Returning this week... Hitmen: Reloaded, Sky Comedy, Wednesday, 9pm

Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins are back as best friends Jamie and Fran – they’re fun, friendly, and probably the most amateur professional killers you’ll ever know.

Having split from their old boss Mr K at the end of the last series, things are looking up for our two favourite killers-forhire. Business is good and they’ve even managed to upgrade to a decent van… so what better time to attend a school reunion and rub it in the faces of all their old classmates?

Dressed to the nines in 1980s gear, Fran is particularly keen to prove herself and get some closure on the bullying she had to endure. But much as she’s tempted, she can’t exactly tell people she kills people for a living.

Meanwhile, Jamie reconnects with Kat (Katherine Parkinson) an old friend who is now a lifestyle guru, while another partygoer (guest star Sanjeev Bhaskar) might be a bigger threat than he first seems.

Then, when Fran and Jamie get bored staking out an arms dealer (guest star

Aaron Neil), they have a decidedly Rear Window-esque experience, and Fran starts growing more wary of Jamie and Kat’s renewed friendship. We caught up with Mel & Sue.

How’s filming been going?

Sue: We’ve been in a coffin all afternoon. Literally.

Mel: Five hours.

Sue: We’ve been doing some deep coffin acting.

Mel: The two of us, snuggled up, in a sixfoot-long, three foot wide underground cavity. We started to lose oxygen and hysteria was starting to kick in.

How does it feel to be back and working on Hitmen?

Sue: Amazing. It’s so fun.

Mel: It’s weird because we haven’t actually filmed Hitmen for two years. The second series kept getting pushed back because of you know what. There was a lot of anticipation and excitement, but also we felt quite nervous as well. I think a lot of performers feel that way, because we’ve all had a year plus of not actually doing that much, and now it’s all come back with a full crew of people and expectations.

Sue: We’ve basically been given the chance to come back out of lockdown and play, albeit in a careful way. Being back at work adds that extra kind of responsibility. You really take care outside of filming because the crew is your family and you want to make sure everyone is safe. We felt incredibly protected in this environment and we’ve been able to do everything we would normally do. All the stunts, all the hanging about, all the messing around.

So the safety restrictions haven’t gotten in the way of the fun?

Sue: Not at all. We had a lot of good weather which allowed us to film outside, which helps. And this may come as a surprise, but we didn’t have any intimate scenes so we didn’t have to resort to glass, Perspex or cling film to, you know, stop the exchange of bodily fluids.

Mel: I had to snog somebody – or I was supposed to in the script. We go to a school reunion in the first episode and there’s a bit of slow dancing. But we got round it quite cunningly…

Smooches aside, what other scrapes can we expect to see this series?

Sue: Lots of fighting. We started the first week doing some heavy stuntage, which at my age is a bit of an ask, I won’t lie. In my head I’m Carrie-Anne Moss from The Matrix. In reality I’m Bella Emberg as Blunder Woman.

Mel: We had to bog wash one of our major guest artistes…

Sue: I’ve driven a Hearse at 80 miles per hour… and I have to say it’s a real goer. Mel: It’s got a lot of poke, that has.

Sue: Good torque on that. And we’ve become part of a psychosexual love triangle.

Mel: That’s the overarching storyline for this series.

All episodes available from Wednesday