E4’s PHONESHOP is making a return to our small screen this week, and we have to say we can not wait to catch up with our lovable rogues at Sutton’s best phone shop. A stand out character on the show is nice but dim manager Lance, played by Martin Trenaman, who you might also know as Simon’s dad in another E4 smash THE INBETWEENERS. We sat down with Trenaman to talk about series three, the show’s improv and if after three series, does he actually know about the phones he is talking about…
As series two ended, we saw that everybody was getting headhunted. How does that affect Lance as we enter series three?
Well Lance wants to keep his team together, he just wants an easy life. He hasn’t got an easy life at home with Shelley, so he wants an easy life at work and he wants to keep that team together. Particularly the boys, especially Ashley and Jerwayne, he needs them desperately. There is a point where one of them tries to leave, and it’s quite a soulful scene, and he almost questions it – like “you should stay here really”. He doesn’t want to break up the family.
The series two finale had some great moments between Lance and Razz. What was it like working with Kayvan Novak?
Oh he’s brilliant. He’s a great actor, we did a tiny bit of improvisation more than everybody else –laughs- but it was great working with him. They were quite hard scenes because Razz is quite a force of nature, and it was honestly quite terrifying. But he personally was delightful.
The show has an ‘additional material by the cast’ credit. How has the improvisation progressed as the series have gone on?
Well we do a lot of workshop stuff, so a lot of the improvisation actually gets fed into the script, so when we’re on set we’re just doing the script really. But on top of that Phil will always put his arm around you and say “Why don’t we just mess about a little bit?” and often them scenes are used, so we do have a contribution to that. It’s to Phil’s credit that we get a credit.
The show had a bit of a cult following at the beginning, but now has become a big part of the E4 line up. What is the reaction like now?
Yeah I think initially people were slightly scared off with the rogue talk. But actually those boys aren’t scary really, and you see over the two series you see their vulnerability. I think if you scratch on the surface its kind of an old sitcom in a way because in reality it’s about a family and I’m the dad and I’ve just all of these bloody awful children to keep in place. The thing we’ve realised is that each series has really grown and now we’re getting a great showing on Channel 4 on a Friday night (Channel 4 has been airing the previous series of PHONESHOP before the new series starts) so I think people have started to really know the show which is brilliant you know? We all get stopped quite a lot for PHONESHOP in the street and there’s a lot of love there.
PHONESHOP films on location. Have you ever had a situation where a member of the public actually thought it was a real phone shop?
Oh that’s happened on every series! In fact on the first series Javone Prince, who plays Jerwayne, very nearly sold a guy a phone and he made up a deal on the spot and the bloke very nearly bought it. It was all on camera as well, the camera man started filming it and we had a whole crew around him there was about 40 people, microphones around, and he still didn’t realise it was not a real phone shop. It was astonishing.
Have you actually learned anything about phones while playing Lance?
Absolutely nothing…not a thing. They are mostly props in there; in fact the props guy actually has to talk me through the phone to show me how to use it on screen. I haven’t got a clue how to use them. I know how to use mine but they gave me this phone that I was completely unfamiliar with and there was a shot over my shoulder where I have to take a photo on it and I’d use it and they’d go “No it’s not that button it’s that button” and I think “Oh f**king hell I don’t know!” –laughs-
So what’s next for you? You also write as well as act…
Well I’m currently in Dublin shooting MOONFLEET with Ray Winstone, Ben Chaplin and Aneurin Bernard and that’s a complete departure. It is a big 18th century adventure smuggling romp for Sky1 and I think it’s going to be on around Christmas Day. IAnd then I go back and I do a CBBC sitcom –laughs- so it’s from running around castles to a grumpy neighbour! For writing I have 8 OUT OF TEN CATS DOES COUNTDOWN, I’ve just done a bit on that. I’ve also been writing for the new series of NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS as well, I’ll be doing that again in October.
PHONESHOP SERIES THREE RETURNS TO E4 25th JULY. FOLLOW @Phoneshoptweets FOR MORE INFO
