How Brian and Charles Invented Their Friendly Robot

Brian and Charles is a story of friendship. The film sees a lonely inventor create a friend for himself in the form of a robotic buddy self-named Charles. However, the making of the film itself is also rooted in real friendships between the creators. It should come as no surprise that Charles and his voice was created by an encounter between the creative pals who brought Brian and Charles to life, fittingly mirroring how the film puts a story of triumphant courage on display.

David Earl, a co-writer of Brian and Charles and the actor who portrays Brian, had been performing in live stage shows before this film came along. It was there that producer Rupert Majendie fell in love with the character of Brian and wanted to get in touch with Earl but did not exactly have the courage to do so when he called into Earl’s radio show. “I run live gigs in London,” Majendie explained. “He did my second ever gig, and I saw it as Brian Gittens and just fell in love with the character and offered him a residency at the show, so he did that for about five years…I was too shy to phone in, so I just found this sort of touch type software,” Majendie told ComicBook.com. The software read the words Majendie wrote aloud to Earl’s radio show. “And that’s when Charles was born.”

Chris Hayward, the actor who portrayed Charles on stage and now in the Brian and Charles film, recalled the story similarly. “One night our producer of the film Rupert, he called in, but he was too nervous to talk on the internet. So he used this software program to type in what he wanted to say,” Hayward said. “And it would read out in various weird voices, and one of them was the voice of Charles. And the conversation was so hilarious, I was listening to it and I just really loved it. And I kind of wanted to see them together. I could just picture them together. So we talked about doing it live, as a live show, so that’s what we did. I was dressed as Charles, David would be Brian, Rupert was doing the voice of Charles. And yes, we did that for a few years, and eventually we made a short film just to put something online really.”

Jim Archer, who came onboard to direct the film, found himself eager to get involved. “I knew Rupert and Chris from around the comedy scene and didn’t know David,” he explained. “But when I saw that script, I’d seen the live show and was just like, ‘Oh!’ It felt really different and kind of emotional, weirdly. And so I was chomping at the bit to do it.”

Now, with Brian and Charles playing in select theaters around the world, the creative minds who invented the idea feel a bit similar to how Brian feels when his Charles invention grows up and out of the house. “It’s out of our control now,” Earl said. “Up until this point, it feels like we’ve had a bit of control over it, of writing it and being in it and stuff, editing. But now, I feel like we’ve pushed a boulder out. And you just see what’s going to happen.” What has happened, so far, has been pretty good. Brian and Charles has invented itself a positive review score with flattering remarks from many critics, boasting an 81% Critics Score on RottenTomatoes, with an audience score close behind it at the time of this article’s publishing. 

“It’s terrifying,” Archer admits about releasing the film to a large audience. “We love the film, so we are just like… We’re happy with it. We know it’s a sort of offbeat comedy, so it’ll find its audience. But yeah, we’re just really happy with it.”