‘I WAS ONE OF THE NAUGHTY BOYS’
I
t has been almost five months since
Roger Michell died, and Jim Broad-
bent still finds it hard to talk about
his friend. “I can hardly speak with-
out welling up,” says the actor, who
worked twice with the acclaimed
director of Notting Hill and Enduring
Love. “But he was very special.” His
voice cracks over that last word.
The Duke, starring Broadbent, will
be Michell’s final work. He died in
September, aged 65, and the film would
have been out months ago but for the
pandemic. “It’s a real sadness that he
is not around to see people enjoy it,”
Broadbent says.
Michell’s swan song is a sweet film
based on a stranger-than-fiction true
story. Broadbent is Kempton Bunton,
a working-class hero fighting for the
rights of the common man, who is
accused of stealing Goya’s Portrait of
the Duke of Wellington from the National
Gallery. Helen Mirren plays his long-
suffering wife. It is Frank Capra meets
the British underdog — Broadbent
thinks it is Michell’s best film.
A decent way to bow out, then, and
Broadbent, who is 72, has been con-
templating his own exit too. “I was
thinking what different newspapers
will say when I die,” he says. “The Sun
will have, ‘Slater — dead’.” This refers
to DCI Roy Slater, whom he played in
Only Fools and Horses. “The Mail will
say, ‘Harry Potter actor dies’.” He
starred in two of those films. “And The
Guardian will say, ‘Mike Leigh stalwart
dies’,” he says, chuckling. Broadbent
has made four films with Leigh, most
notably Topsy-Turvy and Another Year.
What else in Broadbent’s back cata-
logue is he proud of? Working forwrote Dull Margaret, a graphic novel
about a “strong woman striding deter-
minedly across a violent landscape”.
It is a long way from Paddington, and
Broadbent wanted to play Margaret in
a film. “But I couldn’t get money,” he
admits. “Then I got too old.”
The big appeal of The Duke is that
Broadbent is front and centre. “That is
very unusual at my age — mostly it’s a
young person’s business,” he says.
True, but films about the over-
sixties do seem like an
untapped market? “Yes, there
is the grey pound. But protag-
onists tend to be written by
younger people and they
aren’t so interested, yet,
in older stories. Having
been the most castable
person in the world
— white, middle
class, middle-aged
and English-
speaking —
suddenly as
you become
older, youbecome part
of a minority.”
Next for Broadbent
is Amazon’s English-lan-
guage remake of Call My
Agent! — the hit Netflix show
about actors and their handlers.
Cameos will include Helena Bon-
ham Carter and it’s written by John
Morton, responsible for the acerbic
and idiot savant wonder of W1A.
“I play the agency boss who dies
in the first episode!” Broadbent says,
beaming. It’s not a spoiler, more the
set-up, and a direct lift from the
French series. “But I really enjoyed
that week. I was king, then I was out
of it. You can’t compare it to the
French one. It has its own charm and
is in London. It’s a different world.”
The French original celebrates the
absurdity of the entertainment
industry, with its prima donnas and
paupers, but also the passion. By
skewering the arts it reveals how much
they mean to us. Broadbent agrees. He
has led a very fulfilled life. “The work I
love is when it is a laugh but, also, taken
seriously,” he says, smiling. “If you get
that balance right, it’s magic.” cThe Duke is in cinemas from Feb 25Martin Scorsese and Woody
Allen (“A strange one”), plus Iris,
with Judi Dench, for which he won
an Oscar, The Iron Lady, as Denis
Thatcher, and Paddington, as a bear’s
best friend. It is a long, varied career
that started in fringe theatre in the
1970s. A surprise, perhaps, for a man
best known for his cosy roles, but
Broadbent is at his most delighted
when talking about his early days on
stage. “Lots of nudity and swearing,” he
says, grinning. At school in the 1960s in
Reading, he was one of the naughty
boys. “And the theatre was dangerous
— and offensive.” He sighs. “But an
awful lot of people are now cautious.
If they say something inadvisable,
it might crop up later. That’s horrible.”
He is not sure what he would do if
he were younger, starting out again.
“I don’t get the feeling there’s great
risk-taking in British film at the
moment,” he says. “I’d probably try
and get some alternative comedian
thing going.” Or be an out-there graphic
novelist. A few years ago BroadbentThe Oscar-winner Jim
Broadbent stars in
his late friend Roger
Michell’s final film —
and now he can’t help
wondering how
newspapers would
mark his own death
GAVIN BOND/PATHEIt’s unusual at my age to
be front and centre of a
film — it’s a youngperson’s
businessIn the frame Jim Broadbent
and, above, Helen Mirren
in The DukeJONATHAN
DEAN
6 February 2022 15