TV TIMES 11
HOLD THE SUNSET IS
Serious role: Jason PREVIEWED ON PAGES 80-
as Harold Wilson
in The CrownCOMEDY
MY TV FAMILY!
Jason on his co-stars...
JOHN CLEESE
Phil
‘It’s a privilege
to work with
someone of
that incredible
talent. He’s
unique and has
a natural comic
anarchy that bubbles up all the
time and creeps into the show.’ALISON
STEADMAN
Edith
‘Alison’s
irreverent so a
gentle roll of
humour goes
through the
filming day. We
both love improvisation
and will become characters like
a bus driver and a cyclist and
make each other laugh. She’s also
real; she doesn’t play comedy,
she becomes a person.’ROSIE
C AVALI E RO
Wendy
‘I’ve worked
with Rosie four
or five times
and she is
completely
direct! Her comedy
instincts are very well-
honed, too. But she is also a
fantastic straight actress. We’re
surrounded by talented people.’JOANNA
SCANLAN
Sandra
‘Jo [who plays
Roger’s sister
Sandra] is
incredibly
versatile and,
like us all, she tries
to make audiences
laugh and give them real, rounded
characters, too. It makes for
a lovely atmosphere on set.’ANNE REID
Queenie
‘Anne [AKA
Edith’s cleaner
Queenie] is
delightful.
Acting’s about
working hard and
making the most of
your talent and when
you’ve worked for the amount of
time she has, you see her skill.’Roger feels
the world
needs to wise
up to his
genius
I do sit him up in a chair out of
respect instead of just chucking
him down, so perhaps I have an
unnatural consideration for him!
Will we meet any new characters
in the second series?
We have Sue Johnston back [from
the Christmas special] as Edith’s
sister Joan. She’s comedy royalty
and adds a real freshness because
Joan is such a moaner! It’s great
having her butt up against Roger.
And Shauna Macdonald comes in as
Bob’s daughter Georgie, and Roger
starts to fall in love with her...
What reaction did you get to
the last series?
A broad range of reactions.
Some people didn’t like it but
huge numbers did and I’m glad
it connected with people. I was
in the garage yesterday dropping
off a car and this young guy
recognised me and said, ‘My
whole family loves Hold the Sunset
and your character is so stupid!’
What I love about the series is
that it is a very open, generous,
straightforward comedy about
older people and their families and
a huge audience identifies with that
and they need something they enjoy.Is it hard to please everybody
when it comes to comedy?
Oh, yes. Some of my relations don’t
like The Office and I think, ‘What?!
How can you not like The Office?!’
They just don’t get it, but humour isvery personal and some people
find things funny and some don’t.
There’s no golden rule, you just
have to connect with the people
who enjoy it and that’s what’s
happened with Hold the Sunset.You’ll be seen next as former PM
Harold Wilson in the third series
of Netflix’s royal drama The
Crown. What was that like?
I admire Harold Wilson and the
more I researched, the more I saw
what a remarkable person he was.
He was around at the birth of the
EU, or Common Market, so
I hope he’ll be re-evaluated in
the present political climate!
Filming was amazing and I did
most of my stuff with Olivia
Colman as the Queen. It is just
a privilege to be in such a show.
Caren Clark