A quickie with... Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon

How easy a decision was it to make series three?

Rob: Very easy. No arms needed to be twisted. I like the fact that there’s a decent length of time in between each series, so that we look older and perhaps a little more battered. I think that on its own is interesting.

Steve: We’ve done it twice before, we all enjoyed doing it and we knew how to do it, so it was a very easy decision.

Is it as enjoyable as it looks to make?

S: Yes. I mean, you have to apply yourself. One part of you is shooting the breeze and thinking of things to say, but the other is planning all the time. You have to be on your toes and realise what will be a fruitful area, because you’re improvising within the structure. So, Rob and I will sometimes talk between takes about what we should speak about and also plan ways to react. Rob will sometimes suggest lines for me to say and I will sometimes suggest lines for him to say and ways to create funny, barbed exchanges. It isn’t just me and Rob eating and talking.

R: It’s harder than it looks. I imagine it looks like a jolly and – on many levels – it is, but there is pressure. You’re not just learning lines, you’re constantly in a state of trying to invent some fiction or half truth, or find a truth and bend it to make it interesting.

Rob, you tell a great anecdote halfway through the series about how you heard David Bowie on the radio trying to remember your name…

R: That really happened. S: I’m really envious of that. I never met Bowie and the fact that Rob was nearly mentioned by him makes me jealous. Even though Bowie didn’t mention him by name, the mere fact that he had an image of Rob in his head. He must have had an image of me in his head at some point. R: Oh, he must have done. S: I wish I could locate it. I can’t believe he wouldn’t have liked some of my stuff. [Laughs.]

R: Steve, I’m sure he did like a lot of your stuff. But you’ll never have proof.

S: If there is anyone out there who knew David and had any kind of conversation in which I was mentioned, even tangentially, I’d love to hear from you…