Funny peculiar
GHOSTBUSTING MEETS GUT-BUSTING IN FROST/PEGG’S TRUTH SEEKERS…
Crowds mill listlessly around a disused Shredded Wheat factory in Welwyn Garden City. A besuited Julian Barratt prowls the crumbling concrete floor with intent. As Nick Frost whispers in the ear of director Jim Field Smith, Malcolm McDowell wanders over. “I’ve never been that keen on Shredded Wheat myself,” he confides. “I found it rather dry.”
It’s an appropriately surreal, unsettling and wryly funny introduction to Truth Seekers, Amazon Prime’s horror comedy following odd-couple broadband engineers Gus (Frost) and Elton (Samson Kayo). Their sideline in amateur paranormal investigation sends them far out of their depth, as they stumble into genuine supernatural mysteries and a conspiracy way beyond their comprehension. Screen has come to watch a spoiler-packed scene from the final episode, and Frost looks delighted with how it’s coming together.
“Writing is gruelling, so any chance to get out of the office and actually do the show feels amazing,” he grins, looking up at us from a low stool before being interrupted by – who else? – Simon Pegg. “You look like you’re being bullied!” laughs Frost’s longtime friend and collaborator. Written by Frost and Pegg alongside Nat Saunders and James Serafinowicz, whose history with Pegg stretches back to classic late’90s sketch show Big Train, Truth Seekers is, like so much of their work, rooted in Frost and Pegg’s shared history.
ABBEY TRAILS
“This show came out of silly adventures we used to go on when we lived
together,” says Pegg, who also cameos as Gus and Elton’s bewigged boss Dave. “We went on various pseudoscientific expeditions to abbeys or woods to look for scary stuff, even though we didn’t expect to see anything. We found a Tube station in Highgate Wood, stumbling out onto the platform like it was Narnia. That was a good night! But we had zero supernatural encounters...”
“We had a thing in our kitchen where I’d convince Simon there was a weird spirit in the room,” recalls Frost, back on set. “I’d sometimes gaze off into the corner of the room and he’d know we were joking, but he’d get a bit frightened too, and we’d both go a bit insane.” From Spaced to Shaun Of The Dead to Paul, Pegg and Frost have flaunted a canny understanding of comedy horror. Getting the balance right - without slipping into parody or pastiche – is something that continues to stimulate them. “Jokes and ghost stories are genetically related,” argues Pegg. “The set-up for both is often quite meandering and tenuous, but the pay-off is unexpected and elicits an emotional response, whether it’s a laugh or a shudder. The comedy isn’t at the expense of the scares here.”