Philip Hutchinson Oh, the Ripper Tours form the largest part of my income. Don't ask me who I think it was. Just don't. Because I don't have an answer. There's so much conspiracy nonsense about the case and the facts are it was deeply unpleasant, sordid and cannot be solved. Books - yes, I wrote a few. I won't be writing any more because I find them a huge chore, but I do write plays these days.
Philip Hutchinson I feared you'd put this photo up. Look at the state of me. Dear God.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time A vision of manhood, sir!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time You looked funnier on Graham Norton that time... ;)
Philip Hutchinson Let me get this clear - I was never ON Graham Norton, nor did I want to be. I might have been pulled out by him on his Channel Four show in front of Lauren Bacall, however.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Lucky Dog Theatre Productions, of course (I will put all the links on the finished article), where you've been portraying Oliver Hardy for quite some time now. I understand he's something of a comic god to you, what is is that gets to you about such an old style of comedy?

http://www.luckydogtheatreproductions.com

Philip Hutchinson Laurel and Hardy changed my life. It got me to work with my soulmate and the men behind the comedy were people we should all aspire to be. People often confuse them with comedy teams that didn't get on, but they were best friends - even more than Morecambe And Wise would become. Their comedy is not the comedy of Chaplin. That was clowning skills and there is no heart to most of his work. It has dated badly. The surreality and timing of Stan and Ollie still resonates today. It still appeals to our current sense of humour and we do ourselves a disservice by avoiding it simply because it was filmed 85 years ago.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time They are definitely recognised as giants of comedy, no doubt. I still enjoy the early silent ones, but I think those pathetic cartoons killed them off as a vocal act for me. More recently, you two have just been performing "Mr. Merrick: The Elephant Man" at the Edinburgh Festival, how did that go?

Philip Hutchinson Oh, the Larry Harmon cartoons from 1963 onwards have nothing to do with Stan and Ollie. A lot of their silent films haven't aged too well but things such as Big Business and You're Darn Tootin' are still little gems. We took two shows up to Edinburgh Fringe this year. Julie Howell, bless her, came with her husband David all the way up to see us. Mr Merrick is a piece we have performed for some years. It's the only dramatic piece based solely on facts - the film and the Broadway show are fictional. We're both really proud of what we've done with it. Tony's acting is outstanding and it gives me a rare chance onstage to be in the background and underplayed. We got a standing ovation, but serious drama doesn't sell well at Edinburgh. Thankfully, we were also playing a lot of Laurel & Hardy routines which sold out, so we should have made a profit.

Magic Moments At Twilight Time That's good, saw the picture of our Julie White Hawk and yourself meeting up on the streets of Edinburgh, small world or what? Well, shit, we've done 140 minutes already and I feel like there's so much more we could have talked about. So let me finish by asking what do you feel the future holds for Philip Hutchinson?

Julie Howell Not really a small world in that I deliberately went there to find Philip in full knowledge that he would be there and having bought tickets to see his excellent show having travelled to East Lothian for three days with the sole intention of doing exactly that. But I know what you mean. ;-)

Editor's Note Just wanted to thank Julie for explaining what Philip meant by "Julie Howell, bless her, came with her husband David all the way up to see us."
Philip Hutchinson Continued dissatisfaction with the superficiality of my physicality, which can only steadily decline from this low point, more international travel, more play-writing and touring, an increased cost of living vying against a frozen income, gradual loss of savings, homelessness, unheralded death. And then a post-mortem comeback tour with my mouldering remains being reanimated onstage.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time That sounds like a play! Philip, thank you so much for giving up 2½ hours of your Sunday afternoon to come and talk to me, really enjoyed going back over those days with you. And may I take this opportunity of wishing you every happiness and success with whatever you add to your life in the future. This is the bit where you're supposed to offer platitudes again... ;)
Philip Hutchinson I love you but we are never going to have sex.
Thank you very much, Mick. When we started out as kids banging piano lids I often thought 'One day, when I'm old, I'm going to be interviewed about these days'. And, thanks to you, it has happened. Are you going to put up a link to the final musical project I ever did now? ;)
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Indeed, we're going to play out with a bit of an epic from Philip from 2001, under the delightful moniker of Heroin Grandmother, a lovely long piece of Krautrock called 'F'. I'll be back at 20:00 BST/UTC+1 with Chris Carter, in the meantime, dinner beckons. Catch yas all later...

0

FREE DOWNLOAD: Pick yourself up a copy of Christ's "Please Don't Touch My Yoghurt" (MMATT 32, 1989) right here, courtesy of Philip Hutchinson's personal archives, just click on the cover image ...