Griff Rhys Jones talks to Jane McGowan about Mel Smith, mountains, dangerous trains and his forthcoming theatre tour
Dean Chalkley DEAN CHALKLEY
deans chalkleys photograph of Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
In a career spanning almost 40 years, Griff Rhys Jones has lit up most corners of the showbusiness realm. From writing and performing to presenting and directing, there are few arenas in which he hasn’t excelled. And while stage and screen roles still beckon, recent years have mostly seen the Welshman front travel shows that have taken him to the four corners of the world.
Now the 64-year-old is hitting the road once again, this time on a 37-date tour entitled Where Was I? to recount his many adventures and misadventures as a travel show presenter.
“It starts with me talking about falling off waterfalls, being stuck up mountains and so on, but then it becomes more reflective and philosophical, looking at why we actually choose to travel,” he explains. “For people like me, brought up in the 60s, it still amazes me how people hop on and off planes at the drop of a hat and go to places like Antarctica for the weekend. And, of course, we have a bit of a chat about the horrors of travel that everyone has to go through – cancellations, speedy boarding and delays and why you are never picked to get the upgrades.”
Born in 1953 in Cardiff to parents Margaret, a nurse and Elwyn, a doctor, Griff moved with the family to West Sussex when he was just six months old. Following a gap year spent on board P&O liner Uganda, looking after parties of schoolchildren – ‘St Trinian’s at sea’, he dubbed it – he headed to Cambridge and gained a degree in English. A stint as a radio producer for the BBC led to his securing bit parts in the first series of ground-breaking sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News, and by series two he was a fully signed-up member of the team alongside Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith.
Between 1979 and 1982, the show – with its anarchic sketches featuring hedgehog sandwiches and talking gorillas – shattered the sitcom cosiness of the time, exemplified by shows such as Terry and June and Are You Being Served? For Griff, it also led to a very successful professional and personal relationship with Smith, which saw the pair triumph on screen with Alas Smith and Jones (it ran for 14 years in various guises) and also with their production company Talkback, which they sold in 2000 for a rumoured £62m.
They remained close until Mel’s sudden death in 2013 aged just 60. The loss hit Griff hard, and he has spoken openly about his grief and sadness that they would never work together again. Overwhelmed by the evident love and respect for his friend, he decided to hit the road to share stories of their time together with fans.
“The show was all about Mel,” he says. “The first half centred on what he, and we, had done; the second half was about me trying to deal with the shock of losing him at such a young age.
“It was funny talking about him,” he continues, somewhat hesitantly. “He was, how can I put it, a bit of a naughty boy, so I had to choose my stories quite carefully as I didn’t want to spoil people’s perceptions. But it was mostly about the laughter and the pitfalls of working as a double act. It’s a bit like being in a marriage: you have to put up with each other and cope with various situations.”
Entitled Jones and Smith, the tour brought it home to Griff just how long it had been since the pair had actually worked together. For 20 years, he realised, he had been on TV more as a documentary maker than a comedian.
“I recognised that some people only knew me as a presenter and had no idea that I’d done all this funny stuff. So I thought I could write a new show all about my travels, which have been my main focus for the past decade.”
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It was in 2006 that Griff first set sail on his travel career in the BBC’s Three Men in a Boat, with longtime friend Rory McGrath and Dara Ó Briain. The first series saw the trio recreate the journey from Jerome K Jerome’s immortal novel, rowing from Kingston to Oxford in a replica wooden skiff. Further series followed, including one in which the eponymous Three Men sailed a yacht from Tower Bridge to the Isle of Wight. Griff had caught the travel bug and soon found himself booked to host BBC programme Mountain, followed by Greatest Cities of the World and Rivers, both styled ‘with Griff Rhys Jones’.
“I find cities so fascinating, much more so than a long line of mountains,” he admits. “On mountains you are likely to see the same view for ages, whereas in towns and cities you never know what’s round the next corner. I can get lost in cities for hours. Not necessarily to find the most celebrated things, but for stuff that is really interesting. Take New York, for example. The real otherness of the US is in the suburbs. Then you go: ‘Wow! This is a different America.’
“I travel to experience the way of the world and how human beings live in different places. I’ve seen some wonderful scenery, but it’s not that different in New Zealand from Scotland,” he confesses with a shameful giggle. “One mountain, well, you know…”
The forthcoming live show will include, inter alia, an entertaining gaggle of references to the humorous and downright dangerous situations in which Griff has found himself on location.
“Jeopardy is the word producers like to use,” he chuckles. “When I was first asked to do mountaineering, I politely explained that I knew nothing about it and asked the programme makers what would happen if I fell off. ‘Oh,’ they said, ‘that would be terrific...’”
Since embarking on his accidental adventures, the father-of-two has found himself dodging crocodiles in Australia and tranquillising teenage rhinos in Namibia. But the ‘jeopardy’ that stands out most, he reveals, is riding the so-called ‘train of death’ in Algeria.
“Once we were safely on board, the fixer [usually a local helping with the production] informed us that the route was so-named because fundamentalists would jump on and slit the throats of anyone wearing Western dress. I looked down at myself and thought: ‘Yep, well, that’s definitely me.’
“As we all started to panic, the guy said: ‘Don’t worry, it won’t happen now – that is all in the past.’ So we began to breathe easily again, and then someone asked how long it had been since the last attack. To which he replied: ‘About nine months!’”
Happily, both crew and intrepid presenter survived. Griff hoots with laughter as he recalls the event.
“When I phoned the producers to complain, they simply asked me not to mention the train’s infamous ‘name’, as we didn’t want politics in the show. In the end it’s entertainment, so no matter how erudite and fascinating my piece to camera about the geology of Scotland, all the viewers may see is the shot of me screaming and weeping while being winched down the side of a waterfall.”
Griff, it is clear, truly relishes the telling of these traveller’s tales. Certainly he has no intention of hanging up his suitcase just yet.
“There’s no better sound than the clicking of that garden gate behind me. I can forget all my troubles and leave my wife to look after everything. I often wonder what happened to Michael Palin’s wife and kids when he was off travelling. It wasn’t ‘Around the World in 80 Days in the School Holidays’, was it?”
And with that pendulous question still in the air, I leave Mr Rhys Jones to pack his bags and prepare to head off again. To a theatre not too far away.
- Where Was I? is at Norden Farm, Maidenhead, February 13; Farnham Maltings, March 2; Epsom Playhouse, March 4
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