Mackenzie Crook is no stranger to finding the comedy in eccentricity.
His breakthrough role as Gareth in The Office made the actor, who was born in Maidstone and brought up in the village of Sutton-at-Hone, near Dartford, synonymous with petty, eccentric pedantry.
Actor Mackenzie Crook, who was born and grew up in Kent, has created a new BBC comedy, Small Prophets. Picture: Chris Hershey
He, again, finds humour in the anomalous in his new series Small Prophets, in which he plays Gordon, the manager of a large DIY store.
Small Prophets is a comic tale of eccentric Michael Sleep, played by Pearce Quigley, who, since his partner Clea disappeared seven years ago, has lived a very ordinary life.
Michael works in the DIY store with Gordon and visits his dad, Brian, played by Sir Michael Palin, every afternoon.
When Brian shares an old recipe involving rainwater, horse manure, and more than a little alchemy, Michael sets out to create homunculi – magical prophesying spirits that can predict the future – in the hope they have the answer to his burning question: ‘Will I ever see Clea again?’
Ahead of the release, Mackenzie discusses why Small Prophets is set in Manchester and how animation contributes to the storytelling.
The Office star plays Gordon in the new show, which has been a decade in the making. Picture: Vishal Sharma/Hot Olives Productions Limited
YOU’VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS SHOW FOR ALMOST A DECADE. WHAT OBSTACLES DID YOU COME UP AGAINST?
The reason it took a long time is because I didn’t know quite what it was. I’d found this idea in an old book from the 19th century about this way to apparently create these spirits that could predict the future.
It fascinated me, and I reread it over and over, and I read it to my kids, and they loved this story of these crazy, weird creatures in jars of water, but I didn’t know how to use it.
So I just sat on that idea for a long time, and various other elements came together when I realised that I wanted to write something for Pearce Quigley and work with my friend Ainslie Henderson, who animated the creatures.
When those elements came together, I started to realise what the story might be and how it would look; it wasn’t a period piece, it would be set in the present day. I had the idea of a modern-day alchemist trying to create this medieval magic in his shed.
HOW DO YOU HOPE THIS SHOW WILL ENCOURAGE AUDIENCES TO REFLECT ON GRIEF AND TRAGEDY?
I’ve been really lucky in my life that I haven’t had too much grief or tragedy.
It’s not bereavement that Michael’s going through because he has convinced himself that Clea is still alive. He’s got a gut feeling that she’s still around and that he needs to find her. And so, more than anything, I think he lives with hope and optimism that he is going to find her.
I think Michael is an eternal optimist. It’s why, when his brother-in-law, Roy, wants to move on and assume that she’s not coming back, Michael won’t hear anything of it. He’s determined, he’s an optimistic character.
Small Prophets also stars Sir Michael Palin and Pearce Quigley. Picture: Matt Squire/Hot Olives Productions Limited
WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT FOR SMALL PROPHETS TO BE SET IN MANCHESTER?
Right from the outset, I wanted to write something with Pearce Quigley front and centre. He is from Manchester.
I wanted to work with Gill Isles, a producer whom I’ve worked with a few times before, and she’s also from that part of the country.
This is the first thing that I’ve made that wasn’t set in the countryside. It’s set in suburbia. I grew up in suburban Kent, but I imagine that the suburbia has the same vibe wherever it is in the country.
And to be honest, I don’t know that part of the country very well, so it was an opportunity to go there and find out about it and write something that isn’t set in the countryside, or in the south of England – it’s fascinating to me.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH ANIMATOR AINSLIE HENDERSON AND INCORPORATING ANIMATION INTO THE SERIES?
It was brilliant. It was one of my favourite parts. All of the animation takes place in the shed, so we shot all of those scenes first in a shed that they built in a studio, so that we could control the lighting.
We were figuring it out as we went along. I don’t think anything like this has been done for years. The actors were acting with these jars without anything in them. The animators then went away and animated the puppets, and composited them into the jars later on.
I was very determined not to use CGI, because I think you see so much CGI these days that people aren’t astounded by it anymore. And there’s something about the way these models move, that sort of slightly jerky movement.
You can tell that they’re real, that they’re physical things, rather than computer magic. And it works so well, they look extraordinary.
Small Prophets is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now and is shown weekly on Mondays on BBC Two.