Paul Kaye is back...as an evil piranha

2 months ago 03rd Sep 11:11

He spent the nineties winding up celebrities with his unique interviewing skills as Dennis Pennis but it's been a while since we last saw Paul Kaye. Female First caught up with him to talk about his new role, as an evil piranha.

Chop Socky Chooks starts on Cartoon Network Monday 8th September at 5.30pm

You made your name as Dennis Pennis- how did this character come about?

I was playing in a band called We are Pleb and we got interviewed for a Granada show called Transmission and I got pissed with the crew, went out and walked down Oxford Street abusing people with a pair of glasses on and then a year later I got a phone call from someone at the BBC who'd seen this tape and the rest is history. So I'd never acted or done comedy before and I was 32 and it came out of the blue and I just went for it!

So it was a year later? Did you know what they were talking about or had you forgotten it?

Yeah the guy who had done the film for this music show, a guy called Ewan who was actually a roadie for the band, cut it together at the BBC for his show reel and I think the VHS just got handed around the department and it suddenly arrived on a producer's desk a year later. I think it was kind of like an in house joke. It was not your normal career path it just sort of came along and I jumped at it!

Was he as much fun to play as it looked?

Oh man it was a riot!I was completely out of control around the world for a year and a half! Completely unemployable afterwards! I pissed off so many potential employers, I went back to milking cows afterwards.

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