Surrey comic Luke Kempner has brought his show The Only Way is Downton back home after a successful US tour, and drops by Camberley Theatre on October 26. Emily Horton met him as he joined the BBC comedy Murder in Successville
You could be forgiven for not knowing Luke Kempner. Even the sound of his voice may not ring many bells, for the 28-year-old actor, born and bred in Surrey, spends most of his time impersonating other people.
Blame it on BBC3, where Luke is currently revelling in his first TV gig, Murder in Successville, playing everyone from Professor Brian Cox to Russell Brand. The anarchic show stars Tom Davis as DCI Sleet, with the rest of the cast in a variety of celebrity guises. Each week, however, its ranks are swelled by the inclusion of a real celeb who, as Sleet’s sidekick, is responsible for solving the crime.
“It’s like an LA cop show,” explains Luke. “There are different suspects and the celebrity has absolutely no idea what is going to happen. There’s no script – it’s all improvisation, so we guide the celeb through the scenes.”
So far gymnast Louis Smith, Made in Chelsea's Jamie Laing, former Pussycat Doll Radio 1 DJ Greg James, presenter Dermot O’Leary and Deborah Meaden from Dragons’ Den – none of them exactly renowned for their acting prowess – have all tried their hand as Successville sleuths.
“We just don’t know how they’re going to perform until they arrive on set,” concedes Luke. “In fact, they’ve all been great. Greg James was very good indeed.”
For Luke, the show marks the climax of a whirlwind couple of years in which the boy from Smallfield, near Gatwick on the Sussex border, has rapidly carved a career out of his childhood passion: doing impressions.
“It all started at school, when I used to take the mickey out of the teachers,” he tells me, oozing enthusiasm on the phone. “Burstow School, Oakwood School, Reigate College, Guildford School of Acting – all the way through my education I just kept on impersonating the teachers!”
Luke Kempner (centre) as Alan Carr, alongside brother Jimmy
He must have been one of those precocious kids who really irritate their elders, I surmise.
“Oh yeah,” he chuckles. “I must have been terribly annoying! I’d get up in front of the whole school and do a 10-minute skit, all based on my impressions of the teachers. I would build an entire story around them, such as preparing for the school nativity. I’ve always been a show-off, but never in a horrible way. I don’t do impressions of people I dislike, and when I do impersonate people, I don’t draw attention to anything negative about their acting or their voice,” he explains.
“I always focus on something about a person such that, if they happened to be watching, they would enjoy it too. That way we can all laugh at our quirks together. It works both ways. If my mates do an impression of me, I think it’s hilarious because I realize, yeah, I actually do that. With comedy, I really believe that you ought to approach it nicely, so that people don’t feel challenged. It actually makes it more accessible.”
A refreshing approach in a world in which satire is more often tipped with poison than wrapped in cottonwool. And it clearly hasn’t held him back.
“Once I finished drama school, I went to work on big musicals – Les Miserables, South Pacific and Avenue Q. But I always wanted to do my comedy professionally. Two years ago, I started doing my Andy Murray impression – just casually, but it really made people laugh.”
A familiar Caledonian drawl drifts down the line.
“So then I tried impersonating Tom Daley. But what I really wanted to do was to find a way of replicating my performances at school, where I created a story around the characters.”
Inspiration came in the form of iconic period drama, Downton Abbey. Luke created a show called ‘Downstairs at Downton’, which transferred all our favourite characters from the series to the 21st century world.
“In my Downton, Lord Grantham has invested all his money in HMV and has lost the entire estate. To raise funds he wants all the staff to enter TV game shows like X Factor, Bake Off and Pointless. To compound things, the Countess Dowager is getting married to a much younger man and is having a hen do with Cora and the girls. It’s really silly stuff!”
When Luke put a video of the show on YouTube one Sunday night, coinciding with an episode of Downton Abbey on ITV, things took off.
“I was just looking to do 10 videos. If they got 100 views each and a couple of people thought they were funny, I reckoned that I could ask TV companies for work.”
Within 24 hours of the third video going live, it was picked up by Stephen Fry.
“He tweeted his support, then Matt Lucas retweeted it and it changed my life! Suddenly I was up at the Edinburgh Fringe performing to sold-out shows, refining material into what became The Only Way is Downton.”
Who is his favourite character to take off?
“In Downton it has to be the Dowager,” he says, slipping effortlessly into character. “The way she talks is so wonderful…And I love doing Alan Carr. He’s my Downton show vicar and is very camp and excited.”
A brief pause.
“I like playing women or camp men!” he chuckles.
And what does his partner, Alana, think of that? The response is like lightning.
“She loves it! She gets to wake up next to someone different every morning!”
Now the show is touring in the States.
“In America, they really will comedians to do well,” says Luke, dropping into a Yankee accent. “Come on guys, let’s be supportive…”
And so do we, I tell him. We may not be the Big Apple, exactly, but everyone Surreyside is rooting for him.
The Only Way Is Downton comes to Camberley Theatre on October 26
You can catch previous episodes of Murder in Successville on the BBC iPlayer
Check out Luke's Youtube channel for his original Downton impressions and more
