‘I’Ve Never Watched a Whole Episode of Peep Show’: Matt King on Surviving a Stroke and Reviving Super Hans
Super Hans is back! What’s he been up to since we last saw him? Splitting up with Molly, the twins, the moped-rental business in Macedonia …
Well, Super Hans finds a legal loophole in the marriage certificate, which means it’s null and void and … hang on … I’m basically telling you the whole plot of the book!
Is the book just you, Matt King, writing on behalf of Super Hans? Or does your inner Super Hans just come out and write it for you?
It’s neither. He comes around my house every morning. I put the kettle on, he borrows my computer and off he goes. I don’t know what he gets up to. I usually try to get out of the way, go for a nice walk.
Is Super Hans your golden goose – or the albatross round your neck?
Well, Peep Show ended in 2015. It started 23 years ago as an acting job, for want of a better term. A lot has happened since then, including having a stroke in April this year, which often means I totally lose the thread of what I’m saying, as you may have noticed.
I’ve seen Bake Off now I’ve been on it, but never watched a whole episode of Peep Show
Having a stroke must have been awful. Even so, you seemed to be very good-humoured about it on social media from the get-go.
I mean, initially it was absolutely terrifying because I was paralysed for 36 hours. I don’t remember the ambulance ride, or the first day and a half. I woke up on the stroke ward at Royal Sussex County hospital. But yes, I think I was quite good-natured about it. I had a very rare type of stroke, quite low down on the spinal cord. The doctors told me that I could have ended up in a wheelchair, or worse. I was very lucky, so I spent most of my time in hospital feeling very grateful. Cognitively, I’m quite a bit different from how I was before the stroke, although I am improving. I still had around a quarter of the book to write when it happened. In a weird way, my brain jumping all over the place helped on the home stretch.
Could we see a Super Hans spin-off TV show?
I would be more interested in a film based on this – the first of many books. I’m not going to be able to get away with playing him for much longer. I was talking to David Mitchell when we did The Great Peep Show Christmas Bake Off last year. We both remember [Peep Show creators] Jesse [Armstrong] and Sam [Bain] saying to us on the last day of filming: “See you in 10 years.” Ten years came and went, and none of us got the call. Maybe it’s because Jesse had some show called Succession going on.
Perhaps the most surprising thing you revealed while appearing on The Great Peep Show Christmas Bake Off was that you’d never seen Bake Off – or, indeed, Peep Show.
I have seen Bake Off – now that I’ve been on it. But it’s true that I have never watched a whole episode of Peep Show.
Does that make it more difficult dealing with obsessive fans – and needy journalists – who can quote every episode word for word? For example, how many of the bands you and Jez were in can you name?
The Hair Blair Bunch, Curse These Metal Hands, Coming Up for Blair, Various Artists …
Have you heard about the now-annual Accidentally Run to Windsor, where people actually run from Croydon to Windsor, inspired by Super Hans giving up all his vices but becoming addicted to endorphins?
Yes. I was meant to be at the finish line last year, but I was unwell. This year, I think I’m going to be firing the starter’s pistol.
Why are you not the pacemaker for the first, say, 13 miles?
I think the answer to that would be evident from looking at me. But that’s not to say that I’m not going to run across the finish line first. I’ll just be getting in the van the other 25 and a half miles.
Two years ago, my daughter came home from school and went: 'It’s happened. Everyone is watching Peep Show, and they all know you’re my dad'
What do people shout the most at you when they see you?
“That crack is really moreish”, from the other end of a tube compartment. If they go too niche, I’ve no idea what they’re talking about. Often, I’ll have no recollection of saying it, so I get a disappointed response when they have to explain that it was in season seven, episode four, or whatever.
Peep Show seems to be bigger now than when you finished making it. Why do you think it keeps finding new generations of fans?
Obviously, it’s brilliant. Obviously, it’s endlessly quotable. Obviously, it’s funny. But there aren’t any other shows from that era that are still watched by ever-changing generations. My daughter is 17. About two years ago, she came home from school and went: “It’s happened. Everyone at school is watching fucking Peep Show, and they all know that you’re my dad.” My son, who’s 22 now, had gone through the same thing. The wave just keeps going.
Has Super Hans somehow become timeless, then?
More people come up to me now than they did 10 years ago. I was in an underground swimming pool in Morocco and there was another geezer doing lengths next to me. When I got out of the pool, he said: “Do you mind if I just interrupt you?” Turns out, he had gone to Sandhurst. He said they all used to watch it and that the box set belonged to Will. I said: “Who’s Will?” “Prince William.” There’s footage of David Bowie being interviewed in his house, and he’s got the box set of all nine series of Peep Show on DVD behind him. Between that and builders shouting it from scaffolding, it’s got every colour of the rainbow, every type of humanity.
Is it hard to know where Matt ends and Super Hans begins? What are your views on Coldplay, for example?
Let’s just say, my views on Coldplay are even more extreme than his!
Moreish: My Mad Autobiography by Super Hans is out now published by Mudlark.