Video Player

Clips & Interviews. Launch

Where do you get your ideas from? Do you both imagine them all, or do you know some very strange people that you base them on?

Matt: We have Barry Cryer tied up in the cellar.

David: Out of our heads, though lots are based on people we know or have been told about.

I was wondering why the tower block is called "Richard Vranch House"? Are there any links to the "Whose Line...?" regular?

Matt: We called it 'Richard Vranch House' because we thought 'Josie Lawrence House' would be silly.

David: Yes, all the council estates are named after people in that show. It amused us!

Were there any characters from the radio series that you really wanted to use in the TV series, but they just wouldn't transfer? I noticed the character of Viv wasn't used ("Gaaawgeous") in the TV series and wondered why. Or are you saving it for a hoped for series 2?

Matt: We did write Viv for TV actually, and added a whole visual side to it, but we purposely wrote more material than we needed and Viv just didn’t make it in. Personally I hope she makes it into series 2.

There are sketches like Britannia Cat Club and the Witches house that we are fond of, but that are too expensive to film. We did adapt the Witches house but it’s hard to justify spending tens of thousands of pounds of the budget on one sketch. You can do it, but you have to make major cutbacks elsewhere.

There are compromises. For instance, the Kelsey Grammar sketches on TV appear more often than in the radio show because, once you’ve got that whole set and a room full of boys, practically you need to fill more screen time than just two minutes.

Whose idea was it for making this popular radio program into a television program and were you worried that by making it for television, it might not have been as funny as it was when it was just audio only. Are you pleased that the transition from radio to TV has paid off big time?

Matt: We always hoped the show would make it on to TV and it was always conceived as both a radio and TV show. We were keen for the TV transfer to be a show in its own right, though, and not seem like it was a show that used to be on radio. The temptation is just to use your radio scripts but actually you have a whole visual side to explore, so we always tried to make the visual side as big a part of the TV show as the verbal side. I think the TV and radio shows are actually pretty different.

David: We always wanted to do the show on TV but we knew we would have to prove it could work on radio first. It was also a great way for us to find out which sketches worked and which didn't. I would recommend that anyone who wants to do comedy on TV to do radio first. I am pleased with the show as I think it looks great. Steve Bendelack the director has done a great job. The best of the radio show is out as a CD to buy in November if you haven't heard it.

• Next »
• « Back
• Page 2 of 5