explains. His dad died when he was 10 years old and his parents divorced some time before that.

"I've been interested in discovering more about my heritage for a few years now," says Freeman. "There were certain things in my family history I had some idea about, but I wanted to discover more and see if they were true.

THEORY

"I've always been interested in history in the broader sense as well, so I thought 'Why not apply that to myself?"'

It's not the first time one of the Freemans has tried to trace their family tree.

"A member of my family had a go once. It's really difficult to do, and the problem is, you end up with a kind of theory or a half truth. People then end up falling in love with that theory, but the difficulty comes when it's not necessarily the truth. It's good to let someone else, an expert, do it for you."

To begin, Freeman started with his grandfather, Leonard Freeman, hoping to discover if there was any truth in the family story that he was shot while making a cup of tea at Dunkirk.

"I hoped we would cover my grandparents, and, from watching the show previously, I knew it was possible to find out about great-grandparents and even further in some cases," says Freeman.

"In my episode, we go back as far as my great-grandparents, Richard and Ada, and that was enough for me.

"I was very surprised to find out they were both blind. That was a big surprise. I didn't realise anyone in my family had been blind, let alone both of my great-grandparents."

The shocks didn't stop there.

During the research, Freeman discovered six of his great-grandparents' 12 children had died. Convinced their deaths couldn't be explained by the era's infant mortality rates, Freeman visited a pediatric consultant to get his take on the children's death certificates. As the story takes an unpredictable turn, he discovers a dark and hidden chapter of social history.

"I don't think anyone looks into their family tree and expects it to come up smelling of roses," he adds. "I found people who I was very impressed with for overcoming issues in their lives and showing tremendous strength of spirit and character. That all made me very proud.

ADJUSTMENT

"I might do more research in the future, but at the moment I am just letting it all sink in and adjusting to the reality of what I found out. It has given me a great back-story to my dad's side of the family."

Finding two weeks for such a project wasn't easy for the 37-year-old. He's been busy filming a Sherlock Holmes TV series, due on our screens next year.

Freeman plays Dr Watson in an adaptation which moves the action from the Victorian streets to modern-day England.

In the original Conan Doyle novels, Watson was a doctor returning from war in Afghanistan, a fact which will be used to ground the forthcoming tales in reality.

New BBC comedy celebrates 'Syntax Era'
Martin Freeman in 1980s computer era comedy
By Adam Hartley - TechRadar UK
June 30, 2009

The BBC is set to broadcast a new comedy celebrating the classic years of British computing in the 1980s.

The superbly-named Syntax Era is set to feature Martin Freeman of The Office and Hot Fuzz and Alexander Armstrong of Armstrong & Miller and Mutual Friends fame playing Sir Clive Sinclair.

Syntax Era is only the working title for now, but we hope that they don't change it, as it is spot on!

Race for computer supremacy:

"Syntax Era provides an affectionately comic account of the 1980s race for home computer supremacy," reads the BBC's release.

"The drama documents the lengthy rivalry between maverick visionary Sir Clive Sinclair (Armstrong) and his former colleague Chris Curry (Freeman) as they go head to head to achieve domination of the growing home computer market."

"Those of us that lived through the eighties will remember the sense of excitement when gadgets and technology started to appear in our homes," says Controller of BBC Four, Richard Klein.

"But not many of us will know the fascinating stories behind their arrival. Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman are excellent choices to portray Sir Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry at a time when battling to have the UK's most loved home computer was their number one priority."

Archive footage from Newsround:

The 90-minute drama was written by Tony Saint and uses archive footage from the likes of John Craven's Newsround "to help illustrate the buzz around Sinclair and Curry's inventions."

If you have fond memories of Sinclair's ZX Spectrum, Curry's BBC Micro or of nearly being killed by a lorry while testing out a Sinclair C5 then this is a TV comedy drama to look forward to.

Stay tuned for more from the writers, cast and producers of the BBC's Syntax Era on TechRadar in the coming weeks

Alexander Armstrong signs up for BBC's Sinclair ZX Spectrum drama
Brand Republic News
June 30, 2009

LONDON - The BBC is producing a comedy drama about the race to create a British home computer, which resulted in the creation of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

The 90-minute programme, which is being produced under the working title 'Syntax Era', will star Martin Freeman, famous for playing Tim in 'The Office' and Alexander Armstrong, one half of the comedy act Armstrong & Miller. It is being made for BBC Four.

It tells the story of the 1980s race for home computer supremacy between Sir Clive Sinclair, played by Armstrong, and Chris Curry, his former colleague, played by Freeman.

The production will use real life clips, including coverage of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum on John Craven's Newsround, as well as archive footage of the BBC Micro computer, Curry's triumphant model, and the Sinclair C5 vehicle -- an invention that has become a byword for for bad design.

The Sinclair brand was eventually bought by Amstrad in 1986 -- Amstrad being the company founded by Sir Alan Sugar, star of BBC One's 'The Apprentice'.

Richard Klein, controller of BBC Four, said: "Those of us that lived through the 80s will remember the sense of excitement when gadgets and technology started to appear in our homes, but not many of us will know the fascinating stories behind their arrival.

"Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman are excellent choices to portray Sir Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry at a time when battling to have the UK's most loved home computer was their number one priority."

The script is by Tony Saint and it is directed by Saul Metzstein.

BBC Introduces Retro Computer Show, Syntax Era
By Desire Athow ITProPortal.com
July 1, 2009

The BBC is planning to broadcast a comedy show on how the race for a British home computer gained hype in the eighties, which eventually led to the creation of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

The 90-minute comedy show, named �Syntax Era�, is in production and is expected to broadcast on UK TV sometime around later this year. The show will be aired on BBC Four, and will have the popular 'The Office' star Martin Freeman, along with Alexander Armstrong from the famous comedy act Armstrong and Miller.

The programme will show race for domination in British home computer between Sir Clive Sinclair, being played by Alexander Armstrong, and his former colleague Chris Curry, played by Freeman.

Authored by Tony Saint, the production of the comic drama will use real-life clips, including Newsround's coverage of Sinclair ZX Spectrum, in addition to archive footage on BBC Micro computer, the Sinclair C5 vehicle, and the triumphant model of Chris Curry.

Commenting upon the significance of the show in exposing the stories behind the arrival of computer technology, BBC Four's controller Richard Klein said, �Those of us that lived through the 80s will remember the sense of excitement when gadgets and technology started to appear in our homes, but not many of us will know the fascinating stories behind their arrival.�

Boy Meets Girl heads to Oz
By Will Hurrell
broadcastnow.co.uk
July 1, 2009

ITV Global Entertainment has sold more than 40 hours of scripted content to public broadcaster ABC in Australia, including ITV1 comedy Boy Meets Girl.

The deal was negotiated through ITV Global�s Australian office and will see the titles airing on both ABC1 and ABC2 later this year.

The deal includes series five of mystery drama Blue Murder (6 x 60-minutes), which stars Caroline Quentin, and classic sketch show Jeeves and Wooster (23 x 60-minutes).

Period drama Hornblower (8 x 120-minutes) is also included in the deal.

Marena Manzoufas, head of programming at ABC Television said: Earlier this year we premiered ITV�s hugely popular Lost in Austen and the latest instalments of Agatha Christie�s Poirot and we are currently showing Agatha Christie�s Marple, so we�re looking forward to bringing more of the best UK drama to our millions of viewers.�

Martin Freeman-fronted comedy Boy Meets Girl (4 x 60-minutes) was produced by ITV Studios and aired on ITV1 in May this year.

Martin Freeman and Rachael Stirling exchange genders in a new ITV comedy.

Boy Meets Girl - Strangers in strange skins
independent.co.uk
April 17, 2009

Martin Freeman and Rachael Stirling exchange genders in a new ITV comedy. They tell James Rampton how difficult they found it to swap high heels and belch without shame.

Martin Freeman had no hesitation in accepting the role of Danny in Boy Meets Girl, an engaging new gender-swap comedy drama for ITV1. He explains why. "It's something a bit different. I've never played a woman trapped in a man's body before." He pauses. "Except at home, of course!"

Rachael Stirling, who plays Veronica, the woman with whom Danny exchanges bodies, was equally eager to take on the role. "I've done five parts already about how the question of gender defines us," she declares. "In The Theatre of Blood, for instance, I wore a penis made of lentils" � as you do � "while in Tipping the Velvet, I had to pretend to be a boy. I reckon I'm the most qualified actress to play this part. In the meeting to discuss the role, I went in and said, 'you've found the right person for the job � I've already had five penises made for me!'"

In Boy Meets Girl, in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, Danny, a dishevelled, down-at-heel DIY store worker obsessed by conspiracy theories, bumps into Veronica, an immaculately soign�e fashion journalist who spends more on lingerie than most people fork out on their entire wardrobe. When they are simultaneously struck by a bolt of lightning, they swap bodies.

In the first of four episodes penned by the newcomer David Allison, Veronica is left begging on the streets. In Danny's body, she frightens off passers-by by claiming she is really a woman. She is also appalled by how smelly men's public lavatories are.

Meanwhile, inhabiting Veronica's body, Danny is repelled by the idea of sex with Veronica's gorgeous, trendy boyfriend, Jay (Paterson Joseph). He also finds it impossible to put on a bra or walk in her fashionista high heels � he is constantly teetering on the brink of a fall. "I don't know how anyone can wear these," he moans to Jay. "They're like instruments of torture. Perhaps we should export them as part of our not-so-ethical foreign policy!"

The two lead actors found researching the drama a fascinating experience � they were both required to gain an understanding of the opposite sex that goes way beyond Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Stirling asserts that: "I'm not interested in all the fluffy nonsense, but I am interested in how we define ourselves as men and women. I read all of Jan Morris [the writer who had a sex change] and learned something of what happens when that sense of self-definition is taken away."

The vivacious, 31-year-old Stirling evidently put in a lot of spadework in preparing for the drama. "Every day," she recalls, "I'd have to do three hours' homework and work out who the hell I was! Martin and I studied each other like apes. Like a lot of actors, he's quite a feminine, sensitive man, and I'm quite a masculine woman, so we could steal bits off each other. I videoed Martin performing a scene as me and nicked some of his mannerisms."

For light relief, the director Alrick Riley (Spooks, The Fixer) gave the pair time to try out their roles while wandering around ITV's HQ. Stirling recollects that, "in order to learn what a man in those shoes would look like, I watched Martin tottering around in high heels � much to the confusion of the ITV office-workers!"

The 37-year-old Freeman, who recently took the very different role of Rembrandt in Peter Greenaway's biopic, Nightwatching, jokes that he didn't have to start completely from scratch when researching his part. "It's not as though I didn't have a camp bone in my body beforehand. I'm an actor, for goodness' sake! As an actor, you learn to deal with mockery, as most people think it's not a very manly job. But fortunately, as Adam Ant so aptly put it, ridicule is nothing to be scared of."

The actor, who has made his name playing such characters as Tim in The Office and Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, remarks that, when it comes to playing the opposite sex, God is in the details. "You wouldn't notice a man sitting with legs wide open, but you'd certainly notice a woman doing that. And without mugging or copying Jessica Rabbit and doing cartoonish wiggling, you walk very differently as a woman.

"Women also tend to pick up wineglasses with their fingertips rather than in the palms of their hands. And it was pointed out to me that a woman doesn't look around as she walks down the street it's much more contained. Blokes don't care who knows that they're looking around. Women are not so expansive they don't necessarily want to catch people's eyes. It's the little things that make a difference."

Stirling goes on to outline what for her are the essential, psychological differences between the genders. "It's a massive generalisation, but if there is a route between A and B, boys will take the most direct, least confusing path," reckons the actress, whose mother is Dame Diana Rigg. "That's why men's relationships with men tend to be more straightforward. They're more frank, and nothing is overly questioned.

"Girls, on the hand, will follow a corkscrew route from A to B. They will keep trying to interpret what the other person is thinking. We love complicating things and supposing what's going through other people's minds. We think, 'even when my boyfriend says, "I want a ham sandwich", he probably doesn't want a ham sandwich'. We're the champions of second-guessing."

So what do the actors think that audiences will take away from Boy Meets Girl, a drama whose plot has echoes of the books Metamorphosis and Vice Versa as well as the movies, All of Me, It's a Boy Girl Thing and Big? Stirling hopes: "It will prompt the odd nightmare about what it would be like to wake up in someone else's body. After all, it's a horror that's familiar to all of us from puberty. That's a period when all sorts of out-of-control things happen to our bodies.

"This drama also emphasises the extent to which we're defined by how we look. Who we are is who other people think we are. When that's removed, we're lost. When Jay brings what he thinks is Veronica back to their flat after the accident, she starts to behave in a very male Manc way." Burping unashamedly after downing a bottle of fizzy pop, anyone? "What is normally a perfectly normal male characteristic suddenly becomes inordinately threatening when carried out by a woman. That's intriguing to watch because everything is called into question. I'm fascinated by that idea of the rug suddenly being pulled from under us."

Stirling and Freeman are a sparky double act. But there is another performing partnership audiences would be equally keen to see: Stirling and her mother. Is there any chance of us witnessing that pair collaborating on stage or screen in the near future? Stirling lets out a hearty laugh. "How many times have we been offered Hay Fever or The Importance of Being Earnest? We always say, 'God, how unimaginative.'

"The problem is, mama has more dignity than I do. I just want to be liked! I'm a waggy-tailed Jack Russell to her elegant lioness. She's Simba, and I'm Scrappy-Doo. We're not ruling out working together. But I pity the director. It would have to be someone very resilient and with the hide of a cow!"

'Boy Meets Girl' starts on ITV1 on 1 May.

Freeman stars in body-swap drama
seenit.co.uk
April 20, 2009

Martin Freeman stars as Danny Reed who wakes up after an accident to find he�s a gorgeous woman in her early 30s in Boy Meets Girl, a new 4 part drama from ITV which airs next month.

Finishing work for the night, Reed heads off to the electricity power yard to steal some copper wiring to pay off his debts. It's raining as he climbs out of his borrowed van. A few yards nearby him in the lay-by Veronica Burton (Rachael Stirling) pulls up having run out of petrol.

When a flash of lightning strikes the pylon and there's a huge explosion and Danny wakes up in hospital and is horrified to discover he's no longer Danny Reed - he's now a gorgeous woman in her early 30s.

Totally freaked out, he struggles to get his head around the fact that his own body has disappeared without trace, and he's inside someone else.

Danny's first impulse is to find out where the person he used to be has gone. But what dawns on him fairly quickly is that no-one knows and no-one is missing him apart from friends Pete (Marshall Lancaster) and Fiona (Angela Griffin). He seems to have simply disappeared, but that doesn's stop him trying to find out where Danny went. In the meantime, Danny has to get his head round being stuck as Veronica � which means learning to be a woman, a fashion journalist, and living a totally different life with Veronica's boyfriend Jay (Paterson Joseph).

As he begins to live Veronica's life and meet her friends he starts to realise that she was having an affair with her best friend's boyfriend and is less than enthused by her job as a fashion journalist. Meanwhile, Veronica is completely disorientated in her new male body and at a loss as to what to do, she's forced to beg on the streets. At Veronica's flat that night, as Jay makes it clear to a horrified Danny (Veronica) that he's looking for romance, Danny spots his old self on the news in the middle of an angry demonstration.

ITV1, Friday, 1 May 2009, 9:00 PM

Coming soon... Boy Meets Girl, ITV1
TV Scoop
April 1, 2009

Just over a year ago we brought you news of a new ITV comedy starring Martin Freeman, called Boy Meets Girl. It was slated to be a genre swap comedy drama, and looked interesting and a welcome addition to ITV's slate of homegrown shows (although its recent record in comedy is nothing to write home about). I received the press pack this morning, so it's safe to say that its arrival must be pretty imminent and we can fill in some blanks. Find out more after the jumper...

First things first, Boy Meets Girl (a four-parter, to be broadcast in early May) not only stars Martin Freeman but also the lovely Rachael Stirling, Ashes To Ashes' Marshall Lancaster and Waterloo Road's Angela Griffin. And there's Paterson Joseph too.

Freeman plays dreamer Danny Reed, whose life is turned upside down when he is struck by lightning and wakes to find himself trapped in a woman's body.

Instead of being a scruffy DIY store worker with no prospects, he has now swapped lives with glamorous female fashion journalist Veronica Burton, played by Stirling.

Danny suddenly has to learn how to walk in stilettos and put on a bra, how to deal with the amorous advances of Veronica's boyfriend Jay (Joseph) and how to pass himself off as a fashion expert while also trying to find out what has happened to his old self.

That's what the press pack says. So does this mean we won't see too much of Freeman himself, and his presence will be restricted to interior monolgues only? And what about Stirling? She's flipping gorgeous. Will she just be acting and not speaking? For both Freeman and especially Stirling, it sounds like quite a tough acting gig. Sounds interesting, if a well-worn idea. Let's see what Freeman himself has to say:

Tell us about Boy Meets Girl

Boy meets Girl is a four part drama that charts the progress of Veronica and Danny after an accident which causes them to swap minds. I play Veronica trapped in Danny's body - trying to find out where I came from and who I am.

Are Veronica and Danny very different?

Yes, not only are they different sex, they're very different people. Danny is a working class believer in conspiracy theories and Veronica is a fashion journalist. Danny would see Veronica as a surface air head and I'm sure she would see him as a common little thug.

You play a woman trapped in a man's body - what research did you do for the role? I had a few meetings with an acting teacher who gave me some clues about female physicality and how it's different to male physicality. Of course all women are different but there are some things that hold true, such as the way a woman carries herself and the way a woman speaks. Voice projection is very different, and it's very easy to get it wrong and end up being a bit too panto. It was very helpful to have someone say put your chin down, make your chest softer, use your head less and use your eyes more, because those are little clues that I wouldn't necessarily have picked up on.

Do you feel you learnt what its like to be a woman from playing this part?

I learnt less about what it is to be a woman and more about observation, and the technicalities of being a woman. As an actor it's my job to observe things and to distil them. I didn't come away thinking I know what it is to be a woman, but as an actor I learnt about building a different physicality.

How is Boy Meets Girl unique?

It doesn't have any of the cliche of gender swapping dramas - it could have been quite facile but I think it works because I've got a bit of femininity about me and Rachael has a bit of boyishness about her.

Was there anything about being a woman that appealed to you?

Being purely superficial about it, women have got a better choice of shoes! I don't envy the heels - it's a mission to walk in heels.

Did you and Rachael study each other to help you get more into character?

We did, but we weren't around each other that often and you don't see much of Veronica or Danny before the accident so there wasn't much for us to go on. We did tape each other acting the scenes to pick up physical clues.

What is next for you after Boy Meets Girl?

I've just finished filming a contemporary remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic Sherlock for the BBC in Wales. I'm playing Sherlock Holmes. It's a great cast and a thrilling, funny, fast paced take on the crime drama genre set in the present day London.

Office stars enjoy reunion
The Press Association
March 31, 2009

Stars of The Office were reunited at the Jameson Empire Awards and the actors got a chance to swap child-rearing tips.

Mackenzie Crook and Martin Freeman, who played Gareth and Tim in the hit series starring Ricky Gervais, were excited to be reunited and got a chance to comment on how much life has changed.

Mackenzie, who has since had roles in Pirates Of The Caribbean and Three And Out said: "I'm sitting next to Martin on a table and we haven't seen each other for a long time so it's great to catch up."

He added that the pair are far more interested in chatting about family than their old days on the BBC programme.

"The subject of The Office hasn't even come up, we're talking about our babies and showing each other photos."

Mackenzie also said that he's starting to feel like a bit of an old hand, having been in the industry for ten years: "It's a bit of a weird feeling, I arrived here today and I know so many people in the audience.

"It's a great feeling but at the same time I've realised I've been doing this now for a decade. I suppose I'm one of the old-timers."

Martin Freeman in town to film modern Sherlock Holmes
By Nathan Bevan
WalesOnline - News - Wales News
February 5, 2009

OFFICE star Martin Freeman has said he loves filming in Cardiff because no- one recognises him here.

The actor, who finished filming a modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes, penned by new Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat, around the capital on Sunday, said the capital had become such a filming hot spot for world-wide homegrown successes like Doctor Who that actors like him did not get a look-in any more.

I had a wander round the shops and no-one particularly bothered me, probably because people didn't know who the hell I was, he laughed.

It's quite unusual outside of somewhere like London to have people be so laid back if they spot the odd familiar face off the telly, but Cardiff has become very busy in the last few years.

These days people just go Martin Freeman? Oh, who cares about him? I saw David Tennant yesterday! he joked.

Why on earth should I care about Tim from The Office?

Freeman revealed that he was in the running to become the eleventh Doctor Who.

Apparently I got a mention from Russell T Davies himself on some documentary programme, but never made the shortlist, he said.

Actually, was there even a shortlist? Wasn't there just a long list with me every other British actor under the age of 50 on it?, he said, poking fun at the intense media speculation as to who would materialise as the cult sci-fi character's eleventh incarnation.

Office actor Martin Freeman considered for Dr Who role
By Nathan Bevan
WalesOnline - News - Wales News
February 5, 2009

THE Office star Martin Freeman has revealed that he was in the running to become the 11th Doctor Who.

Apparently I got a mention from Russell T Davies himself on some documentary programme but never made the shortlist, said Freeman, who finished filming a modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes, penned by the Time Lord's new executive producer Steven Moffat, around and about South Wales on Sunday.

Actually, was there even a shortlist? Wasn't there just a long list with me and every other British actor under the age of 50 on it? He joked of the intense media speculation as to who would materialise as the cult sci-fi character's 11th incarnation.

I got a text from Patterson Joseph, who was a favourite at one point, telling me his agent had been asked to confirm or deny he's been approached to play the role.

It never got that far with me, but it did make me think: God, wouldn't it be weird to be the Doctor?

Freeman, who plays a very different Doctor Dr Watson to Bafta-nominated Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes, added that the current success of Doctor Who lay largely in the fact that the role was wide open to anyone.

In the show's current incarnation you can see anybody good having a go and that's brilliant, he said.

I mean, 10 years ago you wouldn't have said: David Tennant, now there s a Doctor Who if ever I saw one, similarly this newest guy Matt Smith.

You certainly wouldn't have thought, Christopher Ecclestone? Oh, he's born to play the part.

And that's the beauty of this rebooted version of it, the Doctor just becomes who ever ends up playing him.

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