Mel Smith: 'I'm bored of comedy’
...except Peter Kay
Mel Smith has become bored with comedy – and says he doesn’t find the current crop of comics funny.The 54-year-old said: ‘I’m not that interested in comedy any more.
‘I don't find very much that I find very good. There is a lot of attitude comedy which doesn't make me laugh.’
But he told the Daily Telegraph there was one comic he admired. ‘Peter Kay is the real thing.’
In a separate interview, the 54-year-old director of the Bean movie mounted a controversial defence of his former Not The Nine O’Clock News co-star Chris Langham over his child pornography conviction.
Smith told The Scotsman: ‘I know Chris really well and he is a decent human being and a good man. He's not a paedophile, for fuck's sake.
‘But people don't make any distinction between looking and doing.
‘I don't know what kind of career he will have now. It's tragic, because with The Thick of It and, before that, People Like Us, he was really getting into the groove of his career. They were stunning performances, Larry Sanders-like in their wit and accuracy and timing.’
Smith is doing the interview rounds to promote his role in the musical Hairspray, which opens in the West End on October 31.
Published: 16 Oct 2007
