Interview - Tony Jordan
'The idea behind the new series was to give Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller) a new challenge. After the demise of Echo Beach it was pretty clear that Jonathan’s position would be under threat. The idea was for him to try and pull the rabbit out of the bag by coming up with something extraordinary, which turns out to be Renaissance.
We came up with Renaissance which was the most ground breaking, startling, concept for a new show: Zombies on ITV1. We thought it was really clever and really great, and then some six months later I saw Dead Set come out and I was gutted because I thought we had something unique. I still think it's unique but obviously Dead Set put a slight spanner in the works!
It was an absolute joy working with the cast again. The thing about the first series is that I was writing blind. I had a blank sheet of paper and all these people in my head. When it's cast and you actually hand those characters over to the actors and watch how they’ve developed them it just makes writing the second series so much easier.
Jonathan Pope is an amalgamation of different characters that you have come across in your career, but strangely enough nobody ever sees themselves in Jonathan Pope. I had one person who is probably the main part of Jonathan Pope coming up and asking me who it was based on. There was no way I could tell him obviously. It is top secret.
I think my favourite scene is when Nancy is sacking Jonathan in the first episode. He assumes there is a hidden agenda. In Jonathan’s world he can’t believe he has been sacked through incompetence or anything else, because that doesn’t fit in with his self image. He assumes that Nancy wants to sleep with him, so he drops his trousers and says: "Kneel before the Pope" at which point she beats the sh*t out of him. That is my favourite moment.
We set the bar quite high with Echo Beach by getting Jason Donovan, Martine McCutcheon and Hugo Speer. It was a fantastic cast. The characters I created for Renaissance were a young, single Lara Croft character and a middle-aged guy with kids and Kelly Brook and Alan Dale were dream casting really. The fact we managed to get them was great.
If we did get re-commissioned for a third series I would absolutely love Jonathan Pope to make a musical. I think if he created a television musical it would be fantastic - hilarious.'
