Five minutes with... Johnny Vegas

Dec 14 2009 By Sarah Morgan

Johnny Vegas, the actor and comedian, is reading The Boy Who Cried Wolf on Nick Jr's A Bedtime Story With Arnie And Barnie kids' TV show throughout December.

He has his own production company called Woolyback, and recently released his Live At The Benidorm Palace DVD.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE PROGRAMME?

I was lucky enough to be contacted directly. It's one of those things that you always think you'd love to do, but I'm not a big self-promoter so it's nice for them to get in touch and ask.

HOW DID YOU FIND WORKING WITH ARNIE AND BARNIE - WHO ARE, OF COURSE, WORMS?

It's like having two Mariah Careys for the price of one. Diva doesn't even come close to it. Their dressing-room demands are just incredible - I thought I was needy! They were very good, we were professionally circling each other, but hopefully they'll have realised I wasn't a threat - or a big, hungry bird.

DID YOU ENJOY MAKING THE SHOW?

It was lovely, it's the first thing like this that I've done, and they were very kind with us on the day. I obviously read to my little lad, but it's really daunting reading for millions of kids. And reading on camera was an eye-opener because I realised I've got that Sean Connery range of one voice, just at different sound levels. So I think the next one I'll do is The Hunt For Red October, a Lancashire version.

DO YOU THINK READING TO CHILDREN IS IMPORTANT?

I do, massively. It's one of those things, growing up with books that you treasure from your childhood. All children do things by example, and sitting your child down with a book on their own, I think they're far more likely to engaged in a story if they see you sitting down with them and getting involved yourself.

YOU'RE ALSO INVOLVED WITH A CHARITY PROJECT FOR NICKELODEON AREN'T YOU?

Yeah, they've asked me and some other people to design our own five-foot ceramic SpongeBob Squarepants. They'll be on display at the Animation Gallery on the South Bank in London, and then they'll be auctioned off to raise money for ChildLine.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR YOURS?

Mine is modelled on David Bowie - he's called BowieBob Flirtpants. It's from the Ziggy Stardust era. It's one of those things, you're sitting there thinking, 'Who can I do for this?'. It's so difficult with SpongeBob, they're that creative on the show, there's very little they haven't already done.

HASN'T BOWIE LEANT HIS VOICE TO A SPONGEBOB CHARACTER?

Has he? I'll have to Google that. I hope you dreamed that! It might have been from that Tin Machine era that everybody tries to forget. Quite honestly, you're looking at Ziggy Stardust, and there's almost an animated quality to it. So you put him on SpongeBob, and you think, you know, it works!

YOU'RE ALSO MAKING A CBBC PROGRAMME AREN'T YOU?

Yes, The Dead Puppets Society. We've got to deliver by 2011, so we're just knocking the stories together now and going to town with the villains. I've got a six-year-old who'll be seven by then. He'll be watching it and I know he doesn't pull his punches, so it'd better be good. It's nice to be able to play myself as a telly personality whose life is chaotic. But the reasons are not what's been reported in the press, it's because I spends my spare time tracking down puppets who've risen from the grave.

WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOT IN THE PIPELINE?

A lot of writing and developments with projects for Woolyback, doing a bit of work on my memoirs, getting ready for another series of Ideal, and I've been out plugging the DVD. And some stand-up. I'm juggling a lot of things, I'm quite lucky. There's never a dull day.