Notts writer L. S. Evans was the late great Sean Lock’s staff writer for fifteen years, racking up credits on shows like 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and gaining acclaim from names like Harry Hill. Now he’s back with a comic coming-of-age story…
Lee! What’s one moment you’ll always remember from your (sterling) small-screen career?
I worked with Sean Lock more than any other comedian. He was hilarious and loved to share his success with his friends. I’ll never forget - or fully recover - from the time he took a few of us to a comedy and skiing festival where he was performing in Austria. Being from Warsop, I’d never seen skis before, but Sean booked me lessons on the kiddie slopes then, after three days, decided I was ready to tackle a ‘blue run’, which turned out to be a vertical mountainside. I bulldozed through a dozen angry Italians before reaching the bottom inside a snowball, to which Sean deadpanned: ‘Maybe work on your turns a bit, Lee.’
A TV moment? Sean doing ‘The Tiger Who Came For A Pint’ on 8 Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown. It’s a genius performance. I can’t watch it without crying with laughter, as well as wishing he was still around.
Lately you’ve pivoted from the box to the world of books - how much of your TV skills transferred over, and how much did you need to learn?
I can’t pivot like I used to, not since that skiing trip. Years of losing myself in books is probably where I unconsciously learned what it takes to make a novel, how they’re put together, and I love reading about how great writers work, their rituals and methods – or lack of them - so I picked up a lot that way. As for transferable skills, having written jokes for years was definitely a big advantage when it came to dialogue. In both cases you need to be clear what you want to say and to make every word count.
Your brand new novel is Pleasantly Disturbed - a feel-good coming-of-age story set in the heady shoulder-padded 80s. Who do we follow in the book, and what are they after?
Robin and Fliss are a misfit first love couple in a Nottinghamshire mining town, who dream of becoming their idols Kate Bush and Jim Kerr of Simple Minds. But despite their enthusiasm, two things stand in their way, at least to begin with: Fliss lacks the confidence to perform in public, whereas Robin, while apparently bursting with confidence, has no talent whatsoever. Just when it looks as if these problems might be overcome, somebody gets killed and the couple find themselves entangled in a police investigation. It’s a comic coming-of-age story with a crime twist about how really great music has the power to totally transform people’s lives. It certainly did mine.
With that musical premise, how did you approach the book’s ‘soundtrack’? Did you do studious research, or is 80s music already the topic you’d be hoping to come up in the last round of Pointless?
It would definitely be one of my stronger subjects. Pleasantly Disturbed begins in 1986, when Robin is sixteen and obsessed with music, just as I was, so most of the songs and artists mentioned in the book I pretty much took from memories of the under-18s discos I went to in Warsop and Mansfield Woodhouse. That said, I still had a lot of fun digging out old Simple Minds tour programmes to look up specific concert dates, to double-check a Kate Bush or Prince lyric, or the price of a ticket to the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert at Wembley. If anyone discovered the number of hours I spent on YouTube, ‘researching’ Jim Kerr leaping about on stages all over the world, they could probably have me sectioned.
And what’s one 80s record everyone should listen to immediately?
I think if you started taping the Top 40 off the radio in 1980/81, as I did, aged ten, you really hit the jackpot in terms of the music you grew up with. I still love discovering new music and also like a lot of stuff from before I was born, but most of my all-time favourite records were probably released between 1978-88. But one ‘80s record everyone should listen to? Promised You a Miracle from Simple Minds’ Live In The City of Light. Aged sixteen, I worshipped this song and its video. It’s probably the song that most inspired me to write Pleasantly Disturbed.
As you say, Pleasantly Disturbed is set in North Notts, where you grew up as a lad. Do you think there are aspects to your writing voice particular to the city you’re from?
Writing jokes for well-known comedians, your job is always to write in their voice; if you don’t, they’re never going to use them. So with the books, it’s been really nice to write something as me for a change. When I worked in garages, lots of men and women I knew were smart and really funny. But you rarely ever see those people in books. Nottinghamshire folk often have a brilliant turn of phrase, very witty, very dry, sometimes without even realising it, so I hope I’ve inherited a bit of that and managed to get some of it into my writing.
Pleasantly Disturbed by L.S. Evans is out now in all good bookshops.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
