Anthony Head, probably best known for his roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Little Britain, stars in the new romantic comedy - with a lesbian twist - Imagine Me and You.

Heck and Rachel (Piper Perabo) are a young couple about to embark on life together when an unexpected meeting with a female stranger turns Rachel’s world upside down.  What follows is the romantic, hilarious and sometimes poignant journey familiar to anyone who has ever fallen in love at first sight. Imagine Me and You shows that the path to true love isn’t always straight.

Sophie Balhetchet, the producer of the film, says that it’s about love at first sight: “The fact that Rachel, who is straight, falls in love with Luce, who is gay, means that it really is about love at first sight. 

“If it was another man, you could make all sorts of speculation about what the other man has that Heck hasn’t. The fact that our heroine is straight makes her instant attraction doubly extraordinary. The fact that she falls for another woman marvellously dramatises the proposition of the film.”

GaydarRadio’s Neil Sexton and Jason Rosam caught up with the lovely Anthony to find out more about the film, gay children, posing pouches and Little Britain.

Tell us about your new movie, Imagine Me and You.
To describe it as a romantic comedy makes everyone go, ‘Oh, not another one!’ But it is a comedy and it is about romance - it’s about love and it’s about love from the heart and I play the father of the bride. Or, as I said to somebody recently, I play the bride of the father!

Piper Perabo is my very well spoken 20-year-old daughter and we start off at her wedding where she’s marrying Heck, who is played by Matt Goode. He’s a very sweet guy and they have known each other for a long time and they have that kind of love that comes out of friendship. While I’m walking her down the aisle there’s suddenly this sort of spark between her and Lena Headey, who is the woman that’s arranging the flowers.

Have you got any experience in Lesbian daughters?
No, not that I know but you never know! I mean, I play this wonderful hen pecked role. My wife in the film is Celia Imrie, and she’s not by any means a battle axe; she’s a wonderful, beautiful woman but she plays this very funny battle axe of a wife who is just tired of it all and of their relationship. That fact jumped out at me and also the fact that the script is just so beautifully written.

I mean Ol Parker, who wrote and directed the film, has just got the edge and it is really, really nice stuff. When I met him I really liked him. When I went for it I didn’t know that he wanted me from the beginning as he thought I was right for the part. Whereas and I thought I was a bit young, you know!

Well, this guy is kind of older than his years and in much the same way as when I first read for Giles in Buffy I thought he was a 58-year-old living in a 40-year-old body.

So you had to put some talcum powder in your hair then?
No, no talcum powder, but I did put some desiccated coconut on my shoulders because I decided that he was a dandruff sufferer.

Did that help you get into the part?
Well, yes because he was not really comfortable in his clothes. He is not sharp in any way and I just thought dandruff, it doesn’t sum it up but I just kind of thought he has got to have dandruff and he is not going to be good at looking after it.

Did you do any research on people who have been through the same experience?
What, dandruff?

No, fathers whose daughter’s come out as a lesbian?
No, because there is a lovely speech that I make about two thirds of the way through the film and it just sums it all up really. I completely understood it and it made me cry and is absolutely perfect. If nothing else sold me the film it was this particular speech as it’s just lovely. It’s about loving your children for who they are and what they are and being there for them and whatever choices they make; it’s our role as parents to love them, guide them, help them and most of all to support them. Certainly not to judge them.

We’re all big fans of Little Britain. Was that a good experience for you?
Fantastic, I mean they’re the sweetest guys who are very funny and very nice to be around. Neither of them are remotely affected but their meteoric rise to fame. Matt still comes down on to the studio floor with his camera and we do group shots after we’ve done the sketches and it’s just really lovely.

How much characterisation of the Prime Minister in Little Britain was based on Tony Blair?
None whatsoever, apart from the eyebrows. It’s not so much Tony Blair as any politician that has been in power for a number of years. They all tend to look like Jack Nicholson in The Shining and it comes with stress I think.

Margaret Thatcher had three dolls made of her in Spitting Image and her eyebrows went further up each doll they made.

And Anthony, I remember that sketch when you had your trousers off, you have great legs!
Thank you very much. You mean the one with the posing pouch. (Laughs) My daughters didn’t think so! No, I have had my lalls out before in Rocky Horror so I’m used to showing the legs, but not used to showing the body at the same time!

There’s not going to be anymore Little Britain is there?
There’s no reason to say that as they’ve on an eight month live tour of the show and we’ve just recorded a live DVD and we’re also going to do a Christmas Show! I don’t think there is any secrecy about that.

The bottom line is that it’s a good moment to take a pause as the press had already started this ‘coming to the end of there period’ nonsense that the British press, bless them, have a tendency to do. When anything gets successful the press always say, ‘Oh, that’s had quite enough success let’s put that back into the bottle’.

Personally, I think the world is their oyster.

Read our review of Imagine Me And You and our Dykon on Piper Perabo.

Imagine Me And You opens in the UK on 16 June 2006

Imagine Me And You [2006]
Label: Universal Pictures
Released: 16 October 2006
ASIN: B000IHZ4HO

Buy the DVD of Imagine Me And You online and save some money to put towards some other great dyke dramas like 2 Seconds, Everything Relative, D.E.B.S., Bar Girls, 2 Seconds, Make A Wish, Prey for Rock 'n' Roll and Fingersmith.