Jimmy Nail hopes for a hit with BBC comedy series

Nov 14 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

NORTH EAST actor Jimmy Nail is to make a comeback in a new BBC comedy series. He will star in BBC One’s Parents of the Band as Phil Palmer, a former Eighties pop musician with a solitary hit to his name.

Produced by Charlie Hanson, who was one member of the team behind Extras, the show follows a band made up of three teenage boys whose parents who are determined to live vicariously through them.

It was created by Nail and Tarquin Gotch – who have previously collaborated on the television series Crocodile Shoes and the movie Still Crazy.

Nail said: “It’s lovely to be returning to BBC One with a brand new show. Half-hour comedy is something I’ve not done before as such it offers a new challenge.

“We have a wonderful team – some of them new acquaintances, some old friends – and we’ll be working hard to ensure the end product is special.”

Jimmy Nail has combined the comeback with his ongoing involvement with a cancer trust. Following his performance in a charity concert in the North East last year, he invited a group of young former cancer patients to create a “making of” film on the show’s set.

Ray Laidlaw, the former Lindisfarne drummer, who works with the Teenage Cancer Trust, said the idea had come about after Jimmy had performed in a concert he organised for the trust last year.

“He was really impressed with the young people and wanted to do something else,” he said.

“We got some funding from Northern Film and Media and the Teenage Cancer Trust put the rest up. We let the kids loose and they did a fantastic job. The BBC are thrilled with it and it’s going to be on the DVD.”

The production team comprised five young North-Easterners – Melissa Cavanagh, Rachel Drew, Catherine Rhatigan, Jenny Craney and Stew Simpson, all relative novices to TV production.

Stew Simpson, 25, one of the camera crew, said: “It was brilliant. We were very nervous and excited but it came off really well.”

They were given advance access to scripts and treatments, planned the production, then interviewed cast members, producer, director and crew on-set at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

Jimmy Nail was full of praise for the youngsters, saying: “Well done, guys, and thank you – you can be rightly proud of your work.”

Their finished film will be shown at Newcastle’s Tyneside Cinema, in the Digital Lounge, next Thursday at 10am.

Meanwhile, the first episode of Parents of the Band is set to be broadcast on Friday November 28 at 8.30pm.