Miles Jupp stares out at an empty Oval cricket ground. “This is absolutely one of my favourite places in the world,” says the actor, writer and comedian. We sit for a moment in silence, a couple of groundsmen wrestle with a hose and start watering the square. “This is almost blissful,” says Jupp in a hushed reverie. “You know, that day, 12 September 2005, was life-changing for so many of us.”
The final day of the 2005 Ashes series did change the course of Jupp’s life, at least for a little while. In his early 20s he was a nascent standup comedian and actor; in 2001 he won the long-running newcomer comedian competition So You Think You’re Funny? “The final was held on 25 August, the same date Michael Atherton played his final innings for England. In my victory speech, I dedicated my prize to him.”
A short while afterwards Jupp took the role of Archie the Inventor in the BBC children’s show Balamory. The show became a terrestrial TV juggernaut, people would shout “Archie!” at Jupp in the street, more series were commissioned, arena tours were sold out months in advance. A short, steady acting job had gone somewhat awry and morphed into something of an albatross around his neck.
“I was feeling pretty lost at that time if truth be told. I felt stuck so tried to rid myself of the stupor by taking not one but two shows up to the Edinburgh festival in the summer of 2005. I was so busy, but all I really wanted to do was watch the cricket.”
With the Ashes going down to a deciding Test at the Oval, Jupp had finished his Edinburgh commitments and found himself in London – “I was torturously close to the action.” His days were spent at the National Youth Theatre rehearsing the next Balamory live show. “I knew I just had to get here [the Oval] and watch some of that series in the flesh.”
A free man on the final day of the series, Jupp joined the thronging early morning queues in Kennington where a ticketing guardian angel sold him a spare for a tenner. He was in. “I sat in awe, Kevin Pietersen’s hooked sixes off Brett Lee after lunch sailed just over my head in the crowd. Just amazing. For an England cricket fan in the 90s, 2005 was the end of the movie in a way.”
In the afterglow of England’s first Ashes series victory in 18 years Jupp peeled off from the beery renditions of Jerusalem and glanced up through the ticker tape to the press box. He saw the journalists hunched over their laptops. “Something in me clicked, that’s what I should be doing with my life.”
Fibber in the Heat, Jupp’s standup show and 2013 book tell the story of what happened next, how he blagged himself a spot on England’s Test tour of India as part of the press corps in March 2006. Having written a hugely entertaining, evocative and even melancholy mini memoir, Jupp is back at the Oval, where it all began. Was he serious about cricket becoming his job or was it a case of “this will make for good material down the line”?
“Well, I won’t deny that part of me definitely thought whatever happened would be a good experience I could perhaps draw upon, but I don’t think I was cynical enough at the time to think this is a good way of getting a one-hour narrative show! No, I’m afraid I was really invested in it.”
Jupp was indeed invested to the point whereby he had paid for the whole trip upfront by performing pantomime in Aberdeen the preceding Christmas. Widow Twanky to the Wankhede then? “Ah, I’m yet to give my ‘Twank’, I was Simple Simon. One of my finer performances.”
He lets out his inimitable giggle and it reverberates around the empty stadium. “But actually, when I put the India material together for the book of Fibber I remember thinking, hang on, this is actually quite sad. I guess I look back now with misty eyes, but it is fair to say I found it tough going.
“I thought getting on tour and into the press box would be the hard bit. That turned out to be relatively easy. What frightened me was what you were meant to do when you were in there, that turned out to be the difficult thing. I couldn’t really understand the workings of it because I was trying to pretend like I knew what I was doing already.”
The experience left Jupp in no doubt as to where he prefers to watch cricket. “It taught me that I love cricket, but I’m a fan. I never really got to grips with the almost theatrical neutrality of the press box. I need to be in the stands and that’s absolutely fine by me.”
He did also get to meet his cricketing heroes. “I’m full of admiration for what Miles did,” says David Gower. “To go out there and make it happen with pretty much just the smile on his face is very impressive. I remember this sort of diffident-looking chap joining us for a drink after a day’s play in Nagpur and he was just such good company. Miles didn’t need cricket really …”
Jupp may have not needed cricket for a career, but his relationship with the game still runs deep. He watches the Oval groundstaff going about their business intently. “It’s kind of hypnotic isn’t it?” We sit in silence for a moment or two.
“You know, I had a brain tumour a few years ago. I had brain surgery and things like that. Of course that gives you perspective. You’re like, what actually matters? What do I have time to do in life? What interests do I want to pursue? What I’m getting at is that cricket is … just massively, massively important to me.”