The fictional Dundee anti-hero Bob Servant was voiced by Hollywood actor Brian Cox in an acclaimed radio adaptation. In a special event this week, Bob was played by Greg McHugh, star of the BBC comedy Gary: Tank Commander. Broughty Ferry novelist Neil Forsyth tells Jack McKeown about a creation that has got out of control.
Bob Servant may be fictional, but that doesn’t stop him causing a whole lot of trouble. Just ask any of the poor souls who have millions of pounds tied up in African bank accounts and only need you to provide your bank account details so they can wire the money to you.
These good Samaritans, who email millions of millionaires-in-waiting every day, have had their important work hampered by the 64-year-old Broughty Ferry resident and former cheeseburger salesman.
He insists on replying to each and every one of them and engaging them in a lengthy and troubling dialogue with no intention of ever taking advantage of their kind offer of £30 million tied up in a war-torn nation’s bank account.
On the plus side, he’s published a book of these email exchanges to great critical acclaim. Delete This At Your Peril was released in 2007 with a revised and expanded edition published last year.
It was adapted for radio and recorded in Glasgow, with Dundee-born Brian Cox playing the lead role. Six episodes were broadcast on Radio Scotland, with selected episodes being carried on Radio 4.
“Being on Radio 4 opened a lot of doors for me,” Bob Servant’s creator Neil Forsyth says. “I’m based in London now and whenever I visit a media or publishing company they either heard Bob Servant on Radio 4 or heard of Bob Servant on Radio 4.”
Delete This At Your Peril was followed by Bob Servant Hero of Dundee, which took the reader through Bob’s unfortunate childhood, disastrous merchant navy career and his period as a local cheeseburger magnate.
The third Bob Servant book another collection of emails with various nefarious spammers will be released in October with the working title Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant.
“We’ll also be introduced to Bob’s fictional son Timmy Servant,” Neil explains. “There’s an episode where Bob sets up his own church in Broughty Ferry in the toilets on the promenade. And there’s an email exchange where he tried to import oil from Africa to ‘wipe the smug smile off Aberdeen’s face’.”
Neil was born in Broughty Ferry and went to Dundee High School. After a career as a freelance journalist writing for magazines in the UK and America, in 2007 he wrote Other People’s Money, about Scottish credit card fraudster Elliot Castro, who embarked on a six-year spending spree before justice finally caught up with him. He’s since written the Bob Servant books and a novel, Let Them Come Through.
Discussing this week’s Edinburgh Book Festival performance, where Bob Servant’s shoes were filled by Greg McHugh creator of the hit BBC Scotland comedy Gary: Tank Commander Neil says: “Brian Cox, quite understandably, wasn’t available and I didn’t want to just use an old stage actor who has no connection to Bob.
“Greg has read the books and is a fan of the show so I was really pleased when he agreed to do it. He’s one of the greatest comedy performers of his generation in Scotland.”
Photo Jim Gove.