00:03Sam is very good at his job. He's quite serious. He's quite straight and not got a fantastic
00:21sense of humour. He's a bit of a dick, actually. Can't say that, can I?
00:27The casting of Sam was one of the most difficult things we've ever done, I think, in terms of casting
00:33our shows, because Sam is in every single scene. So you need an actor who is able to sustain that,
00:40who has both the temperament, the intelligence and all those things, and, you know, can engage with an audience and
00:45make them believe in his journey. And I don't think there are very many actors who could do that.
00:50And why John Simm, for me, was so perfect was that he is in so many ways every man, actually,
00:56John Simm, but he does it with such particular charm and truth that you just want to be his friend,
01:03you want to spend time with him.
01:04And I wanted to see him laugh, I wanted to see him cry. And I think that range that John,
01:10as an actor, has between being able to do the comedy, that comic timing, and take himself not too seriously,
01:15and at the same time give us that really dark stuff where, you know, Sam is a man lost on
01:21his own in the middle of a coma, or is he mad, or is he back in time?
01:24And, you know, to give us that truth, I think, is a very difficult thing to do.
01:27John Simm, he's a nice guy, but unfortunately, he's a United fan. What more can I say?
01:37John Simm, as Sam, I mean, I wrote, when I wrote one of the later drafts, when we were at
01:44Channel 4, developing this thing with Channel 4, I wrote with John Simm in mind.
01:48And I knew, I just, I wrote him in mind, but also knew we wouldn't get him. I thought, well,
01:53he won't do a show, he won't do a series like this.
01:56And he's just in the state of play, then?
01:57He's in the state of play, and as, you know, we know, John is a very, you know, he's a
02:03right ponce, as John, and he does the really high-end stuff.
02:06And I just didn't think he'd come and slum it down with us in series telly.
02:11But I wrote with him in mind, because I couldn't think of anyone better to play.
02:16I knew John would give us that contained, Sam is a contained character.
02:19He's, you know, he's got something jammed up there good, and he's contained, but he's also sympathetic.
02:25And there's plenty of character actors who could give you the contained, jammed-up sort of character, but they couldn't
02:31give you the sympathy and the intelligence and the wit.
02:33And they couldn't make all those things play at the same time.
02:36John can do that.
02:37John's the most instinctive actor I think I've ever seen working.
02:42He's just instinctive.
02:45And when I heard he was considering it, I was just, well, you know, at least it's great that he's
02:50considering it.
02:51And then he said yes, and...
02:53He's a very precise actor, too.
02:55Incredibly precise.
02:55So after the read-through, I have to confess, on the train back home, I said to Matt, I'm not
02:59absolutely sure about John, because he's so quiet and precise.
03:04And even sometimes during the rushes, I think, oh, not quite.
03:08And then when I saw it cut together, he blew me away, because he was thinking so precisely about the
03:12scenes.
03:12And he has a fantastic gift for comedy that is very quiet and sort of set back against the rhythm
03:20of the scene sometimes.
03:21And until it's all cut together, you can't see it, which is very rare quality.
03:26Yeah.
03:26And I'm not sure how often he actually knows he's doing that.
03:29I think he just feels his way in and just does it.
03:31And it's just great.
03:32And you can see so much going on behind his eyes.
03:34There's a great scene in a later episode, and he has to go from surprise to fear to humour to,
03:43I'm going to do something about this, all in about two or three seconds.
03:46And he does it all with his eyes.
03:48And, I mean, it's just there.
03:50You can see all the thought processes going on in his head.
03:52You can imagine what he's thinking.
03:53And that's great acting.
04:18You can see all the thought processes going on in his head.
04:25John, I think he's, although obviously as a person he's, you know, handsome and talented and all these actually, he's
04:34like, he's an everyman.
04:35People can relate to him.
04:37And people have sort of followed his career through the 90s, you know, from lakes and human traffic.
04:42And here we are now.
04:44And I think people are going to be sort of keen to see how he's matured in his style.
04:50And, you know, and it is, I think it's quite a, I mean, I don't know all of John's career
04:56at all, but this is quite sort of a square role from whatever else I know about his acting career.
05:07You know, Sam's quite a straight guy and he likes his rules and his pernickety and so it's interesting watching
05:16him doing something like that.
05:18Before I started working with him, I hadn't seen anything that he'd done.
05:21And then I, once we started, I watched him in traffic and loved it and loved John's performance in it.
05:28But it's completely different from his performance in this.
05:31Without doing all the back slapping stuff, he's a top pro in his job.
05:39He's, yeah, not that kind of pro.
05:42But no, he's a nice fella and he's always line perfect really, isn't he?
05:48Yeah.
05:48And really good.
05:51Excellent, been in great stuff.
05:55I've never liked him.
05:56It was kind of a weird thing that I had because it was, it's so, the storyline is so ridiculous
06:02that at first I just thought this is never going to work.
06:07And, and that is what actually became attractive, attractive to me after a while because I thought if I can,
06:12if I can make this believable, then, you know, that is a real challenge.
06:17Because it's, when you, even when you describe the storyline and what it's about to people, it sounds insane.
06:24And that's what attracted me to it.
06:25I just thought, you know, we can pull this off, then it'll, it'll be quite weird.
06:30It'll be a mad show.
06:32Sam and Jean are like chalk and cheese.
06:35I mean, literally from, literally from two different time zones.
06:40The relationship develops, because they become really good friends.
06:46Within the constraints of Sam thinking that this is all a dream anyway, and none of it's real.
06:53He actually learns a lot from Jean.
06:57He learns, like, he's, he takes a lot of his humanity and instinct and he's very shocked at the way
07:04he works.
07:05He's, well, he's very shocked at the way everybody works in the 70s.
07:09I'll do your deal.
07:11I'll listen to your little tape machine now and again.
07:14Okay?
07:15As long as you, just sometimes, listen to this.
07:20Okay?
07:20But he learns a lot from Jean, and I think Jean learns a lot from him.
07:23And I think as the, as the, as the series develops, they kind of, they kind of morph into each
07:30other.
07:31It's, it's, it's a weird relationship.
07:33At the beginning, they just can't stand each other.
07:36And then by the end of it, they're, they're good friends.
07:39Even though Sam or Jean, I don't think, would, would admit.
07:42Oi, Romeo.
07:43I worked with Phil on Clocking Off, the first ever episode of Clocking Off.
07:47And State of Play.
07:49He's the policeman in State of Play.
07:51Yeah, it was, it was, later on, they told me he was doing it.
07:53And I was, I tried everything I could to get him fired.
07:57And to them, for them to change their mind.
07:58But they wouldn't listen to me, so they've only got themselves to blame.
08:11And he's Sam's shoulder to cry on, and she's the one that listens to him and doesn't think he's going
08:16mad.
08:17And he's got a very, um, modern attitude towards women.
08:23And, um, she's kind of taken aback by that, because nobody, nobody treats her like, like him.
08:30Is Sam in 1973, or is he in a coma?
08:34Both.
08:36I don't know.
08:36I don't know.
08:37I don't know.
08:37I don't know.
08:37I don't know.
