Ben Miller knows all about being one half of a hit comedy double act. The 45-year-old and his long-time friend and comedy partner Alexander Armstrong won a Bafta for The Armstrong And Miller Show.
But Miller has been flying without his wingman as director of Huge, a film about aspiring comedians Warren and Clark, who meet by chance and, discovering they can make people laugh together, set out to become a famous double act.
Based on a play he co-wrote with Jez Butterworth and Simon Godley, Miller has been able to inject his own experiences as a stand-up into this buddy comedy starring Adulthood’s Noel Clarke and London To Brighton’s Johnny Harris.
Miller decided Harris and Clarke were the “perfect” casting choice for Warren and Clark because they are both known for “hardmen parts” and he wanted to keep the audience guessing as to whether they would ever achieve their dream of hitting the big time.
“These are two people that you don’t perhaps think of as being comedy actors. But I knew they were both funny,” he confides.
“I was stuck in a lift with Noel once and he was with some friends and was really making them laugh. I thought, ‘Perfect’.”
Warren and Clark discover their on-stage chemistry by chance, when they both attend the same open mic night, and afterwards, like a prince seeking his princess with a ‘‘bromance’’ twist, Warren tracks Clark down to persuade him they should team up.
Miller admits there are parallels with his own relationship with Armstrong, whom he met at Cambridge University, although he confesses his romantic pursuit of Armstrong was slightly awkward.
“It was love at first sight. This is a terrible thing to admit, but I went to see him in a double act he was already in and I thought he was the funniest person I’d ever seen in my life.
“I was trying to encourage him to have an affair, I suppose. Meeting in bars and showing him a sketch and him saying ‘I can’t look at it, I’m in a double act already’.
“We did start having a comedy affair and at one point we decided we should make a go of it, but he still hadn’t told his double act partner.
