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Are you Svengali?
The cult internet comedy and some questions for Candy McCulloch who stars in the latest epidode
DO an internet search on “Svengali”. It's a good way down the page before it stops trying to sell you a 1931 movie, a 1980s TV drama, and all sorts of dictionary definitions for the word. Only scraping in at No 10 of the google hit parade do you get to what you really, really want.
Ironic, as Svengali, which has been described somewhere as the finest satire on the music business ever written, is the true child of its time, in that it has depended on the web for its viral survival since birth last year.
Now, after racking up 15,000 hits an episode, it appears to be flying the nest. Talk is of a major deal that will see Svengali go from You Tube to mainstream TV, ensuring uptown top ranking any time soon – and not just in the heady, sexy world of search engine optimisation.
Result, given that there are only 30 minutes of Svengali in existence. “The best kept comedy secret” consists of just half a dozen five minute episodes and the latest one, out now, features 23-year-old Candy McCulloch, showing her dad Ian (the Bunnyman) and her mum Lorraine (the well-known fashion PR), how one gets a leg on the ladder in this day and age.
Svengali, for the uninitiated, was dreamed up by Welsh actor Jonathan Lewis Owen who sunk a redundancy pay-off from ITV into funding a series of comedy sketches starring himself as “Simon Cowell-wannabe”, Dixie. Dixie is the manager of a rock band called the Premature Congratulations, and the series follows his attempts to get them a record deal armed only with a bag of cassette tapes.
All proper comedy is a serious enterprise and this is no exception. Written by Dean “Wedding Belles” Cavanagh, writing partner of Irvin Welsh, and directed by Philip John, regulars include comedy actress Sally Phillips and Creation Records boss Alan McGee (the man who discovered Oasis) as himself. A raft of well-known cameos have already looked in, like ex-Libertine Carl Barat, Bonehead from Oasis and Maggot from Goldie Lookin Chain.
"We wanted to show exactly how the music industry works in London, and create a kind of Spinal Tap for it," said Owen, 38. "As a Welshman in London I found it amazing the way people here, and those in the music business in particular, are so obsessed with being cool all the time. We also wanted to write something without the constraints of the commissioning process, and just see if we could make it go viral online."
Here's the first episode, catch up with them all on You Tube or download the whole lot, free, on iTunes
| Confidential caught up with Candy McCulloch, who stars in the latest episode of Svengali, LA Woman It must have been quite an exciting upbringing: Gigs, albums, fashion shoots, rock n roll. No wonder you fancy a bit of that. How well? What's brought all this on? The acting bug. They wanted me to take one of the main parts, it's about two girls who kidnap a footballer, but I just wasn't sure I was up to it at the time. It was a very strong role. And if I do something I need to be absolutely confident I'm not going to do it badly. Then what? You're not a full-time thesp quite yet, then? Would you feel a bit bashful about using your connections to get work? Been away lately? Where do you live? | How come you're in Svengali?
Strictly Come Dancing or X-Factor? Do you have a favourite Echo and the Bunnymen record? Where are you off to now? Nobody's ever said that to us in an interview before. What's the next big thing? It's about to be commissioned for TV, isn't it? |
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