Radio Times, January 8, 2022

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Radio Times

UK & Ireland magazines

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View from my sofa

Elvis Costello

‘I don’t want it to be over’

Craig McLean

Taking his time with the Beatles and following Liverpool in Spanish

You live in New York with your jazz musician wife Diana Krall – what’s your TV set-up?

There are probably too many screens in the house. When my [twin] boys, who just turned 15, were small, there’d be particular channels for them on a little TV in the kitchen. But now there’s something special about watching a film as a family so there’s a room where we do that. But often, we watch on different platforms and mediums. They even have TVs on tour buses these days. But Mo Salah could be heading inside the penalty box for Liverpool, then the satellite connection breaks, always at an inopportune moment!

How easy is it for you to watch live Liverpool matches in America?

You’re either on NBC or CBS, but because I don’t care for the commentators my new fun is watching the games on [American Spanish-language network] Telemundo. I’ve no idea what they’re saying! But when there’s a goal, it’s really something. It makes you feel you’re at the game because the commentator is going so crazy.

If you and the family are at home, who’s in charge of the remote?

I think you’d have to ask my wife!

What have you enjoyed on TV?

I resisted watching Succession because everybody was saying, “You have to watch it!” And I thought: “Do I really want to spend time with heartless rich people? Haven’t we had enough of that with Dynasty and Dallas?” But it’s very well written and acted; absolutely compulsive. I’m also working my way through Get Back. I like to take my time, and Peter Jackson put a lot of care into it, so I don’t want it to be over. I was at the premier in London, which was sensational – particularly as the only time I ever went to the pictures with my dad was to Leicester Square to see Let It Be, and we came out terribly depressed. So it was joyful to see this [new version].

Were you also a fan of Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings?

It never caught my imagination as a book, let alone as a film. The witches and goblins thing? Never got it.

Do you remember your first television appearance?

It was on Granada Television, on a What’s On-type programme with Tony Wilson, with his marvellous bouffant. He was interviewing Cilla Black and [Irish writer] Edna O’Brien. I was 22 and immediately fell in love with Edna. She was like Mrs Robinson…

You also guest-starred in Frasier – do you dream of being an actor?

My friend, a television writer who was working on an adjacent soundstage, came and watched one of my takes and said “You might want to take it down a little bit.” To be truthful, by then the show was a rudderless ship, but I didn’t know enough about it. I’m not an actor. “Man in glasses”, “Man in glasses with hat” and “Man in glasses with hat and guitar”: that’s the extent of my dramatic repertoire.

Sticking to music, your album The Boy Named If was recorded with your band the Imposters remotely … you can’t tell.

I think that’s got to have something to do with the fact that we’ve been colleagues and friends, the three of us, for 45 years. Anyway, even in the studio, you’re often recording in separate booths. You’re not always on top of each other, and you complete things on different days. So, the distance is only a state of mind.

Elvis Costello is on The Graham Norton Show Friday BBC1; his new album The Boy Named If is out the same day.


Tags: The BeatlesDiana KrallRoss MacManusWhat's OnTony WilsonCilla BlackFrasierThe Boy Named IfThe ImpostersIggy Pop

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Radio Times, January 8 - 14, 2022


Craig McLean interviews Elvis about his television-watching and acting.

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2022-01-08 Radio Times page 146.jpg
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Cover.
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