“If Won Ton hears about this, my arse is grass. And Won Ton’s got a lawnmower!”
The above line from **Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace **– and his stupendously and, significantly, deliberately stilted delivery of it – is just one of the many reasons why we love Richard Ayaode. The comedy star has been getting acclaim for some years now for his performances in the likes of not only Darkplace, but **The IT Crowd **and The Mighty Boosh. But did you know he’s a director too? So far his work has been limited to TV and music videos for bands including the Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend. But that’s set to change, as he’s currently working on his feature film debut, Submarine.
This exclusive image, the first still from the film, shows anti-hero teen Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) at his school — in science class, we’d guess, judging by the bony extra behind him. Empire’s been on set of the Wales-set movie, which involves Oliver’s burgeoning romance with a pyromaniac (Yasmin Paige) and attempts to stop his mother (Sally Hawkins) cheating on his dad (Noah Taylor) with a scuzzy New Age motivational speaker (Paddy Considine).
Based on the terrific novel by Joe Dunthorne, Submarine has a superb British cast, a real talent on the megaphone and — from what we’ve heard — is also shaping up to have a most exciting soundtrack. So if it’s not already on your movie radar, make sure it pings onto it now.