Perdita
22-12-2009, 08:41
Archie Mitchell's life draws to a dramatic end on Friday during EastEnders' Christmas Day episode, as the menacing Mitchell - played by 62-year-old Larry Lamb - is sensationally bumped off by a mystery attacker and left to die on the floor of The Queen Vic. As each of Archie's adversaries pay him a visit, they let him know exactly what they think of him and his actions over the past 18 months. One foe, however, exacts the ultimate revenge, killing the twisted schemer in the pub he slyly stole from his unsuspecting family. Digital Spy recently caught up with Larry to talk about his exit, his character and that all-important question: Who Killed Archie?
What was your reaction when you heard that Archie was going to be killed off?
"The only way to deal with a real villain is to bump him off, right? If King Claudius weren't killed in Hamlet, he wouldn't be the villain that he was. He has to meet his end. That's the story of the villain and once his story's told, he's cleansed of the evil. It's the cleansing of the villain that gives the power of the character. If he's still there, the story's not told."
What spurred your decision to leave EastEnders?
"When I originally turned up, it was only for six months and then after two months, they said to me that they wanted to move it on and asked if I'd stay on for 18 months. I knew I was staying for a year and a half, but I couldn't quite work out whether I was going out with a wedding, funeral, christening or open heart surgery!"
What's been your favourite moment there?
"I still really love all of Archie's opening scenes when he first appeared and we got to know what he was all about. For me, those are the scenes that I always look back on. Archie was never really on his own territory - he's always been on somebody else's patch - whereas at the beginning, he was in his own home being himself and dealing with people on his own terms. Once they finished at the house, he was on the Square and out of his comfort zone."
Are you proud of the legacy that Archie's created?
"As far as I'm concerned, this business is all about writers. They give you the material, so it doesn't matter how good you are - there's no way you can create Archie Mitchell unless they hand you it on a plate. That's when the actor comes in and you take what they give you and bring it to life. I've spent 35 years learning how to do that! I was very fortunate with Archie, though - he was a very well established, well constructed, well thought out and well engineered character, who in the end was served extremely well by the writing team. It was almost like joining up the dots with him really. All credit goes to the writers and producers."
Do you think Archie has a conscience at all where his family's concerned?
"That's the great thing about Archie - you just don't know. It's very clever the way that Simon Ashdown - who originally designed and created the character - wrote him into the show and wrote him out. Archie goes out just as twisted and in as much of an unknown as there was when he came in. There are areas of the character where you actually see an element of him that we haven't really seen when he's saying goodbye to Peggy. You understand at that point that however mad and twisted he is, there is a great depth of feeling for Peggy. When he goes, though, there's a strong mystery there."
Do you think Archie's thoroughbred evil or just misunderstood?
"There's something very dark and dangerous within him. But that's not entirely his character - that's what makes him interesting, though. He's such a contrast. When I've been doing interviews recently, I've said that I've drawn the character on my father, which is right. But it's since made me reflect. My father wasn't entirely dark - he was a very, very funny man and could be riotously comical. But it could all turn ugly and he could become a horrifying, terrifying demon. That's what Archie's all about. You didn't see so much of his lighter side, though. Now and again a little of something else came through, though."
Who out of the family does he actually care about?
"He cares a lot for Peggy and his daughters. That's the one area he realises that he's repeated things that his father did wrong with him and his brothers, and now he's got it wrong with his own children - even though one is desperately trying to stay in touch with him. He can't get the daughter thing right, as much as he wants to. Then he has his association with Janine, but I think that's just a sexual connection. He's looking for a bit of comfort and she comes along - it just so happens that she can help him with his plans for The Vic, too."
What happens during the Christmas Day episode?
"Archie has one visitor after the other. He has a reckoning with all the people that later become potential suspects. The only one he never comes face to face with is Phil, but you know that because of all their history, he'll be a suspect no matter what."
Do you know who killed Archie?
"No, not at all. They asked if I wanted to know and I said, 'No!'"
EXCLUSIVE: Larry Lamb on Archie, the live ep and future projects!
EastEnders star Larry Lamb calls time on his Walford role on Christmas Day when his twisted character Archie Mitchell is dramatically bumped off in cold blood within the pub he effectively ripped from beneath his family's feet.
With so many suspects at the close of what will be one of the BBC soap's most shocking episodes of the year, there'll be one question on everyone's lips until February 19: just Who Killed Archie?
To read the first half of my exclusive chat about how Larry's exit came about, Archie's legacy and more, then click your clicking thing here.
Read on, though, for loads more exclusive quotes about the Christmas storyline.
Following his return after the summer, what made Archie turn against his family?
"Because they wouldn't have Archie apologise - he tried to make amends but he'd gone too far. So he just pressed on regardless and started blundering around in an attempt to put it all right, but all he really did was make it worse!"
Did Archie always intend to use Janine or was it only when he overheard that she was double bluffing him that he realised he had to play her at her own game?
"Archie drew Janine in to get her on board so she didn't turn against him. She has a history of it and likes old blokes with money anyway!"
Does Archie not feel intimidated that he's annoyed everyone on the Square?
"I don't think Archie's intimidated by anybody. He's fearless. He might appear to be frightened of things, but that's just all part of the act."
He couldn't deal with the wasp nest, though…
"Why would he, though? He had slaves around the place like Billy. You wouldn't buy a dog and bark yourself!"
How has Archie come to own The Vic?
"By a deft bit of financial finagling. Basically, Archie's figured out that there's a way to use money to get hold of it. The Mitchells have exposed themselves by virtue of Sam showing up on the scene, they've done their best to help but left themselves open to attack in the process. Archie then saw an opportunity, swooped in and bought his way in on a deal with Ian that, in theory, he should never have had anything to do with. He's a very canny man - he's taken advantage of the situation. It's opened up a very interesting can of worms for the family."
What happens with the divorce papers over Christmas?
"They keep going backwards and forwards and become a pawn that keeps getting played across the table. Archie uses them as a means to test Peggy as to whether she'll be going through with what she says she's going to. Peggy signs them but Archie doesn't send them in and he puts them back to her, suggesting that they don't go through with it. The divorce papers are a measure of the state of their relationship - it's a very clever bit of writing."
There's an incident where Archie pushes Ronnie into the bar at The Vic, putting her baby in danger…
"Yeah... It's certainly not intentional, though. It's just the heat of the moment that causes it. He feels sincere guilt afterwards, but you then see a really nasty side of him in the way he deals with her reaction to what he's done. To be perfectly honest, you start to see Archie turn really twisted."
He starts acting a little out of character, doesn't he?
"Funnily enough, he starts doing something that he's never done before throughout his story. I made sure that Archie wasn't a drinker - despite the fact that he was living in a pub - because he'd had a history of it and had to lay off it because he had cancer. Archie's very much drinking whiskey towards the end and I think this can be held to account for the side of him you've not seen before."
Are you disappointed that you're not going to be around for the 25th anniversary?
"Not at all! If there's one way to get yourself sorted out with a heart attack, it's that! No thanks! I'll be sitting comfortable at home enjoying every second of it!"
Barbara leaving is a huge blow for EastEnders, isn't it? Were the quotes from you in the papers true?
"They were misquotes, that's what they were. All I ever said was, 'To me, she must be upset about something'. That was it. I know how much Barbara loves the show, so that's all I said. Then they started crediting me with 'Barbara's had a bust-up' and I didn't say anything of the sort. You have to assume that anything as big as EastEnders will bear the loss, repair and move on. However, what will be interesting is what happens to Peggy. How will she leave? Now there's a question."
How would you like to see her leave?
"I can't see that she'll be killed off. I'm sure they'll leave it up for her to return."
Where do you go from here? What projects do you have in the pipeline?
"I'm doing TV material with my boy George - we're doing a show about father-son relationships for ITV where we go off to Namibia and stay with some hill people out there who live off their herds. It's to compare our lives as an urban, European father and son, who are living in the same city with those people who live in the foothills of a mountain range in Africa, whose lives are probably as distant from ours as possible."
You're doing a one-man show, too?
"I'm just getting ready to do that now, preparing it. Well I say preparing, it's just like 'Larry Lamb bangs on' really! It's basically me talking about being an ordinary bloke becoming an actor. It's that journey of a person with a working-class background becoming an actor."
How did it come about?
"I've sat around talking to many people in this business, exchanging stories and people have said to me, 'You should put together a show', and now there's a lot of people around the country who know who I am. I was speaking to a publisher about a book and they then spoke to a promotions company and they suggested that I do a one-man show and take it around the country. All of a sudden, it's evolved."
Would you ever do something like Who Do You Think You Are? to look back at your family history?
"I'd love to do one of those because my family is a bit spooky! There's darkness from both sides. You don't really know what you'd unravel, though. I've been writing my autobiography and I've been trying to find out more about my family. I've spoken to so many people who know where they're from but my family are a bit more transient than that. I don't really know much about them once it gets back about two generations."
From DS
What was your reaction when you heard that Archie was going to be killed off?
"The only way to deal with a real villain is to bump him off, right? If King Claudius weren't killed in Hamlet, he wouldn't be the villain that he was. He has to meet his end. That's the story of the villain and once his story's told, he's cleansed of the evil. It's the cleansing of the villain that gives the power of the character. If he's still there, the story's not told."
What spurred your decision to leave EastEnders?
"When I originally turned up, it was only for six months and then after two months, they said to me that they wanted to move it on and asked if I'd stay on for 18 months. I knew I was staying for a year and a half, but I couldn't quite work out whether I was going out with a wedding, funeral, christening or open heart surgery!"
What's been your favourite moment there?
"I still really love all of Archie's opening scenes when he first appeared and we got to know what he was all about. For me, those are the scenes that I always look back on. Archie was never really on his own territory - he's always been on somebody else's patch - whereas at the beginning, he was in his own home being himself and dealing with people on his own terms. Once they finished at the house, he was on the Square and out of his comfort zone."
Are you proud of the legacy that Archie's created?
"As far as I'm concerned, this business is all about writers. They give you the material, so it doesn't matter how good you are - there's no way you can create Archie Mitchell unless they hand you it on a plate. That's when the actor comes in and you take what they give you and bring it to life. I've spent 35 years learning how to do that! I was very fortunate with Archie, though - he was a very well established, well constructed, well thought out and well engineered character, who in the end was served extremely well by the writing team. It was almost like joining up the dots with him really. All credit goes to the writers and producers."
Do you think Archie has a conscience at all where his family's concerned?
"That's the great thing about Archie - you just don't know. It's very clever the way that Simon Ashdown - who originally designed and created the character - wrote him into the show and wrote him out. Archie goes out just as twisted and in as much of an unknown as there was when he came in. There are areas of the character where you actually see an element of him that we haven't really seen when he's saying goodbye to Peggy. You understand at that point that however mad and twisted he is, there is a great depth of feeling for Peggy. When he goes, though, there's a strong mystery there."
Do you think Archie's thoroughbred evil or just misunderstood?
"There's something very dark and dangerous within him. But that's not entirely his character - that's what makes him interesting, though. He's such a contrast. When I've been doing interviews recently, I've said that I've drawn the character on my father, which is right. But it's since made me reflect. My father wasn't entirely dark - he was a very, very funny man and could be riotously comical. But it could all turn ugly and he could become a horrifying, terrifying demon. That's what Archie's all about. You didn't see so much of his lighter side, though. Now and again a little of something else came through, though."
Who out of the family does he actually care about?
"He cares a lot for Peggy and his daughters. That's the one area he realises that he's repeated things that his father did wrong with him and his brothers, and now he's got it wrong with his own children - even though one is desperately trying to stay in touch with him. He can't get the daughter thing right, as much as he wants to. Then he has his association with Janine, but I think that's just a sexual connection. He's looking for a bit of comfort and she comes along - it just so happens that she can help him with his plans for The Vic, too."
What happens during the Christmas Day episode?
"Archie has one visitor after the other. He has a reckoning with all the people that later become potential suspects. The only one he never comes face to face with is Phil, but you know that because of all their history, he'll be a suspect no matter what."
Do you know who killed Archie?
"No, not at all. They asked if I wanted to know and I said, 'No!'"
EXCLUSIVE: Larry Lamb on Archie, the live ep and future projects!
EastEnders star Larry Lamb calls time on his Walford role on Christmas Day when his twisted character Archie Mitchell is dramatically bumped off in cold blood within the pub he effectively ripped from beneath his family's feet.
With so many suspects at the close of what will be one of the BBC soap's most shocking episodes of the year, there'll be one question on everyone's lips until February 19: just Who Killed Archie?
To read the first half of my exclusive chat about how Larry's exit came about, Archie's legacy and more, then click your clicking thing here.
Read on, though, for loads more exclusive quotes about the Christmas storyline.
Following his return after the summer, what made Archie turn against his family?
"Because they wouldn't have Archie apologise - he tried to make amends but he'd gone too far. So he just pressed on regardless and started blundering around in an attempt to put it all right, but all he really did was make it worse!"
Did Archie always intend to use Janine or was it only when he overheard that she was double bluffing him that he realised he had to play her at her own game?
"Archie drew Janine in to get her on board so she didn't turn against him. She has a history of it and likes old blokes with money anyway!"
Does Archie not feel intimidated that he's annoyed everyone on the Square?
"I don't think Archie's intimidated by anybody. He's fearless. He might appear to be frightened of things, but that's just all part of the act."
He couldn't deal with the wasp nest, though…
"Why would he, though? He had slaves around the place like Billy. You wouldn't buy a dog and bark yourself!"
How has Archie come to own The Vic?
"By a deft bit of financial finagling. Basically, Archie's figured out that there's a way to use money to get hold of it. The Mitchells have exposed themselves by virtue of Sam showing up on the scene, they've done their best to help but left themselves open to attack in the process. Archie then saw an opportunity, swooped in and bought his way in on a deal with Ian that, in theory, he should never have had anything to do with. He's a very canny man - he's taken advantage of the situation. It's opened up a very interesting can of worms for the family."
What happens with the divorce papers over Christmas?
"They keep going backwards and forwards and become a pawn that keeps getting played across the table. Archie uses them as a means to test Peggy as to whether she'll be going through with what she says she's going to. Peggy signs them but Archie doesn't send them in and he puts them back to her, suggesting that they don't go through with it. The divorce papers are a measure of the state of their relationship - it's a very clever bit of writing."
There's an incident where Archie pushes Ronnie into the bar at The Vic, putting her baby in danger…
"Yeah... It's certainly not intentional, though. It's just the heat of the moment that causes it. He feels sincere guilt afterwards, but you then see a really nasty side of him in the way he deals with her reaction to what he's done. To be perfectly honest, you start to see Archie turn really twisted."
He starts acting a little out of character, doesn't he?
"Funnily enough, he starts doing something that he's never done before throughout his story. I made sure that Archie wasn't a drinker - despite the fact that he was living in a pub - because he'd had a history of it and had to lay off it because he had cancer. Archie's very much drinking whiskey towards the end and I think this can be held to account for the side of him you've not seen before."
Are you disappointed that you're not going to be around for the 25th anniversary?
"Not at all! If there's one way to get yourself sorted out with a heart attack, it's that! No thanks! I'll be sitting comfortable at home enjoying every second of it!"
Barbara leaving is a huge blow for EastEnders, isn't it? Were the quotes from you in the papers true?
"They were misquotes, that's what they were. All I ever said was, 'To me, she must be upset about something'. That was it. I know how much Barbara loves the show, so that's all I said. Then they started crediting me with 'Barbara's had a bust-up' and I didn't say anything of the sort. You have to assume that anything as big as EastEnders will bear the loss, repair and move on. However, what will be interesting is what happens to Peggy. How will she leave? Now there's a question."
How would you like to see her leave?
"I can't see that she'll be killed off. I'm sure they'll leave it up for her to return."
Where do you go from here? What projects do you have in the pipeline?
"I'm doing TV material with my boy George - we're doing a show about father-son relationships for ITV where we go off to Namibia and stay with some hill people out there who live off their herds. It's to compare our lives as an urban, European father and son, who are living in the same city with those people who live in the foothills of a mountain range in Africa, whose lives are probably as distant from ours as possible."
You're doing a one-man show, too?
"I'm just getting ready to do that now, preparing it. Well I say preparing, it's just like 'Larry Lamb bangs on' really! It's basically me talking about being an ordinary bloke becoming an actor. It's that journey of a person with a working-class background becoming an actor."
How did it come about?
"I've sat around talking to many people in this business, exchanging stories and people have said to me, 'You should put together a show', and now there's a lot of people around the country who know who I am. I was speaking to a publisher about a book and they then spoke to a promotions company and they suggested that I do a one-man show and take it around the country. All of a sudden, it's evolved."
Would you ever do something like Who Do You Think You Are? to look back at your family history?
"I'd love to do one of those because my family is a bit spooky! There's darkness from both sides. You don't really know what you'd unravel, though. I've been writing my autobiography and I've been trying to find out more about my family. I've spoken to so many people who know where they're from but my family are a bit more transient than that. I don't really know much about them once it gets back about two generations."
From DS