Tom Hollander (Rev) interview

Rev is BBC Two's contemporary new sitcom following the daily frustrations and moral conflicts of the Reverend Adam Smallbone.

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Tom Hollander plays the Rev in question and he tells us about his inspirations for the series, which he co-created...


You're the co-creator of Reverend Adam Smallbone. Where did the inspiration for the character come from?

"There was a news story about a West London vicar who had suddenly become the most invited man in the district because someone in the Shadow Cabinet was trying to get their children into his school. I thought that sounded quite funny because if you think of a classic image of an Anglican vicar being slightly socially awkward, and being thrust into the metropolitan world with people fighting over themselves to get his attention, it's a rather funny story to tell.

"Another inspiration came from attending the christening of one of my godchildren. As I looked at the father, an old friend, I remembered while at university he'd come back from home one Christmas and, apparently, said he reduced his mother to tears by finally proving the non-existence of God, and here we were, 20 years later, christening his son! I then realised his very practical wife was sorting out the educational issue early!

"So those two things started as a funny idea of, 'Oh here's an urban comedy' in essence, but then it became much broader and more interesting as we met and talked to vicars all over the place.

"I met the wife of the vicar when I was at university who was a very contemporary vicar's wife. So the conventional idea I had of her wearing an Alice band and making cakes was dispelled as I met this high-powered barrister who earned six times more than her husband. Although she dearly loved him, she was irritated by the fact that her house was not her own, and so you can see where the character of Alex [played by Olivia Colman] came from."

What was it like being the co-creator of the series?

"It's been fascinating being on both sides of the camera, which I've never done before, in that I'm seeing something go from an anecdote on the back of an envelope in a pub, all the way through to living, breathing actors coming up and developing these characters that [writer] James Wood and I invented together. The actors are all brilliant so it was really a new experience and very fulfilling."

Had you worked with James before?

"We did this show Freezing before but nothing as big as Rev. We also used to meet each other in pubs in the Nineties and talked about films that we might try and make one day. Rev was something that started a long time ago but which we both never really had any time to focus on. We got together, worked it out and then took it over to [executive producer] Kenton Allen. The three of us talked more about these characters and their story and then it expanded to the series we have today."

Were any of the stories based on real life or are they a result of a fictional theme?

"Well they're partly based on real-life stories and partly invented. They were partly led by thinking, well it would be good to try to tell a story about a particular issue, like I wanted to try to find a story where the Church of England encounters Islam and what would happen if they were in the same space. I thought, well, there must be one somewhere. We did talk to many people so we were able to find real-life stories. Sometimes the stories led to themes, and sometimes we had a theme ourselves."

Was it difficult not to cross the line and offend people?

"It was never our intention to make the Church itself seem ridiculous. We were always discussing whether something was the wrong side of the line or not, without ever wanting it to be watered down, but I believe it's fundamentally very compassionate about the Church and what vicars do."

Are there similarities between actors and vicars in that they both take on and perform a role?

"Yes, I think that's true. We tried to mark the difference with the vicar, as you can see in the first episode when the dog collar goes on; they're immediately changed by the costume. A lot of vicars we talked to talked about that experience. One said, 'I always take it off when I'm in a restaurant because people tend to lose their appetites!' It holds a very powerful image, the dog collar."

What about the cassock, how did you take to wearing that?

"Oh, like a duck to water! I liked the cassock. We were interested partly in showing something quite ancient in a modern context. The church we filmed in often feels like a big old empty seashell where the creature has died, leaving its shell. It's like taking old England and slamming it into modern urban London. So the cassock is like an eternal image in a modern context."

What's your view of faith and has it changed at all?

"I'm very averagely Church of England, I go twice a year. Well I did until we started doing this – then I went every week, to different ones each time almost. No it hasn't changed, it's just made me more curious about it, and as I get older I find it more interesting to think about why you might have faith. I find atheism quite straightforward, because clearly you can't prove anything, it makes no sense and so it's all made up; but then on the other hand the yearning to make sense of something beyond ourselves is increasingly interesting. It just makes me want to know the bits of mystery around the edges of things you don't understand."