As Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith call time on their grimly hilarious TV anthology, they and their collaborators from a decade of darkness discuss how it was all done
creepy Tim Key stuffed inside a wardrobe, a miserable Diane Morgan on a pedalo, a sozzled Tamzin Outhwaite in a karaoke booth and a corrupt David Morrissey in a football referee’s dressing room. Along with trains, call centres, alpine chalets, caravans and even an escape room, these are just some of the memorable scenes and settings from the nine series of. With slightly less pleasing numerical symmetry, the show now finally draws to a close this week after, not nine, but 10 years.
“We weren’t sure whether we should be in all the episodes,” remembers Pemberton. “We were nervous of it looking like a vanity project. So in series one we dipped out of one episode each but the feedback from fans was that they missed us, so we decided: why are we doing ourselves out of a job? We’ve been in every episode, except one, since.
Pemberton thinks such limitations have forced greater creativity. “Our lack of resources meant our invention had to be sharper,” he says. “When the streaming platforms came in, you saw incredible budgets everywhere but I’m very happy we didn’t suddenly come into lots of money and therefore reduce our creativity. Also, doing more experimental episodes like Dead Line and 3 By 3, you could only do with scheduled broadcast television.
For Boo to a Goose, filming on location on a train proved to be “the biggest thing we’ve ever attempted”, according to Tandy. “All the scenes with us getting on and off the train and on the platform were done around a real train that was running to a timetable,” says Mark Bonnar, who starred in the episode.
While each episode is different in terms of premise and genre from the others, the unifying thread is the last-minute twist – one that is usually a very dark reveal. Take 2018’s To Have and to Hold, an episode that, on the surface, is exploring a tired and stagnated marriage in a suburban terrace but that reveals a captive hostage being held in the family basement, where in turn one of the family becomes imprisoned.
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