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BBC to debut new comedy on iPlayer

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BBC Three will air series two of Jack Whitehall's Bad Education on iPlayer a week before it airs on TV as part of an online initiative.

Omid Djalili to star in 'The Shawshank Redemption'

Omid Djalili tells James Rampton why he’s tackling serious drama as well as stand-up at the Edinburgh Festival.

As unplayable, uncastable roles go, the one of Red in The Shawshank Redemption must be right up there. Frank Darabont’s 1994 epic about life in the ferociously brutal Shawshank Penitentiary has a claim to being the world’s most highly regarded film. (It has more than one million votes on the Internet Movie Database, averaging a startling 9.2 out of 10.) And the character of Red, the wise old convict who sets out believing that “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane” will forever be associated with one actor… Morgan Freeman. No one else will do.

It is this role, however, that comedian Omid Djalili is taking on in a new stage adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, opening in Edinburgh next month.

“I seem to be the go-to guy when no one has any idea who to cast,” Djalili says.

“It was like that when I did [Lasse Hallström’s 2005 film] Casanova with Heath Ledger. The producer said, 'Can you come and make something out of this part? He’s rich and classy, but a scumbag.’ I replied, 'Of course, that’s me!’”

Djalili though is bullish about the task ahead. “I’ve already done a similar thing when I took over from Rowan Atkinson as Fagin in the West End production of Oliver! You do your own take on the character,” he says. “I’m not going to do an impression of Morgan Freeman. People who play Hamlet don’t worry about Laurence Olivier’s performance. It’s irrelevant.

In Edinburgh, The Shawshank Redemption will be running in tandem with his stand-up show, Omid Djalili Live, which he says focuses this year on getting older. He is 47. But, despite his high profile as a stand-up – he has fronted two series of his own BBC One programme, The Omid Djalili Show, and recently won a new audience when he dived off the 10-metre board in ITV1’s preposterous celebrity diving show Splash! – Djalili says he is not worried how audiences will respond to him in such a serious part. “I like the idea of seeing performers in roles people would never have expected.”

When we meet, in an east London rehearsal room, he has just finished filming the role of the duplicitous diamond dealer Aldobrand, opposite Ray Winstone’s roguish Elzevir, in a new Sky One adaptation of James Meade Falkner’s classic swashbuckler Moonfleet.

He’s full of colourful anecdotes about the experience. “The other day we were filming a fight scene, and Ray said, 'I only feel like I am working when I’m in a fight’. Even before the first punch was thrown, he chucked in the line, 'Leave it!’ So I asked him, 'Are you now going to say, 'You slag!’?’ 'Yeah, but not until the last take!’ He just does it to entertain the crowd.”

In the past Djalili, who is married with three children, has often appeared to be a comedian with an agenda, eager to weave into his material political statements. Now, he says, “I’ve realised people find a lot of things boring. I recently did a joke about Michael Gove, and as soon as I said his name, I felt the audience turn off. I used to think that you could shatter people’s lives with comedy. But I now know that it doesn’t work like that.

“I’m not here to shake anyone up; I’m here to entertain. There’s no sense that people will be transformed by my act. If you set out to do that, the laughs are considerably fewer. My wife says, 'God, when you start getting serious, that’s the worst – I cringe. You might as well raise your fist and shout, “Change things now!” I like it when you keep it light. Just sing and dance. Don’t speak!’ She’s right. I don’t want an earnest clap from the audience. I’d much rather have a laugh.”

Next up, Djalili, who was born in Chelsea to Iranian parents, will be appearing in a movie as Cleopas, the uncle of the seven-year-old Jesus. “It’s great,” he enthuses. “This period has never been tackled on film before. It’s a cast of unknowns. In fact, I nearly didn’t get the role because the producers said I was too well-known. So I had to tell them, 'Really, no one knows me. I’m not Russell Brand or Simon Pegg. The Mummy? I just did it for the money. Gladiator? That was just four minutes on screen.’ I’ve never played down my achievements so much.”

For all his hectic activity, does Djalili ever worry about being perceived as a jack of all trades and master of none? “Do you mean I’m rubbish at everything?” he says, with typical self-effacement. “No, for me, if you have a chance to flourish in different mediums, it’s great. Variety is the spice of life.”

Edinburgh Festival 2013: The Three Lions, interview

What happened when Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham got together to promote England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup? An anarchic Edinburgh Fringe play goes behind the scenes of a disastrous campaign

“If David Beckham and David Cameron were alone in a hotel room what would they talk about?” asks William Gaminara between bites of Bircher muesli. “I mean, what do they say after they’ve done the niceties?” "The mind boggles", is about as much as I can come up with, but it is this very question that the actor and playwright will attempt to answer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this month, when he presents his new play The Three Lions.

Set the night before England’s unsuccessful bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the play imagines the conversations between the two Davids and their third bid team member, Prince William, as they gather in a Swiss hotel room to thrash out a last-minute plan. It’s a gleefully irreverent "behind the scenes" and at breakfast in a central London cafe, Gaminara, who is an accomplished playwright but has spent the best part of 11 years cutting up corpses as Silent Witness’s Prof Leo Dalton, is clearly relishing the chance to have some fun.

“I found the idea of what those people would talk about really entertaining. They are three very high status individuals but they’re high status in different ways. One thing actors often do is agree between themselves whose character has the highest status, so I wondered how [these characters] would sort that out. I imagined there would be a bit of argy bargy.” He smiles mischievously. “And I didn’t have to invent [the situation]. They actually were together…There are real pictures of the three of them sitting around a table in the Swiss hotel and even the pictures are funny because they all look slightly out of sorts.”

The real Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham meet in Zurich in 2010

Gaminara’s promise of big-fish-out-of-water comedy is executed perfectly in his zingy script: there are toe-curlingly clumsy attempts at laddishness by Prince William (who discusses getting a ‘Rex’ tattoo to ingratiate himself with Beckham); diplomatic gaffes by Beckham and "Do you know who I am?" huffs from Cameron who is not recognised by hotel staff. There are also wry nods to what we already know about the trio and their circles: a nagging Victoria phones Beckham to check he’s remaining faithful; Cameron has a series of tetchy phone calls with Nick Clegg. But Gaminara has been careful not to make the trio caricatures.

“If it had been a sketch, you’d say, 'OK, Beckham’s thick and William’s posh', but that doesn’t sustain a play. I hope I’ve made it a bit more complicated than that. Beckham is a very canny businessman but one of his roles in public life is to be a bit dim, which he knows and exploits in the play. [My version of] Prince William fancies himself as a joker and there’s a part of him that is desperate to be one of the lads. But he’s also very meticulous and keeps picking Beckham up on his speech (“There’s no such word as ‘worsest.’ But listen don’t beat yourself up”). I actually think it’s quite an affectionate take on them because I like them both.”

And what of Cameron whose portrayal is, to put it mildly, less affectionate? “I’m not so fond of Cameron,” admits Gaminara, “but he’s the motor of the play – he drives it.” That is, he tries to. Keeping Beckham and Prince William on track isn’t easy though, and Cameron’s detractors will enjoy watching him struggle to take charge. At the end, when it's revealed England has received the backing of only two of Fifa's 22 delegates, Cameron loses his temper and tells both William and Beckham to "Shut the f---up!" There is also a farcical cameo from Boris Johnson, who is forced to surrender his trousers to William after the Duke of Cambridge spills water on his own pair. Boris later tackles William to get them back.

But Gaminara has been careful not to base the whole play on flights of fancy and many of the details relating to the bid - which reached a climax in December 2010 when Russia was named the 2018 World Cup host - are true. Tactics discussed by the characters are genuine as is the bid leaders’ decision to buy a Mulberry handbag for the wife of the (since disgraced) vice-president of Fifa, Jack Warner (although it was eventually handed back amid allegations of bribery).

Perhaps more pleasing though are Gaminara’s assurances that many of the trio’s most entertaining, that-has-to-be-fiction foibles are also true. Cameron, for example, really does subscribe to the so-called “full-bladder technique” during negotiations, according to reports. (He deliberately drinks copious amounts of water before important discussions to ratchet-up the tension and achieve maximum focus.)

Is there anything in the play that might attract the attention of lawyers? Gaminara says not.

“It’s nice to know that you live in a country where you can say just about anything as long as it’s not libellous and it’s in the context of comedy. There are some countries where I’d be locked up. And anyway,” he says grinning, “they have far worse things said about them.”

Of course lawsuits aren’t the only risk related to plays based on real people. There is another: casting. One dodgy accent, one unconvincing gesture and the illusion is shattered. But Gaminara is confident in his choice of actors and, although Sean Browne is the spitting image of Beckham, the playwright didn’t seek out lookalikes.

“The sound is almost more important than the look. What you want is for someone to come through the door and say ‘I’m David Cameron’ and you think, ‘Oh OK, I get it.’ There’s got to be something that makes you buy in, and that something tends to come more easily from sound than looks.”

But people don’t tend to wander into auditions sounding like David Cameron. “Actually he is notoriously hard to impersonate,” Gaminara tells me. “Rory Bremner doesn’t do him, none of the big names do. But Dugald [Bruce-Lockhart] has spent a lot of time watching him, and I can tell he’s been listening to the speech rhythms.”

But what really fascinates Gaminara is not the voices, nor the chance to poke well-meaning fun at the great and the good. It’s something altogether more psychological.

“The thing that really struck me when I read about what had happened is that when we went into the bidding, people really weren’t confident and the odds were against us, but something happened in the 48 hours before the vote to make [the bid team] convince themselves that they were going to win. And I thought, what if it was between those three people? Something happened in that room to put those three in a bubble of ‘Of course we can do it’ and [the play] tries to work out what it was that gave them that sense.”

The entitlement of old Etonians, perhaps? Lingering notions of empire? What is it that makes us Brits so sure everything still revolves around us? Gaminara’s play is about a lot more than just football.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: insider travel tips

Fringe benefits: how do you navigate the world’s biggest arts festival? Photograph: Massimo Borchi/ Atlantide Phototravel/Corbis

It is a question we had pondered for years: just how do you navigate the world's biggest arts festival? The mass of artists, performers, day-trippers and visitors – never mind residents – can feel overwhelming, and knowing where to go to eat, drink and explore can be just as difficult. So we decided to ask the most loyal of visitors – the comedians who return to Edinburgh each year – to help us through the maze with hints on how to live the Fringe like a performer. Here are a few of their top tips

Best for breakfast – and hangover cure

Snax Café Overlooking the Meadows, Snax Café is known locally as a proper greasy spoon and a decent place to head to shake off a heavy Fringe night. As double act Horse & Louis say, "The clientele are real people, working people, people who are genuinely looking for chicken curry with a side of haggis at 6.30am and who expect, nay demand, that every meal comes with chips. The bacon is so thick you could use it as a door stop, and the eggs, if hard boiled, would do some damage down a 10-pin lane." 

Best for lunch/brunch

Cheesee Peasee For those looking to chase down a true Edinburgh delight, Cheesee Peasee is a mobile food van which serves up gourmet French cheeses in and around Edinburgh. Hailing from Lyon, Cédric will slice you a portion of savoury delight – the perfect accompaniment to a late-afternoon picnic in the park. Eric Lampaert says: "Everyone from miles around comes to seek cheese guidance from this Gouda guru and if you impress him with his native tongue, he'll (probably) slice you an extra 50g of Camembert. Merci beaucoup!" 

Best place to escape the crowds

Northern star: North Berwick beach, not far from Edinburgh. Photograph: Kathy Collins/Getty Images

North Berwick Those looking to escape the hectic pace of the Fringe could follow in the footsteps of Mark Thomas and cycle to North Berwick. "If you want a temporary escape from the sometimes insular world of the Edinburgh Festival," says Thomas, "nothing quite does the job like fish and chips by the seaside in North Berwick after a cycle. One of my favourite days during any festival was visiting the Highland Games in North Berwick. What's not to like? Fairground rides, pipe bands, big things being thrown, the sun out, fish and chips, all good in their own right but together…

Best for a pre-show pint

Under The Stairs Nestled in an alcove under the main street between Bistro Square and the Grassmarket, Under The Stairs is a hideaway that serves up top-notch food and drink within easy distance of most of the main venues. Regular patron Keith Farnan says: "I snuck in the back door of what I thought was the kitchen and was greeted by soft armchairs, an array of fine foods and a sense of peace that is rarely found in an Edinburgh pub, but that slowly fades away into a pleasantly raucous evening." 

Best for a post-show pint/bite

Port O'Leith Edinburgh is not short of fantastic pubs and lively clubs which carry on late into the night, but if you take Jim Jefferies's advice, then the Port O'Leith is a good choice for a post-show pint. "I used to disappear here when I didn't fancy having a mad night," says Jefferies, "and this pub has it all: great atmosphere, great people, the walls and ceiling have so much naval history and bits and bobs from all over the world hanging off it or stuck to it, and the drinks are reasonably priced – not the £4 that most venues charge nowadays for a pint. So yes, check this place out!" 

The Witchery After a long day at the festival, one of the top places to lay your head (if you can afford it) would have to be The Witchery on the Royal Mile. Set just down from the Castle, the hotel is in the thick of the Fringe action, yet it occupies a corner which at night is a little oasis of quiet. The hotel also comes with a fantastic restaurant recommended by Zoe Lyons, who says: "It is my Edinburgh guilty pleasure. Practically underneath the castle, it is so beautiful at night with candles on the steps as you descend into the Secret Garden dining room. It also looks a bit like it has been built as the set of a Dracula movie, with candelabras, drapes and goblet glasses." "

Police in Canada find 40 snakes in motel room

The reptiles were found in several plastic storage bins on Thursday night in a room in Brantford, Ontario, where a couple who had been evicted from their home were staying, police said in a statement.

Officers have opened a probe into the incident but they did not say where the couple were at the time or whether the pair would be charged with breaking local laws that prohibit owning pythons.

The snakes, which ranged in length from 30 centimetres to 1.4 metres, were in poor health and have been taken in by the Canadian Society for the Protection of Animals, where a veterinarian is monitoring them.

The find comes 11 days after Connor and Noah Barthe, aged six and four respectively, died in the eastern town of Campbellton, New Brunswick when an African python escaped from its terrarium and killed them.

The boys had been enjoying a sleepover with a friend, whose father’s private menagerie of exotic animals included the python.