Sophie Aldred has appeared in many venues over the years – but during COVID, the most important has been her airing cupboard. Where, we hasten to add, she has a fully equipped sound studio, complete with hot and cold running lackeys…. Ahem. It seems the spirit of The Barren Author has taken over this header. In the new Spiteful Puppet release, Aldred plays Smith, who is discussing the life story of the Brigadier… but does she have another agenda. Aldred chatted with Paul Simpson about playing the foil in Paul Birch’s new version of the tales.

 So how did you get roped in to the Brigadier’s adventures?

It came through my friend Ian Kubiak who’s down in Gloucester who runs this convention called Cygnus Alpha. We occasionally get in touch and he said ‘Oh, my friend Barnaby has got a possible part for you if you’re interested’. Of course, I’ve got my home recording studio in the airing cupboard and I’m in this tiny little space. There’s a little door in our bathroom, you go in, it’s mainly full of sheets and towels but I took a couple of shelves out and I can just about squeeze in there with a chair. I’ve got my mic and the laptop. I have to keep the light off because otherwise the laptop gets too hot and the fan starts whirring.

So I thought I can do it to a good standard then Barnaby and I started corresponding and he’s such a delightful guy.

He sent me the scripts and I thought This is really good fun. I don’t know about you but I’ve been really into doing as many things as I can that I think will put a smile on people’s faces or will make a difference to people who are possibly very isolated, possibly dealing with mental health issues, possibly dealing with family problems – not being able to get out of the house if you don’t get on with your family

When I heard Barnaby had got Richard O’Brien on board it was like, yes! It was a no brainer really.

Did you do anything with Richard or have you been totally separate?

Sadly, we have been separate – time zones have prohibited that – although there was an interview we could have done but I’d actually got myself a job in a studio on that day so it didn’t happen.

I’m really hoping at some point to be able to actually speak to Richard in person because it is different doing your lines on your own. At Big Finish or at other companies I work for we often do our lines in isolation and the good thing is I can hear Richard’s voice in my head, so I am responding to his voice and his characterisation but it is on my own in isolation.

I gave Barnaby a couple of options of each line, I did a few passes of each script so that he at least had some options and then Richard recorded his lines. Barnaby got back to me about a couple of things because Richard was just pronouncing things a bit differently to me or there would be something that entailed just going back and re-recording.

Those little tweaks are what make it work…

Exactly – and another good thing about it is we’re not supposed to be in the same room anyway. It is a Zoom or Skype or whatever call, so actually it works well and Barnaby has treated my voice anyway so that it sounds like that. My recording was very clear but he’s obviously put an effect on it. It’s perfect, it really lends itself to this medium.

Have you heard the final versions yet?

I’ve heard the first episode, yes.

What did you think?

Well, of course I didn’t know what Richard was going to do with it and I’m so happy because really I play a very small part, I’m the straight guy.

The foil.

I love being the foil. I love doing that, it’s great. I’m very very happy in that role because I love being like this deadpan almost and then getting progressively more frustrated or whatever with it. And then hearing Richard and the whole tall tale of it is just delicious.

The writer has really run with that element of that.

Completely yes.

So, assuming that these go down well, will you be back for more?

Oh yes. I’d step back into the airing cupboard any day. (Laughs)

‘The Barren Author’ will be released 31 October 2020 
Price: £3.99 each episode or £19.95 for all 6 if bought together
http://www.spitefulpuppet.com

Click here to read our interview with Richard O’Brien