Comic stripped for Phoo action

Feb 3 2008 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

COMIC mayhem reaches our television screens with an adaptation of an anarchic strip cartoon.

Phoo Action started life as a comic strip by Jamie Hewlett in the Nineties cult magazine The Face.

And it’s the culmination of a 10-year dream for Hewlett — famous for the virtual band Gorillaz and the Tank Girl comics — and his long-term collaborator Mat Wakeham

They originally came up with the idea of a live-action TV drama a decade ago, but other work commitments kept the pair away from turning it in to reality until now.

Creative director Jamie Hewlett said: “It’s exciting, it really does look great, and it is so good to see the comic strip turned into a TV drama.

“The costumes, the sets, the creatures are all really faithful to my original stuff.”

Yet, as writer Wakeham readily admits, it has proved quite a challenge to bring a comic strip to life for the TV screen.

He said: “I had to try and keep true to the spirit of the characters. It’s been hard. There are differences between the comic strip and the drama. We wanted to make sure there was more emotion in the drama.

“It’s one thing having a satire in a style magazine running once a month, but you want viewers to come back again, and so there have to be human elements that you can connect with.

“It’s brooding, comic book adaptation meets the Farrelly brothers in a back alley for a fight.

“I used to love comic books and I love American comedy, and neither are afraid to tackle big themes.

“What I hope we have done is to try to tackle big themes with an added British irreverence.”

The drama, currently a one-off but with hopes of being made into a series, is a mix of superhero action, kung fu, and mutated villains.

The main characters are Terry Phoo, a hapless Buddhist kung fu cop, and unruly teenage heroine Whitey Action.

American actor Eddie Shin relished the role of Terry. He said: “He strikes me as part Bruce Lee, part Jackie Chan, part Inspector Clouseau and part Edward Scissorhands.

“His best intentions often end up in botched results but he constantly strives to do good and his intentions are pure. His heart is always in the right place and his capacity to care, I think, makes him endearing.”

V PHOO ACTION is shown on BBC3 later this month.