Scots BBC legend unrecognisable as gamer in shock new Black Mirror series
PETER Capaldi has revealed working with Scots newcomer Lewis Gribben was like staring at his mirror image.
The pair team up for a new instalment of the Netflix global phenomenon Black Mirror where they play an old and young version of a gaming geek caught up in a murder mystery in new episode Plaything.
But the two generations of Glaswegian actors began to copy each other as they got to grips with creator Charlie Brooker’s madcap telly universe.
Former Doctor Who star Peter, 66, said: “We didn’t talk about it very much, but at the readthrough, we were sitting next to each other and Lewis comes from Glasgow, so our accents began to harmonise a little, so we started to tune, vocally, and I thought, that’s what to do.
“He started before me, so he did all the work and he is brilliant. I just leant into trying to be like him. I’d seen him in Somewhere Boy, which I thought he was magnificent in.
“Then I looked at some interviews that he did to publicise the series and tried to pick up on some of his mannerisms and some of his idiosyncrasies of speech. But we’ve got very similar backgrounds and very similar speech patterns, so it wasn’t a huge leap.
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“I think he’s brilliant and so charismatic. He started before me as I had to go abroad, and then I joined a week after they’d been filming. I asked the production to show me some of his scenes so that I could get a sense of what he was doing and try to lean into that.
“But it was a bad idea because he was so wonderful. I thought, ‘oh, I’ll never follow that’.”
Rising star Lewis, 26, was equally ecstatic to be teaming up with the The Thick Of It favourite.
He added: “It’s crazy because he is such a brilliant actor in Scotland and in the UK and worldwide. He is such a beloved actor, so it was a bit intimidating when finding out that I was going to play the young version of him.
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“But he’s so lovely the few times I’ve spoken to him. It’s just an honour because I’ve grown up watching the Doctor Who series and now sharing a character with him is unreal.
“Thankfully I did most of my stuff first, so I didn’t have to take too much from him. But Peter has been observant and studying. There was one day on set where he asked me to read certain lines so that he could adapt his voice into mine.
“He also asked me to walk in front of him so he can mimic my movement. It’s more him taking from me, I’ve not got to mimic his voice or his mannerisms.”
The pair play eccentric loner Cameron Walker, a nerd who harbours an intense obsession with a mysterious 90s video game called Thronglets and who is arrested in connection with a grisly cold case.
He’s a journalist for a publication called PC Zone, and his boss has got him an interview with Colin Ritman, played by Will Poulter, 32, who was in the iconic 2018 interactive Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch, to talk about his new project.
It turns out that the latest creation is more than just a game - as Cameron becomes attached to artificial life.
Peter said: “Cameron is a very shy and timid creature who has had a very unfortunate beginning in life. His mother was an alcoholic. His father was rather brutal and violent, and he was sent away to school. He was beaten up by everyone because he was a mega geek.
“He doesn’t have a lot of friends. He plays computer games all the time, works with computers all the time, and even writes about them, which is how he made a living 30 years ago, and it leads him astray.”
Lewis added: “Cameron’s an introverted young man who’s had a violent upbringing from his dad.
“But he has a life in gaming. He likes being in these technology worlds, but he’s just very shy and very timid. He doesn’t really have anyone in his life as he becomes a teenager and as he grows up into an adult.”
And the young star could identify with the character, as he’s into gaming himself.
Lewis said: “I’m a very passionate gamer. I started with PlayStation One, and I’ve had the old Spyro games, and the Harry Potter games.
“As technology has advanced with each iteration of the PlayStation, I’ve gone from One to Five, I still play games as much as I possibly can.
“Thronglets is one of those games where you’re kind of like a God, you have to feed them and multiply them with love and care, but at the same time, you can destroy them.”
As is the case with most Black Mirror episodes, Plaything takes real world issues like AI and shows just how dangerous they could become in reality.
Both Peter and Lewis were already fans of the series, due to its unique take on modern life, and admit starring in an episode themselves led to some troublesome thoughts.
Peter said: “It’s such a fun and strange idea. There was an understanding of the future that had not yet arrived, and yet he saw it.
“The characters in this episode are part of a new future, even though they don’t realise it, and it was a future that seemed pretty feasible to me. I was just really impressed by that.
“There are dangers lurking in technology. In every corner and in some of the least expected places. When the invasion of the computers comes, it may not be quite how you expected. So, beware. Sleep lightly.”
Lewis added: “I thought the human characters came through well. I felt like there were a lot of them, despite all the technological things.
“But the way it unravelled, the way you saw how both Cameron and the world evolved, and how driven it was. The message is so intelligent, but also true of what’s happening now in our times with technology and AI.
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“The intelligence of his writing is just brilliant. Black Mirror all feels like it’s all part of a bigger universe.”
Black Mirror hits Netflix on April 10