latiue ofls own
‘MAGIC TRICKS BASICALLY PAID FOR MY RECORD COLLECTION UNTIL MY MID-ZOS’
As the silent partner of a macabre comedy team JEREMY DYSON hasn’t pined for centre stage. Brian Donaldson reckons his new book puts him there anyway.
t's not eyery interyiew that ends with the subject knocking out an ad hoc card trick. liyen the imperious Derren Brown has been known to hlanche at the yery thought of doing the performing tnonkey thing bel'ore an eager interyiewer and a switched-on tape recorder (for all the good that would do). .leremy Dyson may well pull a pack of cards from his jacket pocket as though he’s making room to pop a rabbit otit any minttte bill this is no awkward set-up. ljust so happened to ask him if he would do a trick. And warmly. and yery impressiyely. he obliged. Dyson‘s talents are many. He‘s the silent partner (acting-wise) in the League of (ientlemen. co-wrotc one of the best British TV' dramas ol last year in Fun/mid (a blcakly comic BBC} production set in a sleaze-ridden Blackpool and coming to a terrestrial channel near you soon) and penned a deliciously black set of twisty-ending short stories in 2000 entitled M'i't'r Trust a Rub/iii. He also has a cunning sleight of' hand which he dcyclopcd as a teenager starting out with magic routines at parties for his sister and her friends. ‘That basically paid for my record collection between the age ol‘ 13 and my mid- les. It didn‘t seem courageous or independent or mad at the time. but looking back I wasjtist turning up in a strange town. doing my act and getting out again.”
Maybe alongside his (‘V entry ol‘ magician. another
passage may read: 'I also haye a link to Tony Blair. Kenneth \Villiams. Dylan Thomas and an obsessiye compulsiye Tourette's sut'l'erer who covers his face in f‘aeces'. For last summer. the redoubtable British actor Michael Sheen became “Jeremy Dy son~ in the
30 THE LIST 13—3“ Apr .ft‘t‘ti
League ol' (ientlemen moyie. 'He has this great facility for just nailing someone down: I can't
imagine it's nice to see yourself reduced to a set ol
characteristics by another person.' Dyson was neyer in the market to don grotesque
masks and outlandish clobber to transform himself
into a Tubbs. Hilary Briss or l’apa l.a/arou. Instead he would just hcayer away behind the scenes helping to create landmark comedy. appearing at all those hook signings and award ceremonies hoyering oyer the shoulder of Mark (iatiss or Reece Shearsmith like some contemporary Xelig.
What Happens .Vun‘ assuredly adds 'noyelist‘ to Dyson's repertoire. The story' reyolyes around Alice '/.caland and Alistair Black. who first meet on the set til. it kids history show called 7710/1 and .Vrm‘. :\ mutual. complicated attraction deyclops but as time slips away and their liyes moye onwards and downwards. a double atrocity is just around the corner. While Dyson has inyented this TV' series in which child actors reconstruct news eyents from past and present. he claims not to haye the imaginatiye tools which driye on his mildly obsessiye boy hero. in particular his creation ol‘ a new ciyili/ation called Trayulia. 'l tnadc comedy tapes with a friend and designed coyers for them but not in the intense and disturbing way that Alistair made such a consistent uniyersef l‘or Dyson. the cultural world now appears to be his oyster.
What Happens Now is out now published by Abacus. Funland will be shown in May on BBC2.
* Jeremy Dyson The non- performing member of the League of Gentlemen shows us what he‘s made of with a
memorable tale of love. pain and redemption among the child acting community. See preview. left. Abacus.
* Seamus Heaney Famous Seamus brings us his first verse collection in half a decade with the local and global meeting head on in District and Circle. See review. Faber.
* Val Lewton The legendary movie horror guru rises from the tomb with a reissue of his Depression-era novel, No Bed of Her Own. See review. King/y Reprieve.
* Jane Harris An eye-catching debut here. as The Observations gives period fiction a shot in the arm with the story of a teenage Irish lassie trying to survive the disease-ridden streets of 19th century Scotland. See review. Faber.
* Milt Gross The resurrection of this comics pioneer from the 19208 may go some way to proving that the graphic novel was invented quite a time before its alleged 19703 origins. See review. Fantagraphics.
* Roman Dirge Leonore Noogies sounds like some cryptic crossword clue but is in fact a deceased heroine who tells tales of unspeakable, yet quirky horrors. See review. Titan.
* Tall Tales from Small Countries A meeting of two nations as the Danes and the Scots cross literary swords with the likes of Anne Donovan and Carsten Rene Nielsen in attendance. Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, Thu 20 Apr. =i< The Hairy Bikers Dave Myers and Si King (pictured) flex their rewed-up muscles to tell us all about getting food entangled in their beards across the globe. Valvona 8 Crol/a, Edinburgh, Mon 24 Apr.