Greg McHugh
The Scottish comic talent with a flair for offbeat roles
IN HIS NATIVE SCOTLAND, Greg McHugh is better known as Gary McLintoch, a flamboyant, fashion-obsessed tank commander who judges the British Army’s success in Iraq according to the depth of his suntan. Outside Scotland, McHugh is more likely to be known as Howard, a geology student and eccentric loner who cooks Peking duck in his living room using a hair dryer and a clothes line. But having created these oddball characters in Gary Tank Commander and Fresh Meat respectively, McHugh wants to try something different. ‘I’d love to act in something gritty, brutal and depressing,’ he says. ‘I love comedy, but I never saw myself as a comedian in the long term and I hope to branch out into very different roles.’
After graduating from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in Glasgow, McHugh turned to stand-up comedy to gain stage experience. He was working on a show at the Edinburgh Fringe when he was asked by a TV production company if he had any ideas for a comedy character. ‘It was during the war in Iraq and there seemed to be a total dearth of commentary on it,’ McHugh recalls. ‘So I came up with the most unlikely guy you could ever imagine being made a corporal in the British Army.’
After three years in development, Gary Tank Commander was turned into a critically acclaimed comedy on BBC Scotland. Despite the fantastic reviews, it has only received UK-wide coverage very late at night on BBC3. ‘It’s really hard to get UK-wide coverage,’ McHugh says. ‘I don’t understand the reason for this. I don’t think there’s such a divide between Scottish and English humour.’
Despite the lack of exposure in England, his performance in Gary Tank Commander was seen by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the writing duo who created Peep Show. ‘Their Fresh Meat script was of such brilliant quality I felt I could understand Howard straight away,’ says McHugh.
This year has already seen a BBC Radio 4 sketch comedy performed with comedian Will Andrews (Meanwhile, It’s Will & Greg), and the third series of Gary Tank Commander is now being written. A second batch of Fresh Meat will follow in the summer and McHugh hopes that Howard achieves the impossible and gets a girlfriend: ‘A bit of interaction with a female would be great for him.’
In the longer term, there’s that desire to pick up some serious roles. ‘I look at people like Olivia Colman, a superb actor who moved from comedies like Peep Show to movies like Tyrannosaur and The Iron Lady.
I would love to be making films with great directors. I don’t think I should be in my late 30s and 40s and still be playing a camp tank commander.’ Matthew Lee
