The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
ODD COUPLE BOND AT THE WHEEL OF AN AMBULANCE
Danielle de Wolfe talks to Jane Horrocks and Samson Kayo about new medical comedy Bloods
When actress Jane Horrocks had her first child, she was taken to hospital in an ambulance – “and it was great!” The actress explains: “They were called ambulance drivers not so very long ago, actually, so that’s how I knew them.” It’s an upbeat meander down medical memory lane that comes courtesy of new Sky One comedy, Bloods.
A show which sees Golden Globenominated Horrocks, 57, join forces with Bafta-nominated actor and series creator Samson Kayo, 29, the pair play paramedic partners Wendy and Maleek, saving lives as part of the South London Ambulance Service.
“I was going to be a paramedic before I started acting,” declares Kayo, best known for his role in hit BBC Three series Famalam. “I kind of applied through the Jobcentre to become an ambulance support driver – you could do that back then, now you have to train. ”
As with some of television’s most successful on-screen endeavours, Bloods was born out of a mixture of personal experience and a handful of “what ifs”.
“Seb (Barwell) at Roughcut approached me and asked me if I wanted to do a short – and what would I want to do,” says Kayo of the Bloods’ producer, best known for his work on hit comedy Stath Lets Flats. “I kind of went back to that and thought, ‘imagine what would have been if I had actually gone through with it’. And thus Bloods was born!”
It’s a show which sees two characters with entirely juxtaposing personalities, upbringings and ages join forces with surprising results, as Horrocks, best known for her role as the eccentric Bubble in awardwinning comedy Absolutely Fabulous, attests.
“I liked the pairing with Samson’s character, Maleek; they are a very unlikely pairing, and I think unlikely pairings are interesting. She’s an eternal optimist… She sees the best in people, she wants to have fun, she wants to get along with people. I think that playing optimistic characters like that can sometimes bring people out in hives, and I think that’s quite interesting, actually, that people have a reaction. What is it with us humans – or maybe the British, that we don’t sit comfortably with people who have positivity? So, I like that about her.”
The pairing of Horrocks and Kayo makes for an upbeat and thoroughly entertaining comedic partnership.
“When Jane agreed to do it and came in, we started hanging out and just having conversations in the ambulance while we were on set and stuff, and we really realised that we’ve got a lot more in common even though we’re from different walks of life,” says Kayo. “We appreciated each other’s stories and each other’s upbringings and each other’s cultures. And, you know, we learned from each other, and I feel like that was a great base and a great foundation for the two characters.”
Given the nature of the show, you’d be forgiven for thinking the premise of Bloods was merely an opportunity for Kayo to fulfil a lifelong ambulance-driving dream. However, it quickly became clear to the actor that the small matter of insurance might just prove the final stumbling block.
“This wound me up, bruv – you see, the first time, when we did the short, I got to drive the ambulance, and I was zinging down the country roads,” enthuses Kayo. “And then when we got the series, Sky were like, ‘wheeey, insurance, sorry, not allowed!’.
Beyond the small matter of erratic ambulance driving, Kayo’s biggest concerns lay with Covid’s potential to scupper filming.
“In episode one, there’s a big massive pile-up and I was worried because everything was so limited – the amount of people you’re allowed and the rules changing. So before we started, I was like, ‘are we really going to be able to? You can’t just have one car and one extra with a neck brace or something, it’s not really big-scale!’. But then Roughcut were like, ‘no, we’re really going to do it, we’re really going to go big’.”
With a star-studded cast that also includes Gavin & Stacey’s Adrian Scarborough, The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt, and What We Do In The Shadows’ Lucy Punch, Bloods is a comedy worthy of your undivided attention.
However, there was one rather important piece of information that Horrocks chose not to divulge at first. The actress is terrified of blood. “They didn’t tell me!” exclaims Kayo. “I’m glad I didn’t do any blood pranks because otherwise it wouldn’t have ended well.”
Bloods is available from May 5 on Sky One and NOW TV.