Interviews Gareth David-Lloyd by DJ Forrest

I have wanted an interview with Gareth for a very long time, long before his portrayal of Lucifer Jones on Twisted Showcase episode 'Be My Head' and perhaps longer than his role as Jacob Fitts in 'I Am Alone'. So, finally getting the opportunity at 4:30 on a cool but dry afternoon, on the 3rd November, you can only imagine, just how excited I was at this prospect - even if the build up to the interview, was like waiting for an impending job interview, and wondering and hoping I wouldn't fluff my lines, and make a complete fool of myself, as often happens when the nerves kick in.

I'd finally mastered my techniques at my Skype interviews, so I decided it worked better for me to actually read from the sheet, my questions, rather than pick out words and form a sentence, which in the past I had tripped and stumbled through the English language, that I've known since, well, since I could talk.

Gareth was very relaxed, sitting in an orange armchair in his home, with family pictures just behind him on the window sill. I had informed him how nervous I was, which was insane because, I shouldn't have been, given two previous interviews within a month, that should have calmed me down.

My questions didn't really run in any kind of sequence, I didn't ask all the Black River Meadow in one portion, or the Be My Head, or indeed his zombie role in I Am Alone in another, and I limited myself to the Ianto questions, because, let's face it, how many more questions are there out there, that nobody has ever asked before???

Gareth was limited to his time so we made it to almost half an hour, ten minutes more than he had initially planned, but there were a lot of questions, the internet was slow, and the laptops were playing catch up with the sound, but all in all - it was a blast - and I enjoyed every minute of it. He truly is a wonderful person to talk to, and I look forward to meeting him in the flesh at the next Wales Comic Con.

Hi again, by the way.

Gareth: Hello, how are you?

I'm fine thanks. Black River Meadow - the Weevil and I have donated!

Gareth: I know. Thank you, so much! Thank you, we really appreciate it.

You know when you first posted up the images of the two heads hanging against the wall of the building for Black River Meadow - I'm guessing this isn't a comedy, then?

Gareth: Ah, no. I mean, it's certainly not in these first three episodes. There's not a lot of comedy. We wanted to be sort of dynamic with the horror drama of it to start off with. If we ever get to the point that we can write longer storylines for the TV series then yeah I'll always inject some sort of dark comedy.

So, there was also another picture with a medieval knight and some sirens in the water, so is this kind of like Merlin, folklore that kind of thing?

Gareth: Not Merlin. Merlin's not in it unfortunately, but who knows at a later stage! (laughs) But yes, certainly I took a lot of inspiration from Welsh folklore and Welsh history equally, actually. I just mentioned in the live Kickstarter that one of the events helps plant the seed of Black River Meadow. A certain massacre that happened which the Roman soldiers massacred hundreds of druids, and then from that all the tragedies and the blood that has been spilled with the disasters that have happened in the Welsh valleys since then. Mining disasters, Aberfan disaster and great battles with the oppression of the English, and you know a lot of those things are going to be sprinkled throughout.

That sounds really cool. So, no zombies then?

Gareth: No zombies, as such.

At this point I cheered! There seem to be a lot of web dramas, or television and films with zombies scattered throughout storylines and after a while, it's like superheroes, you start off with a few, and then you're inundated with them. So I was pleased that for once, there were no zombies - as such!

When I brought into question the scary ass zombie baby from I Am Alone which to me was on par with the baby that crawled along the ceiling in Trainspotting, Gareth laughed. I mean, come on, they were definitely scary babies, which brought us into my next question,

What was it like playing Jacob Fitts, in I Am Alone, cut off from everywhere and everyone?

Gareth: Playing him was brilliant. It was great as an actor to be put into that environment and literally because I was shooting everything on GoPro's, and what not, so everything had to be cleared a full 360 degrees. So it wasn't like a usual film set when I could be shooting this way or the crew were getting on that side of the camera and we shot that way, and then they shoot the other way and you got the other way - the crew had to completely disappear so they were watching on the monitor, using their phones as monitors that were linked to the Go Pros. So they had to disappear - so as far as I was concerned - I was alone. So, I thought, that really helped me to find my performance.

Are you also acting in Black River Meadow or are you just directing?

 

Gareth: I'm in the first one, the first series, three episodes, I'm only in the first one of the first season. But my character is designed to be a recurring character, so if we need to do another three web episodes, or even if we're lucky enough to get noticed after the first three and go straight to a TV series, that would definitely be a character I am going to have playing a bigger role in the bigger story.

Why do you have to go through a web series first before going onto television?

Gareth: I have pitched the idea to Amazon and to be honest with you, I haven't been as proactive as I could have as pitching the pilot and the treatment I had for a full series, because it's the first thing I've ever done on my own. I wanted to get some ideas and responses from people in the industry first, so I pitched to Amazon and the BBC Writer's Room and I was basically getting the same response, which was 'we love the idea but it doesn't fit our development slate at the moment, but please develop it and come back to us at a later date', and so I thought the best way of developing it instead of sitting around and twiddling my thumbs is to actually show people what the idea is, and I knew tone and genre and to give everyone a real feeling of what I was trying to do. 

And also that's a lot more fun and I do love writing but the fun and the magic happens when you're taking something off the page and why not just open a window into Black River Meadow, or three windows and do something off my own back, fund it myself. And so armed with the idea in a more three dimensional version and when I read these dramas on them there's that option to submit a video to sort of showcase the chosen genre, your idea, that is what I use when I re-pitch, is one of the episodes or all three put together. So yes, that is it, it's about finding my feet and about just getting up and getting myself some experience

Who else will be appearing in the web series with you, anyone else we know?

Gareth: I can't give a cast list out yet, as it hasn't been fully cast but there definitely are people that I have in mind that I have approached and haven't got an answer back or I haven't approached but am fairly confident that if the circumstances are right they'd do it. So, yes, it's not just going to be me and a load of actors nobody knows, there will be some familiar faces - fingers crossed, hopefully!

When you did Be My Head, that was your first directorial role, so how difficult was it from being an actor in front of the camera, to then being a director and directing people to where they need to be and directing yourself - how hard was that. Did you have to 'boss' anyone about?

Gareth: Directing myself was the most difficult thing as you really have to trust your first assistant and the producer that is on set. I really did. Robin Bell was on set and so it was great to have him. I didn't have time to go back and watch every single tape I was in so I had to have that trust in somebody when they say 'no, that's great,' we can move on. And actually I didn't have to boss anyone about at all and we finished earlier than I thought we would finish. It was scarily smooth that shoot. I think that was a lot to do with having a very small cast or crew, two locations and that lent a lot to making my job easier, and I'm sure when we get to Black River Meadow which I've tried to do the same it is a bigger crew. We've got Sound Operators, I want to do it as professionally as possible, which is why I want to raise £5k to do it. It's a bit scary.

How close are you now to your target?

Gareth: We are £3280 or maybe a bit more than that, after the Q & A I'm not sure. We've got 12 days left so I'm over the moon with that and if everyone keeps chipping away

It would give yourself something to work on even if you don't reach your total

Gareth: The thing with Kickstarter is it's all or nothing. So you either hit your goal or you don't. If you don't hit your goal, you don't get any money out of it. They keep the money and you start again.

Bloody hell!

Gareth (laughs): Yeah, I'm determined to make it simply if we don't do it the first time round we'll assess how we can be better at fundraising and do it again. Black River Meadow will just be a little later down the line.

Going back to Be My Head, whose idea was it to make Godfrey wear the Dennis the Menace tie, and to flip the idea of Lucifer being the good guy and Godfrey the bad?

Gareth: That was Robin's idea from the start. He named the characters. It was Mark's idea to wear the tie and he designed his own costume. We brought a few ideas and we went with that because we thought it was fun. I think Lucifer being the protagonist and Godfrey the antagonist that just sort of cheeky comment. And that names and titles don't necessarily reflect the personality in people.

Who was the little girl in the photograph, looking like Matilda from the film?

Gareth: That's my daughter, Lily.

I promised myself that I wouldn't ask any Ianto questions but there were a few that leapt out at me in the episode Be My Head. The first being the surname - it seems you can't escape the Jones name after all. Gareth laughed. I then went on to mention the whole bit in the Torchwood Sleeper episode when Ianto reminds Jack of the last time the mind probe was used, and judders in the chair. The Be My Head episode had reminded me of this, when Gareth's character Lucifer applied the white disks to each temple to erase his memories.

I asked him if, when he's writing, if a memory of a character he's played, in a certain scene, in the past, reminds him in a story he's currently writing, such as it did for me in Be My Head.

Gareth: (laughs) Actors use their past experiences as vital tools in their tool box I think but I think if you're struggling to get somewhere with a character or if that character goes through a certain situation that another character you've played has before, then yeah, you always draw on that. You recall that to what can I use in this without it destroying the character?

Eve Myles once told me in an interview that she loved horror genre, and wanted to make a horror film, and just recently played a character in the film Eat Local, and now with your new web series Black River Meadow, and Twisted Showcase, and I Am Alone, what is it about the horror genre that you are passionate about?

Gareth: I think it's about people who love going to theme parks and going on the scary rides. And some people prefer to go on the boat (laughs)

Or the teacups (I laugh)

Gareth: I think it's the thrill and the surprise and the mystery of the horror that some people get excited by. Some people don't like getting scared so they don't get a thrill from it. I think that's one thing that horror fans have and its that craving for thrill seekers. That's what I love. I also love the build up, the mystery, the going into the unknown. It's the scary bit of the rollercoaster that's the climb up, you get the thrill at the end but it's going into that mystery - how it's going to feel, what is going to happen, and what's it going to be like? I think it's simply horror.

How long are the episodes in Black River Meadow?

Gareth: As a guestimate, I'd say between 10 and 15 minutes and they were written somewhere between 9 and 16 pages and it depends where we sort of earn our pauses, where our silence is, it depends on how long the gaps in between the lines are going to be.

There's one more Torchwood question - because I'd written the questions out and then you answered one of them on Twitter regarding the new audio out next May, that you've written. What is the story about - does it develop Ianto and Lisa more?

Gareth: It's, no, it's going to be a lot more to do with how Ianto was first introduced to Torchwood and how the seed of his relationship is with Yvonne, and how he is moulded at such a young age to be her assistant. You find out why?

Will you be writing more Torchwood audios in the future for Big Finish?

Gareth: I have written one more, but I can't say anything about it. It may never be recorded.

Thank you for keeping the Torchwood flame alive and I'm really glad Big Finish have brought you guys all together.

Thank you also for an awesome interview, and so glad the internet behaved itself.

Special thanks to Gareth David-Lloyd, I Am Alone, Torchwood, Big Finish and Twisted Showcase for the use of images throughout the Interview.