Actor, comedian and director Simon Bird was born in 1984 in Guildford, Surrey. He studied English at Queens’ College, Cambridge and completed an MFA in cultural and critical studies at Birkbeck, University of London. In 2008, he was cast in E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners and won a British Comedy award for best male newcomer that same year. Since 2011, he has starred in sitcom Friday Night Dinner. His debut feature film, Days of the Bagnold Summer, about a heavy-metal-loving teenager who spends the summer with his mum, is available to stream now.
1. Comedy
Tim Key’s Poetical Playing Cards
I first saw Tim Key while I was at university. I used to go to see his shows at the Edinburgh fringe in the mid-00s and ultimately, cast him in my film. For those who are not familiar with him, he’s a shabby poet figure who spouts brilliantly funny verse. He does it on stage, on the radio, online and now he’s doing it on his own set of playing cards that are available on his website. They are beautiful little objects.
2. Music
Ethiopiques, vol. 21: Emahoy (Piano Solo) by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou
I’m not a big jazz guy, but I’ve fallen for this elderly Ethiopian piano-playing nun, who is an amazing character in her own right. It feels like it sits somewhere between Debussy and Duke Ellington. It’s on another level. Impossible to pigeonhole. It’s classical music but funky, free-wheeling and strangely timeless. Her life story is incredible. She was banned by her government and the church authorities from playing, but kept on doing so anyway and released her music for charity. I think now she’s finally achieved fame and success.
3. Film
Do the Right Thing (1989), directed by Spike Lee
In preparation for watching Spike Lee’s new film, Da 5 Bloods, I rewatched this one. It feels just as urgent in light of current events; impossibly fresh and vibrant and funny for a film that is over 30 years old. It’s set in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn and is about the simmering racial tensions in one little neighbourhood, on a very hot summer day. The film I just brought out is set in the summer, and Do the Right Thing is something I watched to see how to convey that scorching heat.
4. Cartoons
Edward Steed
I first came across his stuff in a great documentary about the New Yorker’s cartoon department called Very Semi-serious, which I’d also recommend. He has a really oblique way of looking at the world – it’s rare to find so much anger and melancholy and wisdom in something seemingly childish like a cartoon. It’s hard to come up with comparisons but they’re a bit like [comedian] Steven Wright’s one-liners. They’re totally unexpected and they approach the world in an off-kilter way.
5. Photobook
Tomiyasu spent four years of his life exclusively picturing a ping pong table in a courtyard outside of his flat. The book is the result of this and is a weirdly deeply moving piece of social commentary. You see the ping pong table being used in very different ways. As a sun bed, as a businessman’s lunch spot, as a laundry rack, everything except as a ping pong table. It’s great. It sounds a bit esoteric, but it’s actually quite poignant.
6. Documentary
Molly Dineen Collection Volume Three (2-DVD set)
Throughout lockdown, I’ve been chipping away at this Molly Dineen collection, a boxset released by the BFI which brings together all of her BBC documentaries. I’m obsessed with how candid, astute and delightful they are. It includes The Lord’s Tale, which is about the abolition of hereditary peers, and Geri, which follows Geri Halliwell in the year after she left the Spice Girls. The most famous one is The Ark, which goes behind the scenes at London Zoo rocked by a financial crisis. It’s really phenomenal.
