What it’s like to work with Chris Morris
Writer Jesse Armstrong on collaborating with the legendary British satirist for new comedy-drama The Day Shall Come
CHRIS MORRIS IS an elusive, enigmatic man. For nine years, British comedy fans have wondered where the Brass Eye and The Day Today satirist has disappeared to, having not made a film since 2010 terrorist farce Four Lions. His whereabouts all this time? In the driving seat of a rental car, driving up and down America.
“I got hooked into being his travelling companion,” laughs Jesse Armstrong, co-creator of Peep Show and a regular Morris collaborator. But the trip was not for sightseeing: the pair were meeting victims and perpetrators of morally dubious FBI terror stings, in preparation for Morris’ long-awaited second feature film, The Day Shall Come.
“These people, they’re not terrorists and yet they spend years in jail,” says Armstrong. The screenwriter was enlisted to help Morris turn the reallife stories they heard into a bizarre new comedy, about a preacher who thinks God is talking to him through a duck, and the agents trying to frame him as the next bin Laden. “Chris is a meticulous researcher and finds [this phenomenon] fascinating. It grew out of us as outsiders to these stories asking: ‘What the fuck’s going on here?!’”
The film, ultimately, is a satirical comedy. But there were few laughs to be had listening to the harrowing stories of people caught up in the real-life terror operations that inspired the film, says Armstrong. “There were some pretty heavy emotional experiences and interactions,” he says. The film’s opening titles claims it is based on “one hundred true stories”.
Once in the writing room, the pair had no problem striking up their old chemistry. “It always feels less like work with Chris than with other things that I do,” he laughs. Depsite the enigma that surrounds Morris and his work, Armstrong asserts that working with him is quite straightforward. “The basic answer is just that simply, well, he’s really funny! That’s why it’s exciting to work with him. He’s fun to hang around with and laugh with. People have good reason to be excited.” After almost a decade away, fans had feared Morris’ triumphant return to comedy may never materialise. Fear not, says Armstrong: that day has almost come.
THE DAY SHALL COME IS IN CINEMAS FROM 11 OCTOBER