circus act
As Zapped returns, there’s something nasty heading for Munty, and it’s not just the circus
“What’s great about doing something like this is there aren’t any rules,” says James Buckley, star of Dave’s fantasy comedy Zapped. “Doing things like The Inbetweeners, it was always very important to find what we thought was real. With this, if we think of a joke then it’s probably going to get in. That’s the only rule here: if it’s funny we can do it. That’s great, to have that freedom.”
Zapped sees Buckley’s hapless office drone Brian Weaver transported across time and space to the town of Munty in a world of magic and fairies. Series two ended on a cliffhanger as an attempt to return Brian home resulted in the wizard Howell (Paul Kaye) being transported to Earth in his stead, while Brian was captured by a circus. Thus, the first challenge of season three for writers Will Ing, Dan Gaster and Paul Powell, is to get their characters back together. “We were tempted to play the ‘They woke up and it was all a dream’ card to get us out of the terrible corner we painted ourselves into, but we thought that would be cheating,” says Ing. The series begins three months after Howell’s abrupt arrival on Earth. “When we pick up he’s more or less still in Brian’s office,” says Gaster. “He’s living in the store cupboard off a combination of chocolate cereal and wine in a box and basically scamming people as he would in Munty. However, the net is closing in on him, and he’s frantically trying to work out how to extricate himself from the situation. But it’s fun to have a little burst of Howell causing mayhem on Earth.”
Series three will introduce hitherto unseen locales and cultural highlights from Munty, including the public baths, the port, and the circus where Brian is an unwilling attraction. “It’s as bleak and as cruel as you would hope,” says Powell. In another Zapped first, series three ventures beyond the walls of Munty as Brian attempts to escape capture. “It’s a bit self-indulgent, me running through the woods thinking I’m Rambo for five minutes,” says Buckley.
Guest stars like Sylvester McCoy, Sally Phillips and Rufus Hound will return, plus some new faces, including I’m Alan Partridge’s Felicity Montagu as Munty’s head librarian. “Under no circumstances should you fail to return a book to the Munty library. Needless to say, Brian fails to return a book,” says Ing. And executive producer Steve Coogan makes his debut as the circus ringmaster. “He’s obviously brilliant,” says Buckley. “He’s my hero, so I was trying my hardest to keep it together. I’m supposed to be acting, but I just kept laughing because he’s so funny.”
Alongside the humour, the writers hint at a dash of horror creeping into Zapped. “Howell’s efforts to get back to Munty from Earth unleash another force, so there’s something nasty coming,” says Gaster. And inevitably there’s another cliffhanger climax in the works. “We’ve not learnt from our mistakes at all!” says Ing, happily. DW
Zapped series three will air on Dave this October.
