Greg McHugh on Gary Tank Commander

A thunderstorm of biblical proportions has struck the south coast of England, forcing Greg McHugh from the streets of Brighton – the city he now calls home – into the shelter of the nearest pub. The phone line seems to crackle with menace, forcing us to yell across each other. "We’re taking a battering!” he says.

This would be quite a bad time for the apocalypse to strike. The next few months will be some of the most exciting of McHugh’s career, as he takes his Gary: Tank Commander – Mission Quite Possible to Glasgow’s SSE Hydro in October. And he's had enough setbacks recently. "I slipped down some stairs earlier this year, over my ankle, and snapped it,” he says. "I had an operation – there’s a screw and plates – it was a long recovery, but I’m fighting fit now."

The rise of Gary Tank Commander

The rise of McHugh – and in particular a character that’s become as inseparable from the man as, for example, Alan Partridge is from Steve Coogan – was no overnight success. The upcoming shows are an indication of just how much of a comedy institution Tank Commander Gary McLintock has become in Scotland, but it’s a show that grew from humble beginnings, with McHugh introducing his Corporal briefly at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006, before returning the following year for “a longer show, playing to 50 people a night.”

A one-off Channel 4 pilot episode, Gary’s War, followed in 2008 taking a fly-on-the-wall look at troops returning from Iraq. In particular, a clip of the soldier complaining about the dearth of Kraft Cheesy Pasta in Midlothian’s supermarkets was, in no time at all, shared online. The character had unquestionably struck a chord with public consciousness.

“The BBC had said, ‘If you ever wanted to make a sitcom from this then we’d love to hear from you,’ and eight months later we were filming it,” he says. “Soon we’d done three series of it, and to be honest I thought we wouldn’t do any more, but a couple of years after that we’re doing a show in front of 10,000 people a night.” He pauses for breath, as if to take in the sheer size of that number. “It’s been a long ten years from playing to 50 people at the Edinburgh Fringe.” 

Did McHugh have any idea how popular Gary McLintock would be? He laughs: “No! Of course not, I did something I thought was different and fun and I hadn’t seen a character like it… but i had no idea I’d get to play a venue the size of the Hydro – you wouldn’t imagine that. When I go back to Scotland and people scream ‘Gary’ or ‘Cheesy Pasta’ in my face it’s a nice reminder that character has sustained.”

His creator has a couple of theories as to why: “When it was first conceived no one was doing anything about the Iraq War, or Afghanistan. I thought about having a voice of an unlikely hero, a camp guy talking about why he felt being a soldier was important – having a tan, dicking about – obviously in the face of horrible things happening. I set out trying to contrast the brutality of it all with this guy who’s happy go lucky – and you draw your own conclusions as to where the gaps lie.”

He points out too that Gary offered an alternative voice within the world of Scotland, and Scottish comedy, itself. In the world of television, Caledonian comedy successes, for the most part, have focussed on Greater Glasgow. McHugh offers that Gary was a rare example of a “Scottish east coast character getting a voice on TV.” He continues: “The west coast has dominated for some very bizarre reason, we always concentrated on that vernacular and I think people wanted something different. Luckily we were given a chance to do it.”

On Fresh Meat

McHugh’s Mission Quite Possible comes fresh off the back of another challenge that looked like it might fall short due to logistical issues – graduation. University sitcom Fresh Meat came to a close, with the final season airing at the start of 2016. (I spoke to McHugh briefly just after the third season aired, when he wasn’t sure if there would be another series – with the cast ageing beyond credible university years and the actors involved, including Jack Whitehall and Call The Midwife’s Charlotte Ritchie, dealing with increasingly busy schedules. Thankfully, McHugh was able to join the team and reprise the role of geology student Howard McGregor one last time.)

Part of what made the show so enjoyable was one of the most believable on-screen group dynamics of recent times. That bond seen within the performance extended to the making of the show: “I’m seeing the guys in a couple of weeks to catch up,” he says. “We became pals doing that show. From the read through on day one we just started to get on really well, there was a bizarre click. We’re six really different people, but we filmed all day together, and went out in the evening together. It helped we were working in Manchester and none of us were from Manchester, if you film somewhere where people are going home every night it doesn’t happen so much. But all of the elements came together!”

He says filming the final episode of the show was an emotional experience, citing the last scene at 28 Hartnell Avenue, and another overlooking the city the cast had come to call a second home. “There’s something brilliant about the industrial, bleak location they chose for that. In that scene we got a real sense of ‘oh, we’ve spent a lot of time here’."

All in all McHugh emanates a feeling of pride and fulfilment talking about Fresh Meat, with nothing but praise for all involved, rattling off memories of filming scenes from across the show and laughing heartily throughout. “The quality of writing made the show, it was another level. I’m just really proud to have been a part of it."

His attention turns now to Gary McLintock and his biggest performances to date. “It’s such a massive undertaking that I’ve not taken anything else on to be honest. I’m just the guy turning up on the day – it’s my baby, my camp soldier baby. Our challenge is to make it feel intimate and connect with the audience. Hopefully we’ll manage that.”   

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Gary Tank Commander: Mission Quite Possible, SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 20-22 Oct, 8pm, £30-45; find details of an exclusive student ticket offer in The Skinny Student Handbook, out now