Simon Farnaby interview: ‘Doing another Paddington film was just too much to bear’

Simon Farnaby does not, to my knowledge, have a very hard stare. Nor does he have a predilection for marmalade sandwiches or blue duffel coats. And he’s from Darlington, not darkest Peru. But the 47-year-old actor and writer, who returns to our screens next week in the superb BBC sitcom Ghosts, has a lot of Paddington about him. Kindness, warmth and – as befits the man who co-wrote Paddington 2, perhaps the most perfect screen adaptation of any children’s book – a serious knack for entertaining children.

It didn’t start out that way, with Farnaby a stalwart of the Noughties British comedy scene, appearing in The Mighty Boosh, Jam & Jerusalem and a host of edgy sketch shows. However, a long stint as a core member of Bafta-winning Horrible Histories opened a new, younger audience for Farnaby. As well as writing a draft of Robert Zemeckis’s remake of Pinocchio and an adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree, he has written his first children’s book, The Wizard in My Shed: The Misadventures of Merdyn the Wild, about a little girl who befriends a warlock from the Dark Ages (“It’s one of the best things I have done creatively, plus I could test it on my daughter. Kids don’t lie, if they don’t find something funny, they don’t laugh.”) And then, of course, there’s Paddington.

Speaking from his north London home, where he lives with his wife, actress Claire Keelan (best-known as Steve Coogan’s long-suffering PA in The Trip), and their daughter, Eve, six, Farnaby says Paddington 2’s success lay in its positive message.

“The books [by the late Michael Bond] are all about kindness and good deeds and not judging people. As Aunt Lucy says, ‘Look for the good in people and you’ll find it’. We wanted that philosophy.”

One of the film’s many highlights is the performance of Hugh Grant, playing the pompous villain and outrageous thespian Phoenix Buchanan, a role which has helped fuel the reappraisal of the former floppy-haired fop as a serious actor. Was Grant their first choice? “We actually called the character ‘Hugh Grant’ when we were writing the scripts,” Farnaby chuckles.

“We wanted a villain – someone famous on Paddington’s street whom people would believe over Paddington. British and well-thought-of, but devious. So we thought an actor would be perfect. [But] when we sent Hugh the script, we thought we’d better change the character’s name, because he might not find it very flattering.”

Farnaby will not, however, be involved in the forthcoming Paddington 3. How can he turn his back on the UK’s most beloved bear? “It was just too much bear. Paul King [who co-wrote and directed the first two Paddington films] and I worked really hard to make Paddington 2 better than the original, and it was a success, so everyone said ‘Let’s do another’. But we just can’t do three.”

No matter, Farnaby has plenty to keep him busy, not least Ghosts, which returns for a second series on Monday and begins production on a third early next year. The comedy, written by and starring Farnaby and his Horrible Histories alumni – Mathew Baynton, Jim Howick, Martha Howe-Douglas, Ben Willbond and Laurence Rickard – and co-starring a gaggle of young British talent, is a breath of fresh air in a television comedy landscape filled with dark “sadcoms”.

The knockabout action centres on a gaggle of spooks who have all, over the centuries, lived and died in a country pile, and who still haunt the building. Series two wrapped in the nick of time. “We lost one day’s filming to coronavirus right at the end,” says Farnaby. “We joked it would be the only thing on TV and we’d clean up at the 2021 Baftas.”

That Ghosts works so well as a straightforward, inclusive sitcom is no surprise, given the team’s years honing their craft on Horrible Histories, a show they fell into it. “We’d all been doing quite grown-up comedy, but then our agents asked if we wanted to audition for this kids show,” he says, “and we all felt there was no pressure, it would just be a laugh. And our audience wouldn’t rip us to shreds.”

In Ghosts, he plays a late Tory MP, Julian, who, as befitting his tabloid-worthy death, parades around with no trousers on. The demise brings to mind Stephen Milligan, but did Farnaby have any politicians in mind for his disgraced blustering MP? “I always used to do a bad impression of Tony Blair, which made me laugh. I could only say one word: services. Blair says “suhvusses”. He has these strange vowel sounds. So it’s a bit Blair, a bit David Cameron. There’s a bit of Heseltine in Julian’s hair, too.”

While Ghosts is not a sitcom that’s ever likely to be “cancelled” by any politically correct agenda, the writers have enjoyed putting more risqué jokes in the scripts, with the un-PC Julian a lightning rod for the naughtier gags. Do even the writers of an amiably silly ghost sitcom need to tread on eggshells in this febrile atmosphere? “It’s something we’re very aware of. We basically try to avoid upsetting anyone generally, but it’s hard in comedy. You just have to be careful to know where the joke is.”     

Series two of Ghosts begins on Monday on BBC One at 8.30pm