Christopher Biggins discusses working with Ray Cooney and Red Dye

As Ray Cooney’s farce Run For Your Wife prepares for its DVD release on September 16th, we had the great pleasure of speaking to one of the stars of the film and National Treasure; Christopher Biggins.

The television personality – who plays the overly flamboyant character Bobby, speaks of his friendship with Cooney, as well his own decision to ignore some of the negative press surrounding this title.

Seeing a bright future for the film on DVD, Biggins also speaks about pantomime, reality TV shows, and looks back fondly over what can only be described as an illustrious career. 

You spend the vast majority of this film covered in red dye… That must have been fun?

It was wet. It’s great fun though, we did have a lot of fun. We had a wonderful cast too, and Ray Cooney, who is an institution of his own, is the most brilliant writer and director and he wrote this play, which is one of the most famous comedies ever written, and he is extraordinary. The two male leads, Danny Dyer and Neil Morrissey, are wonderful, as are Sarah Harding and Denise Van Outen, so we had a very good cast. Ray Cooney has been working for so long in the business, that he had about 120 of his showbiz friends in the film, so it was amazing.

Have you known Ray a long time then?

I have, I’ve known him for a long, long time, but I’ve never worked with him. I’ve known him socially, so it was really nice when he asked me to play this character, it was really good fun.

Bobby is a very flamboyant character – he must have been a fun one to play?

He really was, he really was. There were no limits to how far we could go, and we did go quite a way. When it was over we all went to the premiere in Leicester Square at a big, big cinema and the place was full and the audience loved it, and I think the critics missed something because they really slated it, very, very wrongly I fear. It wasn’t trendy, which is a shame because it is very, very funny and the public love it, they really, really love it.

Is criticism something you pay much attention to?

I’ve been in the business for such a long time that I don’t care what the critics say, as long as they spell my name right. I felt sorry for Ray and all his producers, who had put so much into it. Also the cast – they don’t deserve the criticism that they got, certainly from the point of view that we’ve been showing this film and talking to audiences, and they absolutely love it. I mean, they really, really do – they have a good laugh. It’s a shame that some of the critics nowadays forget about the public they’re reviewing for. They’re reviewing a lot of the time for themselves, which is not necessarily good.

The film didn’t make a huge amount at the box office though, but are you confident that this is a film that can find its home on DVD?

I think so. I think the DVD will do terribly well for them. Often films never have a theatrical showing in the cinema and go straight to the DVD – so at least we had a showing, and the Odeon Leicester Square was a wonderful place to start, and it went to other cinemas across the country, so it’s done that. That’s what Ray wanted in a way, for it to be seen by a lot of people, and now the DVD will be seen by a lot of people, hopefully.

Did Ray allow much space for improvisation?

Oh there was, absolutely. He didn’t treat it like Shakespeare, word-for-word. Especially for film where you have to open it up so much, you know, in the stage show you don’t see any of Lionel Blair dyeing the dress, in fact, Lionel’s character isn’t even in the play, all you see is my character coming down covered in red dye. Whereas in the film, you see everything.  We spent three days just covered in red dye. Very uncomfortable, but very funny.

I assume all of these pre-established relationships amongst the cast benefited the film?

Oh I think it did, and that comes through. Everybody sort of knew each other. I mean, I Lionel and his wife and his children and we speak once a month about something funny that’s happened to us, or a joke or what have you, and it was lovely to work with him, he was enchanting.  Everybody has worked with somebody at least once. The only person I hadn’t worked with was Sarah Harding, but everyone else I knew well and had worked with. It was fantastic.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m doing television, pantomime in Hull at the end of the year in Jack and the Beanstalk, and if all goes well, another Ray Cooney play, directed by Ray, in London.

So you wait all this time to work with him once, and then you work with him twice!

I know, exactly. It’s extraordinary, but I think it will be terrific, it’s a very funny play called Two Into One, about two politicians having affairs in the same hotel and they get caught out. It’s a political farce and very funny.

Some people dread the winter – I imagine you must really look forward to it?

I do, I love it. I’ve never been to Hull before so looking forward to going there, it’s a gorgeous theatre and I hear very good things. But you know, I am always away for Christmas, all over the country, Plymouth, Wolverhampton, Birmingham… But it’s lovely and I love it. I’ve got so used to it. People ask if I miss Christmas but I don’t – I have Christmas Day off and I go to my godchildren’s parents in Oxfordshire and we have a lovely day. Then it’s back on Boxing Day for two very important performances.

Finally, for someone who has done so much work in panto, on TV, the big screen, radio, even Dancing on Ice – what’s the one thing you’d most like to be remembered for?

This may surprise you, but I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. It was a life changing experience. I loved every moment of it, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, and I’ll never do it again. It was unbelievably tough, but to win something like that was extraordinary, and gave me a whole new fan-base of young people was exhilarating for me. I mean, you know, how old was I then? 63? I don’t know. It was fantastic – to find that love and affection, that was the high spot of my career. Though there have been many – I was on holiday recently and somebody asked me what I’d done and I started talking and it almost felt like I was reading from a novel, I’ve had the most extraordinary, fantastic career and I’ve loved every moment of it.

Do you ever pinch yourself?

I do, I do actually. It’s good to do that, no matter how old or how successful you may think you are. I give advice now to young actors and I say don’t do it – that’s the first thing I say. Because it’s not the job I started 40 odd years ago, it has changed unbelievably. I would hate to be a young actor now – I always qualify by saying that if you really want to do it then you have to really work hard and you have to rely, unfortunately, on fate, and being in the right place at the right time. It’s actually nothing to do with talent, talent helps enormously, but people get by with a lot less talent than you think.

Run For Your Wife Film Page | Run For Your Wife Review

RUN FOR YOUR WIFE COMES TO DVD ON MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER