Scarfe Jr takes up father's satirical pen

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/oct/28/alex-scarfe-full-english-channel-four

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Satirical venom runs in the veins, rather like artistic talent. Alex Scarfe, son of the renowned political caricaturist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe, has inherited both his father's skill with a pen and his acerbic eye.

The 30-year-old, whose mother is actress Jane Asher, has created a cartoon family that is to parody the British way of life just as TV cartoons such as The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy have poked fun at American values. Called Full English, it will run on Channel 4 from mid-November.

"I've loved drawing ever since I was a small boy," said Scarfe, "so it was not much of a surprise when I became a painter after art college. Full English, I hope, will entertain first and foremost, but it is also trying to do something new that has a very British feel to it."

Scarfe has created the show with friends Jack and Harry Williams, brothers who wrote the BBC2 series Roman's Empire, as well as a one-off comedy for C4 called The Amazing Dermot.

Full English has taken two years to make and the Williams's production company, Two Brothers Pictures, has been responsible for the show's multimillion pound budget. The brothers have other commissions piling up.

As admirers of South Park, created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they are now committed to working on a full script for a show before they pitch to broadcasters, rather than presenting a treatment. This has allowed them to develop their own ideas and keep their sense of humour distinct. The brothers have borrowed another creative habit from Los Angeles. They work on their writing ideas by sitting together in a hot tub. Other projects, created and written by the brothers, close to being greenlit include a six-part comedy series called Posh Boy for BBC3 and their first drama, a 10-part thriller called Bethune, in association with Company Pictures for BBC1.

"I have been friends with Harry for a long time," said Scarfe. "I met him while I was studying art at Chelsea and when he and Jack asked me to do some drawings we got together to develop the show. It has been painstaking work for me. I had to draw it all on paper, so for a while the whole series only existed in my studio, which was quite stressful."

After Scarfe had completed the drawings, the series was animated by LA-based Rough-Draft, the company behind Family Guy, Futurama and The Simpsons Movie. The voices for Full English are provided by British stars Darren Boyd and Kayvan Novak, of Facejacker fame, and the six-part series will revolve around the lives of members of a suburban family called the Johnsons.

Hard-working Edgar, the father, is employed by Ken, his "borderline-evil" father-in law, while his house-proud wife, Wendy, looks after their children – the "freaky weirdo" Dusty, the "amiable idiot" Jason and the "highly strung emo", Eve. Ken's only friend in the show is a large green figment of his imagination called Squidge, who makes him do unpleasant things.

Alex is Asher and Scarfe's second child. His older sister, Katie, is an actress and his younger brother, Rory, works in publishing.