Jon Richardson has revealed that he was “terrified” ahead of filming an episode of Meet the Richardsons featuring a cameo from Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio.
The stand-up comic stars in the Dave mockumentary with his wife, fellow comedian Lucy Beaumont, with Meet the Richardsons following the pair as they play exaggerated versions of themselves.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com in an exclusive interview, Richardson opened up about an upcoming episode featuring Bodyguard’s Jed Mercurio, who plays a caricature of himself.
“He was brilliant. I can only speak for myself – I was terrified,” Richardson said. “I think we do a lot with comics and I’m so used to being in the company of comics. I know they’re going to know that I am not an actor, so I can’t act and I don’t learn scripts and I will just turn up and say what I think is funny and they’ll react.”
But Richardson said it was different with Mercurio.
He explained: “When you’re working with someone who has tightly scripted the most intricate show on British television, I thought, ‘I better know what I’m doing going into these scenes. I thought, you know, these are probably going to be quite straightforward and I’m going to have to hit every mark and know every line’.”
As it turns out, Mercurio was not what he was expecting.
“And actually he turned up and he couldn’t have been more willing to send himself up and play about and that felt like a real sort of pat on the back for us,” Richardson continued. “He trusted us enough to say, ‘I’ll do what you tell me to.’ He’s obviously not playing himself, he’s playing a sort of pompous version of himself for comedy and that he trusted us enough to do that was incredible.”
Meet the Richardsons returns on Thursday 3rd March at 9pm on Dave. While you’re waiting, take a look at our other Drama coverage, or check out our TV Guide to find out what’s on TV tonight.
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