NORTHERN EXPOSURE

Playwright JOHN GODBER talks to James Rampton

Jack, the central character in BBC1's new sitcom, Bloomin' Marvellous, has life-threatening blood clots and undergoes stress-induced panic attacks. Not much funny about that. But John Godber, who co-wrote it with his wife, Jane Thornton, has never been one for boom-boom, gag-a-minute, "have you heard the one about?" comedy. "We wanted it to be funny and serious - in the way that life is," he explains. "It's `love hurts'; it's comic and then it's a shit sandwich.

"We also wanted to do something that wasn't reliant on a joke every three lines," he carries on. "I've been watching the re-runs of Til Death Us Do Part, and some of that is extraordinarily bleak. I'd rather people said about my work, `At least it made me think' rather than `It made me laugh, now I'll go for a curry'. Humour should be based in observations as opposed to `Look at me, I've got a silly hat on'. Meaning is important - otherwise it's just the equivalent of watching the potter's wheel."

The serious edge to Bloomin' Marvellous is sharpened by the fact that Jack (Clive Mantle) and wife Liz (Sarah Lancashire) are trying for a child later on in life. "The pressure to have a child is palpable," reflects Godber, the father of two young daughters, "and characters function best under pressure. That's much more realistic than having them say, `Let's open a shoe shop'. The stakes are higher, which makes the comedy more telling."

As does the fact that the central pair spend much of the time bickering. "Jane and I are big fans of Neil Simon," Godber says. "We wanted to make this like an Odd Couple. They use barb and counter-barb as a way of expressing their love for each other."

The comedy in Bloomin' Marvellous - as in all of Godber's work - is organic to the story, not bolted on like some Spanish hotel extension. "When you try to tell the audience you're funny, it's the kiss of death," Godber observes. "People have to discover for themselves that it's funny."

John Reynolds, executive producer of Bloomin' Marvellous, chimes in that "John is not making jokes all the time. He writes a natural, unforced kind of drama. There is none of that forced `That'll be about as much use as a French letter at a vicar's tea party' humour that you see so often on television. Without sounding portentous, he writes about real people. Audiences recognise themselves and their parents and their children."

Not everybody has sung Godber's praises so loudly. One journalist remarked that the playwright was well-balanced "only because he has a chip on both shoulders". "There are elements of the press that have had a kneejerk reaction against some of my plays," Godber sighs. "I left teaching in 1984 and six months later, I'd picked up an Olivier Award. I came through very quickly. Bouncers and Up'n'Under were on in the West End at the same time - no one had done that since Alan Ayckbourn and Noel Coward. The critics thought, `Who the hell is this guy from an unfashionable corner of Britain called Hull?' London reviewers were saying that writing about ordinary northern things was lowbrow and not what they expected plays to be about."

All this has only encouraged the artistic director of Hull Truck Theatre Company to cultivate his outsider status. "There is a deliberately anti- establishment feel to my plays," he says. "I'd write about cocktail waitresses while other people were writing about professors in universities. It was a deliberate gesture to the theatrical establishment. I feel theatre is terribly elitist, a club, and insufficient effort is made to demystify it.

"I've written 25 plays and only one takes place in a room," he continues. "I've tried to bring my plays away from theatrical tradition because that bores me. Plays that take place in a room should be on telly - Shakespeare didn't have rooms."

Godber has recently finished making one of those plays, Up'n'Under, into a film. It was his directorial debut, and he found it quite a challenge. "I had a nursery-school naivety about it," he laughs. "I remember arriving on set and thinking `the camera's massive'. The word `action' caught in my throat. I didn't have anything to hide, and there was no point in bullshitting, so I asked a lot of questions. But I found the process fascinating. I'd do it again tomorrow."

Still living near Hull, Godber draws inspiration from his surroundings - and can't imagine it any other way. "I have a strong belief that your own life is where the best writing comes from," he asserts. "If you're trying to fabricate a situation, it will feel artificial - no matter how high the gag-count."

Reynolds concurs. "John writes about the world he knows. Maybe that's why he lives not in Hampstead but in Hull."

Godber's dogged refusal to go all Hampstead on us has led to the inevitable tag that he is a "political" playwright. "I resisted that tag for a long time," he claims. "I thought you'd never get rid of the Conservatives no matter what you wrote. My work is political, in the sense that life isn't fair and that something should be done about that. The theme of the underdog runs through it. Bear in mind that I failed my 11-plus. I'm 41 now, and I still haven't got over it."

`Bloomin' Marvellous' starts on BBC1 on 1 Sept. The film of `Up'n'Under' will be released next year

EYE TEST

1950s: Born and bred in Yorkshire, the son of a miner and grandson of a man "who used to knock people around for money in the street".

1960s: Went to Minsthorpe High School, where he got two A-levels. When he told teachers he was interested in drama, "they laughed me out of the careers office," he recalls. "My dad said, `Christ, it's taken us six years to convince you that you aren't going to be goalkeeper for Leeds United.' For a long time, they couldn't get their heads round it - not until they flew to Los Angeles to watch me pick up awards. Then they thought, `it's not a bad job, this'." He trained as a drama teacher at Bretton Hall College.

1970s: Head of drama at Minsthorpe High School

1980s/90s: Appointed Artistic Director of Hull Truck Theatre Company. His play, Up'n'Under, won the Laurence Olivier Comedy of the Year Award. Subsequent hits, performed around the world, include Bouncers, On the Piste, April in Paris, Teechers, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Happy Jack, Happy Families and Gym & Tonic. His latest, Weekend Break, has just opened to acclaim in Hull. He is now thought to be Britain's most performed playwright after Shakespeare. In 1992, Happy Families was produced simultaneously by 47 British am-dram companies.