‘WE END UP BRUISED FOR MONTHS’
Stars Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal tell Boyd Hilton about the dangers of filming FND
So, the opening episode involves a hot tub – was that fun?
Simon: Well, we filmed it in the middle of the Beast From The East, so it was quite cold! Tom and I didn’t actually get in the water – we had to stand there getting cold. But it was lovely in there according to Tamsin [Greig] and Paul [Ritter].
Tom: I couldn’t believe they didn’t keep the hot tub for the wrap party. I don’t have much going on in my life right now, so I thought an FND session hanging in the hot tub would be nice, but they sent it back to the factory the next day. I was furious. You didn’t have to take your clothes off this time then? Simon: No. Sorry to disappoint our fans, but there was just Tamsin and Paul in their swimming costumes. They kept turning the temperature of the water up to extraordinary levels. I think the health and safety guy was worried.
Tom: This is the kind of highoctane stuff fans of the show will be waiting for… Do your physical fights with each other ever get out of hand? Simon: I often wake up with massive bruises all over me.
Tom: We actually had a stunt man in this series for some of those scenes, but they ended up being really nice and easy to film. Whereas when we’re just left to our own devices, we end up scarring each other both mentally and physically, leaving ourselves bruised for months.
Do you ever prank each other for real on set?
Tom: I did get involved in some pranking with our third assistant director Callum, who’s a prankster at heart. I put loads of salt in his drink and I put pepper in his hair. And then some pepper got in his eye, which wasn’t so good.
Simon: It did escalate quite quickly.
Tom: Yes, he threatened to wee in my drink at one point. It was good stuff!
Simon: It was a bit unfair, though, because if Callum went too far, he would have got fired. Does the writer [Robert Popper] mine your real lives for good stories?
Simon: Yes, more so this series, too. There’s one episode where Adam has to play the violin for the first time since he was a kid, despite the fact that he hated playing it. And Robert has just stolen that from my life. I think he enjoyed the idea of me having to re-learn the violin.
Tom: I don’t want to say this, but I feel I should point out Simon was actually very good at playing the violin. It was really annoying. He got grade A in loads of instruments in this weird Victorian upbringing he had, then gave them all up. Until he used his violin skills again for this sitcom.
Your Horrible Grandma character has become a bit of a cult figure, hasn’t she?
Tom: Yes. I’ll tell this story even though it won’t come across well in print, but I thought it was lovely: I went to the League Cup Final this year when Arsenal played Man City, and a City fan came up to me and said, [puts on Northern accent], “That ’orrible Nana, she’s quality! I love ’er”. I thought that was very sweet. The two of you acted on stage last year in The Philanthropist – what was that experience like? Simon: It was fun. It was a long time – four months – but I never got bored of it because I loved the play.
Tom: We played a lot of carpet bowls, which is just bowling but in your living room.
Simon: We played it every day for four months pretty much.
Tom: I went mad after a while. n