mourinho

Like many actors, Butler and Hope know all too well about workingodd jobs to pay the bills. Although Don Angel's entrepreneurialspirit is exaggerated to the point of near madness, Butlerremembers similarly wild schemes from their post-student days.

"When Wayne was starting out as an actor, he taught himself graphicdesign," says Butler. "There's a little bit of Don Angel in theturning the dollar aspect. Wayne did a lot of catalogue work."

Says Hope: "The first couple of years out of university was aboutstraddling that world where you couldn't get much acting work. "Itwas a very earnest and poor phase of my life. I was pedallingfairly fast and I just gave myself a title. I just said, 'Yeah, I'ma graphic designer'. And of course I wasn't. I had a Mac withPagemaker. And so there's a lot of that in Don. He just says he'sall these people and says it with conviction and there's a lot ofdelight in that."

Where Hope pretended to be a graphic designer to earn a buck, Donreally believes his own lies.

"I love the complication of someone who believes in himselfabsolutely," says Hope. "Don's blind to corruption. He thinkseveryone's out to get everyone and it's who wins in the end ...He's not passive aggressive, he's overt. We're playing with thenotion of denial - in which degree can a person live with heavydenial? We think there's great comedy to be had out of not knowing.It's a facade. He's a true believer that he helps carry theeconomy. He really thinks he has made it big."

The theme of the disenfranchised modern male is one to which bothHope and Gyngell can relate.

"It's easy to identify yourself solely through work," says Hope."It's easy to say it's about putting food on the table but it'squite a shallow pursuit, really, defining oneself through one's joband I think that male dislocation as society's shifting to havingan emotional life as well, for a lot of men, is completely foreign.It's far easier to operate in a more simple mode: I'm growing abusiness, I've got a plan."