‘I’m not in costume, these are my real clothes!’ Comic Mike Bubbins on his retro TV success

Think growing some fuzz on your top lip for Movember is impressive? Mike Bubbins hasn’t shaved his moustache for 15 years. “Growing up, all the people I admired like Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck had a moustache,” explains the Welsh actor, writer and comedian. “My stag night had a Welsh 1970s rugby theme; there were some great taches in that era so I grew a moustache just for the occasion. Afterwards, I told a friend that I missed the moustache. He said: ‘Grow it back then.’ I said: ‘I’m not gonna get TV work if I’ve got a moustache.’ He said: ‘But you might get work because you’ve got a moustache.’ It was like Samson’s hair, and I haven’t looked back since …” Bubbins’s love of all things 70s and moustachioed helps explain the idea behind his BBC sitcom, Mammoth. In it, Bubbins plays Tony Mammoth, a 70s Welsh PE teacher who is cryogenically frozen in an avalanche in 1979. When he awakes in 2024, he goes back to a teaching job he technically never left, and in the process is forced to navigate the changes to the modern world since he last lived in it, from same-sex relationships to traffic pollution (“Always keep the engine running” is his outdated advice). It’s a lovely, gentle comedy, that the Guardian described as “like a Facebook group about the good old days”. Plus, Bubbins just has, I happily tell him, one of those faces that makes people laugh (“I’ll take that,” he says). There is certainly some David Brent in Tony Mammoth (Bubbins cites The Office as a big influence), but unlike Brent, Mammoth’s behaviour can be at least partly excused because his principles and values are stuck in the 70s. “It’s like my dad and his friends – maybe they don’t quite understand the way things are now, but they’re good people and are doing their best,” Bubbins says. “Well, that’s Mammoth. My dad’s had 50 years to adjust. Imagine going to sleep in 1979 and waking up in 2024.” Mammoth first aired as a pilot in 2021, one of six trial shows commissioned by BBC Wales. The show did well enough to be given a series on BBC Two in 2024. “They only gave me three episodes because I’m a ‘new talent’ – I was 50,” he laughs. Now Mammoth is back in December for another run of three, plus a Christmas special. Ahead of it, Bubbins has invited me to his home in Cardiff, where he lives with his wife of 18 years, Kelly, and two teenage children. I soon find out that it’s not just Tony Mammoth who is obsessed with the 70s. The minute you walk through his front door, the retro wallpaper, vintage orange plastic furniture and decor scream of a man who would be at home half a century ago. “I’ve always loved the 70s: the music, TV, film and fashion,” Bubbins explains, needlessly. The centrepiece of Casa del Bubbins is its garage, which has been converted into a pub, complete with rugby shirts on the wall, and a pool table. “Pint?” Bubbins says, welcoming me in. “It’s a bit too early for me,” I say. Luckily, he’s off the booze too, until mid December. “Then I’m having my Christmas staff party – just me. I’ve put some money behind the bar,” he says. I ask him if people get the actor and character confused. “People say: ‘Do you think they’ll let you keep the car?’” – Mammoth’s beloved 1977 Mark II 1.3 Capri that he drives in the show. “It’s my car!” He recalls meeting a fan on the tube, who asked whether the show would return for a second series. When he told her that one had just been commissioned, “She said: ‘Are you filming right now?’ I said: ‘No, why?’ She said: ‘Why are you in costume, then?’ I said: ‘I’m not in costume. I’m just wearing my clothes.’” Bubbins grew up in Barry in south Wales (famous for Gavin and Stacey, even though “no one in the show has a Barry accent”, he jokingly complains). Like his character, he really did used to be a PE teacher. His mother was one, too. “A lot of the formative people in my life were PE teachers: Mr Hodge, Mr Scott, Mr Howells, Mr Jones, the other Mr Jones.” After spending his early 20s travelling and coaching rugby in Toronto, Bubbins decided to “follow the family profession”. I wanted to make a Welsh comedy, but I wanted to get away from choirs, farming, rugby and terrace houses His move into comedy was more accidental. In his mid 30s and disenchanted with life as a PE teacher, he sent scripts to the BBC Writers’ Room – the Beeb’s annual call for new talent – which resulted in “some nice feedback but didn’t lead anywhere”. Then an advert in the local paper for a free evening scriptwriting workshop in Cardiff caught his eye – only he accidentally turned up a week early. “I said: ‘I’ve come for the scriptwriting workshop,’” he laughs. “They said: ‘That’s next week. But why don’t you stick around? There’s a standup comedy workshop.’” His wife, Kelly, an English teacher, was with him and “sat at the back, marking her books”. “I was already fine with an audience,” Bubbins says, as he had performed covers of Elvis, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, “a bit of Spandau Ballet, and the Jam” around the clubs of south Wales. So he went home straight after the workshop had finished, and “put a thing on Facebook. A fellow with a club in Newport got in touch, and two weeks later, I was doing my first gig. A year later, I was doing Edinburgh.” Standup led eventually to podcasting: during Covid, frustrated by the lack of live sport, Bubbins, along with fellow comic Elis James and journalist Steff Garrero, launched The Socially Distant Sports Bar to rake over old clips. The podcast proved hugely popular, long outlasting the pandemic, and is nearing its 300th episode. His idea for Mammoth came while backstage at a comedy festival, when he was telling a friend about a memorable school trip with his PE teacher. “He laughed and said: ‘This is a sitcom character.’ Those PE teachers were very much of that time, with the moustaches, short shorts, always smelling of Brut, who always looked like a fish out of water at parents evening … I wanted to play that, but thought: ‘How can I, in the modern day?’ That’s when I had the idea of being cryogenically frozen.” It is easy to look back to the 70s through flowery yellow-tinted spectacles. But, of course, not all of that period should be fondly remembered. It’s something Bubbins and Mammoth’s co-writer Paul Doolan were careful to work around. “Some 70s sitcom characters like Alf Garnett are purportedly laughing at racists and sexists,” says Bubbins. “The thing is, a lot of racists and sexists love that character. The first thing we did was to make Mammoth’s best friend Roger [played by Joseph Marcell] Black – although it’s never referenced – to get rid of that horrible bit of the 70s.” As for the sexism, “Mammoth is old-fashioned, so he would open a door for a woman, but he wouldn’t pinch their bum.” Fittingly for a show that graduated from BBC Wales to BBC Two, Bubbins always had ambitions of Mammoth “being more than just a Welsh comedy … I’m proudly Welsh, but I’m not a jingoistic Welsh person,” he says. “I wanted to make a comedy with a Welsh crew, Welsh cast, Welsh writers, but I wanted to get away from choirs, farming, rugby and terrace houses.” This outlook has sometimes seen him butt heads with the higher-ups. “When I suggested Sian Gibson (from Peter Kay’s Car Share) to play my daughter, someone said: ‘We’d rather somebody Welsh.’ I said: ‘She’s from Mold, in north Wales. She just doesn’t sound like what you think is Welsh.’” Things are only looking up for Bubbins: as well as the latest run for Mammoth, he’s taking his famous moustache on the road next year, touring his new standup show Ideasman. It will take a lot for him to part with trademark handlebar: “If I had to shave this off, it would have to either be for a really good role, or an advert that paid me a load of money.” Failing that, you can expect Bubbins’s extended Movember to continue a while longer. Mammoth series 2 is will be on BBC Two and iPlayer in December. Mike Bubbins: Ideasman tours from September 2026 to April 2027; tour starts Liverpool.