MEET THE CAST: Philip Glenister as Betty

Can you tell us about this new animated comedy series?

It’s about a boy called Dave Spud and his adventures, I know it titled it’s a ‘Rubbish World of Dave Spud’ but it’s a fun, adventurous world of Dave Spud and I play his mum which is unusual. There is something quite old fashioned about it, which is quite nice with the animation rather than it being all high tech, so there is something quite simple and quite sweet about it.

What is Betty’s relationship like with her family?

She is the matriarch of the family, I think her relationship is very good with all the family. She keeps the whole operation going, nothing seems too much trouble for her and everybody turns to her in times of a crisis.  

How do you feel about being Johnny Vegas’s Mum?!

Well it’s a first, it’s a showbiz exclusive and it’s a big story so I’m sure it will be trending! The weird thing about doing something like this is you never get to meet the other actors, you just go in and do your own thing. It’s quite strange voicing your own part but then you don’t get to meet the other actors. 

Betty loves trucks, and she drives a campervan in the series – what’s the most rubbish car you ever owned?

I can’t think of any rubbish cars I’ve owned but my dad always had some fairly rubbish cars. He had a Datsun Sunny which was basically the colour of rust because basically they used to just rust. He never had a decent or groovy car he always had sensible cars. When I did the show ‘For the Love of Cars’ the car that I certainly wouldn’t recommend and I thought was awful was the DeLorean, it’s a ridiculous car. It was badly designed, hellishly difficult to drive and was a ghastly car, I wouldn’t recommend one of those.

What children shows do your kids watch and what did you watch growing up?

My kids are older now so we don’t tend to watch children’s television anymore but when my kids were younger the stuff they were watching were things like Teletubbies and SpongeBob SquarePants. I like the style of Dave Spud, it reminds me of the animation from the books Charlie and Lola which I used to read with my kids a lot.

Thinking about my childhood and the things I would watch, I always liked animation as a kid. I liked reading comic books like the TinTin books, I always loved the animation as there was always something magical about those. I got very in too the puppet stuff from Gerry Anderson such as The Thunderbirds, Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet, I loved them as a kid and Blue Peter and it’s great it’s still going.

My earliest memory of children’s television was when I was still at nursery and you’d finish about 12ish and you’d come home and then you’d have that slot just before lunch, so things like Trumpton and Camberwich Green. I also remember things like the Magic Roundabout, The Herbs and Hectors House which would be on around that 4pm to 5.30pm slot when you came home from school. Captain Pug Wash was another great one, that was good animation. It was a real golden age of kid’s TV late 60’s early 70’s. Another great show was Noggin the Nog created by Oliver Postgate and he was a real pioneer of children’s television back in my day. A lot of these children’s shows were animation and you get very nostalgic when you see clips of them, it takes you back to when you were a kid.