Actors act. It’s what they do. However, the news that Russell Gomer, recently seen in BBC3’s Being Human and Sky One’s Stella is actually a fictional character created by the self-styled ‘Youtube Phenomenon’, David Garland Jones, has sent shock-waves through the South Wales thespian community.
After being exposed on camera David had some explaining to do – ‘Whilst I am classically-trained it seems that my so-called debauchery, and propensity for having contretemps with industry people – directors, producers, caterers – meant I had a reputation for being difficult. After a period in the artistic wilderness, or Treforest if you prefer, I decided to use Youtube to build an audience online. One of my videos, ‘Ain’t Seen Ruthin Yet’, went viral after being mentioned by Goldie Lookin Chain on Sky News.’
As David recalls, ‘People kept coming up to me and saying, ‘David, your videos are masterpieces. They are entertaining and amusing, yet also offer a profound study of the human spirit in jeopardy. Why won’t anyone employ you? Then I remembered a Welsh actor by the name of Russell Gomer who, apparently, had a strong resemblance to me.’ Gomer had recently disappeared from public view. Some said he was in Patagonia. Some said he was dead. Some said he’d gone feral in the Forest Of Dean. This confusion gave David, ‘A Doorway To Destiny’, as he famously put it. He cut his hair, shaved off his goatee, changed his wardrobe from classic black to that of a Pimm’s Man, and reinvented himself as Russell Gomer, an actor renowned for one ‘U’ – Unheralded, but also for the three ‘P’s – Professionalism, Puritanism and Punctuality.
‘The change was remarkable,’ said David. ‘As Russell I am now getting shed-loads of work. I am in all 12 episodes of the second series of Sky One smash, Stella, and have recently toured in the Michael Bogdanov stage production of Elwyn.’
There are, however, downsides to this subterfuge. David wakes up some days not knowing who he is – ‘It’s almost as if Russell is taking me over. It’s exhausting being him. I am 53, a heavy smoker and no stranger to the Ottley Arms, but Russell is healthy, clean-living and only in his early-forties. The daily 5km run is killing me. Sometimes I just want to be back to being David all the time, making shit videos with my simpleton brother, then lying in the dark with a family packet of Bobby’s Cheese Puffs and a bottle of White Storm, not drinking Chateuneuf Du Papes in Woods.’
David went on to say, ‘All actors want to act. Taking on the persona of another is central to what we do. I just have to do it twice. It’s all a bit confusing. I think I might need help.’ His parting shot was rather unsettling – ‘It’s not just me, you know. There are several actors in Cardiff who are not what they seem. Many of the city’s photographers, waiters and so-called ‘writers’ are just actors pretending.’
