Q&A with David Hargreaves, ‘Winnie’

How did you feel when you first read the script for Make That Movie and what made you want to get involved? 

Well, I thought it was completely off the wall. I thought, you know, they're all mad… Particularly Sam! I did love the whole premise of shooting a movie in three days. Shooting the first episode was just crazy. We went out on the road in a housing estate to recruit people to be in the film, people we hadn’t met… bizarre! The other thing that attracted me was working with stand-up comics, you can’t say no can you? 

Tell me about your role in Make That Movie – what’s it like playing Winnie and how would you describe him?

Sam gave me a bit of a backstory for Winnie. It’s a bit of a question mark over Winnie because he used to be quite high up as a cinematographer and worked with the likes of Steven Spielberg. His last movie was 35 years ago, and two people died on set. Nobody knows why and Winnie hadn’t worked as a cinematographer since. I don’t know what he was doing during those 35 years but perhaps he was in a lab processing film or something like that. He’s not been allowed near a camera for 35 years so he’s obviously cheap! I don’t think Winnie understands half of what’s going on at any one time, he’s just out of the loop. I loved playing him.

What was the filming process like in general? Were there moments where you weren’t sure if something was scripted, improvised, or just… happening?

I mean, you always have a sort of general guidance of words, and we always got back to the script in some form or another. There was one memorable scene in particular in the care home. One of the elder gentlemen took a real exception to Winne and called him out for a fight. There was nothing Winnie could do about it, I’m not sure why, but he felt like he had to go through with it. Anyway, we had this boxing match arranged which I managed to lose. The show was full of scenes like that, one was shot in a bog, would you believe? Sam was full of brilliant ideas, and it was just up my street. I had a ball. 

The series wasn’t shot in order, which was fine as each episode has its own independent story. Sam also had a specific technique of throwing the story to us, for us to play with, so it was quite an exciting way of working. 

Tell me about the rest of the cast – what was it like working with everyone?

Helen, Lara and Aaron were a complete joy to work with. Helen and I had an ongoing joke about her being Helen Mirren, Aaron is just deadpan and Lara is just a boiled over kettle… There’s just so much energy. I thought it was just a privilege to work with them. I had worked with Lenny Rush previously but thought he was just brilliant in this series. 

What do you hope audiences take away from watching Make That Movie?

I hope they ask for a second series. That would be nice.

Finally, can you describe your own movie idea in a couple of sentences? 

My favourite idea is the Good Idea Shop. These two double glazed window salesmen didn’t have much work coming in so they put an ad in the paper saying ‘have you ever had a good idea? I’m sure you have. Has it ever been ripped off? I’m sure it has. Register your idea with the good idea shop. We will ensure that your idea is never stolen, plagiarised, used in any way, without your permission and without you benefitting financially’. They put that all in the paper and they get so many responses. They become extremely successful by profiting off of everyone’s ideas and by series seventy-nine, they decide to set up the Good Ideas Party!