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King of the 'heap
Robert Llewellyn's career was kick-started when he was kicked out of school. His expulsion, he concedes, was partly his own fault. 'I was a ghastly, horrible kid at 16,' he says. 'But the teaching was pretty terrible too.' Realising he had to get his act together, Robert became a professional hippie.
The rest, as they say, is history. Today Robert not only presents the best scrap-related programme on television, he is also a successful comedy actor, probably best known for his role as the rubber-faced robot Kryten in Red Dwarf.
Plug the product
Robert also spends a good deal of his time on literary activities. He wrote the seminal Behind the Scenes at "Scrapheap Challenge" about the 2001 series. Other factual books include The Man in the Rubber Mask, a comic memoir of his time in Red Dwarf, and Thin He Was and Filthy-Haired, about the first year he lived away from the parental home, when he was just 17, doing the washing-up for the future rulers of England at Oxford University.
His first novel, The Man on Platform Five, is now in paperback and is being developed into a film, set in New York. His second, Punchbag, received rave reviews. A third, Sudden Wealth, came out last year. It too will soon be made into a film. His new novel, Brother Nature, is set in the world of cybernetics and is published by Flame. Robert is also experimenting with an online novel, you can read the first eight chapters at Blue Helmet.
Robert has just completed a nationwide tour of his new solo show, a comedy software presentation. The show is called WomanWizard and focuses on a software product that helps men understand women.
Robert has also been presenting a new BBC series called Hollywood Science. With his co-presenter, scientist Jonathon Hare, he looks at the big action sequences, stunts, tricks and special effects from famous Hollywood movies and tests them out to see if they are plausible… or even possible from a real-world scientific viewpoint.
You can find out more about Robert's books and other projects at his own website: www.llew.co.uk
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THE BIG QUESTIONS
How are you?
I am very well but suffering from almost perpetual jet lag. I am commuting to LA every other week at the moment for Junk/Scrap specials.
How’s your car running?
Servo's gone, had to bleed my clutch fluid, the spare-wheel mount is completely wrecked. Other than that, it's fine.
What's your favourite CD?
White Stripes, this week …
What's your favourite food?
Fresh tuna salad.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being at home with my kids when they are being funny and charming. Two days a year, if I'm lucky.
What is your idea of perfect scrappiness?
When it's dark, everyone's tired and something really big and loud starts to actually work.
ABOUT SCRAPHEAP CHALLENGE
What's the gossip about Scrapheap 2003?
It has to be the best yet, seriously. Really good teams, really funny, amazing new ideas for machines and Lisa is an absolute scream. Great dirty fun was had by all.
What was your favourite challenge this year?
Has to be the one in which the teams built jet engines from scratch. It's the loudest thing I've ever heard on Scrapheap. Amazing.
What are the common mistakes teams make when they are competing in Scrapheap Challenge?
Over confidence at the start, followed by total collapse of confidence at about seven in the evening. That's very common but the really good teams don't get despondent, they keep plugging away.
What is the most important attribute that teams need to succeed in Scrapheap Challenge?
They need to know each other very well and get on under pressure. Team dynamics is what makes the yard spin, where everyone has a job and gets on with it. If three people watch another one do something, there's always trouble ahead.
How do you relax on the 'heap?
Quite a lot of smutty talk between Ben the cameraman, Lisa and I. Drinking too much coffee, watching people make things.
Is it true that you have started wearing your Scrapheap outfit when you go down the shops?
That is so not true.
Do you think they should have looked for Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Scrapheap?
Yes, there's all kinds of things hidden away on that yard, it's the first place I'd look.
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