The boys are back ...

South London Press

The boys are back ...

Mar 19 2004

SOUTH London comedy duo Adam and Joe may have packed up the toy box but they're still treating fans to their daft humour with a slot on XFM. Joe tells KELLIE REDMOND about Laurence Llewelyn Bowen's bum...

IF ADAM and Joe were to do a remake of current hit movie Lost In Translation they'd like to "dress Bill Murray up as a teddy bear and put Scarlett Johansson in a sexy duck outfit".

It's good to see the pair haven't lost their touch when it comes to their much-loved technique of recreating famous films using toys (the Star Wars re-enactment with plastic figures being a favourite). But while their award-winning cult Adam and Joe Show, filmed above The Body Shop in Brixton, may now be long gone, the pair are still treating fans to their own brand of daft humour as presenters on alternative music station Xfm on Saturday afternoons.

The South London duo are keeping the seats warm for latest national treasures Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who are away for six months following the phenomenal success of The Office and are working on a follow-up.

It's the second time they've sat in for them, says Brixton-based Joe: "We wanted to get into radio, Adam used to DJ in Cheltenham when he was at college so we went to Xfm saying we'd like to do something."

He adds: "Then when Ricky and Steph had to go off and collect awards seven days a week, we were approached."

Has it been huge pressure stepping into the shoes of Gervais and Merchant?

"I guess it's a little bit of pressure, because we knew their show was very popular, but we are just trying to do something that's us."

Hence, regular features such as reviewing films they've never seen.

"It's quite easy as you have an idea of what the film's going to be like," he laughs.

"And not seeing a film never stopped some critics writing about them."

And because he and Adam have very different music tastes ("I'm into R'n'B and hip-hop and Adam's very much into indie music") each week they get listeners to decide between a track they've each picked.

But, be warned: if Joe suddenly adopts a husky voice mid-voting he's cannily pretending "the mic's a cat" to gain an unfair advantage over his co-presenter.

"I presented Front Row [arts show] on Radio 4 for a while last year," he explains.

"They train your voice to sound Radio 4 - the trainer told me to talk as if I was whispering in the ear of a lover in bed or talking to a cat.

He laughs: "She then cut two small triangles out of a piece of paper, and then stuck them on the mic to look like cats ears.

"It's so soothing, that sometimes I employ my Radio 4 voice to seduce the listener - so they pick my track over Adam's."

So what's been your Xfm radio highlight so far?

"When we get an email, as we know someone must be listening the show," he says dryly. The pair first met as 13-year-olds at the "very poe-sh" Westminster School in central London, and now live a short distance from each other in South London.

"Adam lives in Stockwell, one side of the Brixton Road, and I live the other, in Brixton/Herne Hill."

Joe continues: "I grew up in Stockwell for the first 25 years of my life. Then I moved to Kennington, Vauxhall, then briefly to the East End for two-and-a-half years. But just had to come back."

When they were making The Adam and Joe Show in the mid-90s they could often be seen hanging out at The Dogstar, but now married (Adam has a baby girl), they've swapped clubbing for live music: "We both go to gigs at Brixton Academy and last saw Beck there."

On the music front, not many people may know that while making their show in the late 90s, the pair also experimented in making pop promos - including one for Pixies frontman Frank Black, no less. In terms of being in front of the camera, last year they made Adam and Joe Go Tokyo! for BBC Three.

"It was amazing. I don't know how many people watched it, but in terms of a free holiday for Adam and Joe it was great!"

But did they fulfil the challenge and "make it big" in the land of the Rising Sun?

"Not really. The most exciting was when we had this group of girls follow us around. People thought we were Western pop stars, so eventually we had several hundred people following us around."

He adds: "We'd definitely like to do another series and have a go in a different country."

And there's those Surf adverts with Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Keith Harris and Orville.

"They are great fun. Adam and I started making our own TV shows and it was just the two of us doing everything, the lights, filming...so doing an advert where someone does your make-up and someone else does the lights, it's great."

He adds: "Laurence was very, very nice. He's got a lovely woman's bum and lovely hair. He told dirty jokes all day."

Meanwhile, in terms of the future, there's good news for fans of their 90s TV show: "We are working really hard on a DVD of all four series of The Adam and Joe Show," reveals Joe.

"We are hoping to release that in August."

He says they are also working on "something dramatic" for TV, but can't reveal too much at the moment.

"We also really want to do a low budget film, quite a stupid comedy, with elements of animation like Monty Python."

And, fingers crossed, starring lots of toys.

***Adam and Joe, Saturdays, 1-3pm, on Xfm 104.9fm.

[ Previous | Next ]