[Applause] um thank you so much for being with uh with this evening um as you heard from the reaction I mean it really it's a treat I mean it must be lovely for you watching it when you've I know you finished this a little while ago but you're in an edit room and you're making something you're hoping that people are going to laugh at but it must be reassuring when you watch it with a public audience and they're responding oh God it was so much fun doing conch but you look at the crew and they're
like this [Laughter] oh it's nice to hear people laughing what's the weather suppose I should say the crew were honored we had a wonderful time thank you was doing a thing that you were surprised I didn't get a laugh or did get a laugh I'm just always grateful that people don't physically rise up and attack us out of disappointment or dismay I don't know I think it's sort of I enjoyed the reaction to pump up the jam well I think [ __ ] because that's in I think it's fair to say that's in every
episode yeah and it wasn't cheap to clear for Netflix either so value for money well I feel as if if the song of the summer was Kate which is running out that hill this could well be the song of the you know the awesome or the winter period in there yeah it's I'm never Tire of hearing it is [Laughter] n't it I wonder I mean let's go back because obviously we've seen Philomena develop over uh over a number of years but going right back to the very very start in terms of when like it was it screen
white when we first saw her uh we was the part written before it was cast or did Diane come in how did that work it was so we had uh we had a character Barry [ __ ] piece um [Applause] he was a director now it was directing weekly got roped into being being very [ __ ] piece and we used to get occasionally we'd get criticized um people would say oh you're mocking the working class man um and that's just how Al speaks it's just the way he speaks the only director in British television who doesn'
t sort of speak like this pretty much um and he uh anyway so so we were like well let's get what we should do we should we should balance the the Barry ship piece character by having a middle class character this was the original idea and so that was the name Philomena Kunk we came up with and the idea was that she was a cupcake blogger I think was that it was was the idea at the time and we got and people very auditioned uh one of whom was Diane and I think you said can I just do this in mind y
eah because I practiced it at home I really wanted the job and uh I tried tried doing it you know quite posh and it still worked because it's the the writing's really funny but I just wanted to try it in my own accent and for some reason there's something about the accent it's probably because it's so flat it just works so I plucked up the courage to ask in the audition if I could do it in my own accent what was it about the character Philomena that kept you wanting to return to it I mean well w
e had a slot to fill every week no I just I didn't conclude Shakespeare and conquer que that um like you can sort of I I'll say something nice about you even though yeah go on um like you can kind of give Diane something to say and she'll make it 10 times funnier than it is so it sort of makes it's an easy it makes it's the nicest thing you've ever said to me uh it's being filmed as well so no [ __ ] didn't realize that bit um uh yeah no so so so it was it was obvious it was just obvious we want
ed to sort of expand expand the clunkiness it was nice that it was expanded really slowly like it started with like 30 seconds because everyone told me oh you know if you do if you come with a new character on a wipe show they'll hate you you'll get abused that was what I was told because they only want to see Charlie and and and big fans don't like the format being tinkered with at all is that right uh well not that I'd be aware of that I mean no one was going to tell me that no no but it would
be weird yeah um it would um but no I think certainly people like from my perspective it was it was just it was it was like using Barry and Philomena was it was just a different way into topics often um and and it was a and you could get like quite quite um we could get quite sharp commentary in in the guise of these idiots and then so so expanding that to give the Philomena her own section felt like um felt sort of obvious I can't remember if we did it did we do it first with the election one
or I think what we did we started doing moments of Wonder and from the off we got we we got her to go out and interview experts and ask some stupid questions like where where is the time in a clock questions like that and and it was just and we were just sort of really laughing in the edit which is always a good sign and Sam um I mean I guess having a I guess being a co-production with Netflix means obviously the show's gonna have more of a sort of global reach and and rather than just being Kun
k on Britain this time it's Kunk on Earth did that mean then the budgets went up accordingly because I mean the production values are pretty impressive especially when you see on the big screen like here and you see how beautiful it looks as well it was nice on the screen wasn't it it's nice to see that yeah it's putting you on the end of that Cliff just seems like it was worth it that Cliff yeah it doesn't actually on on here does it but honestly I nearly died because the only thing that was ho
lding me onto that Cliff was like a little uh there was a little rock wasn't there you went up there first to make sure that it was I was up there for about an hour and a half I think before we let you go on it yeah and I didn't fall to my death so we thought it's probably okay it was awful yeah and we had we had two Sardinian drone operators who were arguing about who got to fly and who got to film and that made that whole process even more um nail-bitingly exciting for everyone yeah but it doe
s look good um in answer to your question yes but there's a lot more rights to be cleared for all of the archive you see there and the music technotronic I mean you know we bought them in a couple of new houses I expect probably really no no um no and well also then because we were meant to shoot this originally we're going to shoot this in 2020. it was scheduled to be shot in 2020 May 2020 was when we were going to start filming something happened at that time didn't it yeah that sort of clampe
d down on foreign travel I mean I do remember an early production meeting which was like maybe we can't go to Northern Italy right and then about a week later so I don't think we can go to the end of the [ __ ] road that was one of the reasons we did we did an antiviral white special instead we sort of we were sort of sitting there poised to do something so I think also we probably had to spend probably about a million pounds on swabs as well like covid swabs probably I think all of that that's
where all the money goes PPE but presumably um some of this was still being filmed abroad during kind of quite strict conditions yeah thanks well so originally we were going to be filming in America uh we were going to go to Mexico that whole Tulum sketch was written as an excuse to go to Tulum I think it really was um we were going to go to Egypt we were going to go to Greece and I'm sure I'm missing two other countries in the end we went to uh Wales um and we went to Italy which is where most
of the history happened um so Rome and Florence and then Sardinia which doubled as literally six other countries so when you saw the Greek flag on the beach you thought ah they stuck a Greek flag on a beach in Cornwall no no that was a beach in Sardinia and when I when I remember when I first started watching um the early account Seasons I was really unsure as to whether there was a kind of bra sizing going on with the experts as to whether they were being kind of you know there's a hoax going o
n but now I'm I'm less sure and I wonder if you can just kind of clear out what is the the deal with the the experts they know they know that it's I mean they know that it's that it's a comedy show and they know that I mean you yeah the campsite of the bag isn't it by no but I mean they don't know what I'm gonna say so it's an honest response from them they're kind of playing along with that I think aren't they they're basically told to pretty much to to treat you like a child basically and so t
o go earnestly and they work best actually the experts work best when they are very Earnest and some of them haven't seen it have they you know no no they're really sort of ponzy ones [Music] he was amazing I rushed out and bought his book after we interviewed him yeah and I understood maybe a third of it but it was absolutely brilliant recommended well so uh um Headley Professor is that isn't it Douglas Headley was great as well the guy with a really deep voice he was great because they were al
l really good and how I mean how much footage would you shoot with them to get the kind of nuggets that we end up with on screen I mean it was quite a long session you have with them how long was it it is quite a lot we we there's quite because it's a mixture of like pre-prepared questions and then sort of off the cuff stuff you're going to do isn't it basically yeah because you can't you don't know what they're gonna say so Direction they're gonna go in or what Diane's gonna say yeah so probabl
y 45 minutes to an hour per per Victor oh interviewee and then that gets sliced down to what you saw um in the edit and I guess the other thing about it is because it is an organic conversation you can prepare for it in to an extent in terms of scripting but it has to then actually be about your improvisational skills isn't it I always like to try and predict what the how they're going to answer and then have an answer prepared for my answer but that rarely happens yeah it's my favorite bit thou
gh I always think that it must be really difficult when you know it's going well and something really funny is happening for you to kind of keep that straight face do you keep I mean obviously we don't see any outtakes but are there outtakes generally or would you yeah oh no you definitely I've been uncontrollable are you corpse yeah yeah it does happen but you're remarkably unemotional yeah and and in terms of the kind of boundaries about what you can obviously you know the second episode we wa
tched today was a religious episode and obviously you had the the you know the gag with the with the with the music and stuff taken out but obviously Netflix has a global reach as well I mean do you have any kind of concerns about what you or did you have concern about what you could or couldn't show and and even just I mean just Christianity you know I guess it's got enough people who might be kind of offended uh we do consult with people actually we did consult with a couple of religious exper
ts I think generally it's sort of generally good-natured stuff we're doing there I mean who knows that it could get to horrifically mistranslated um that's the thought that keeps me awake at night I guess I guess there's some controls that people could sort of put over that I guess um and um just in terms of obviously what what you're saying it's it's so authentic it feels very authentic as a show I mean I guess in a way the kind of top Accolade would be if somebody watched the program I'm think
ing it was a sort of serious kind of historical piece and it's in it was you know sort of documentary yeah what was from it in a weird way was it lots of the facts in there oh yeah I've learned loads from it yeah I did I was reading like the dummies Guide to World History there's loads of stuff I didn't know so you do sort of learn some things um I mean quite a few people did tune into it'd be interesting to see what I mean I don't know what international viewers will make of it because obviousl
y people in the UK are probably I never thought oh my God they'll just probably take it at face value yeah um yeah how will the American episode go down in America the American episode I can't imagine going there's a whole episode about like the birth and history of America which I can't imagine will go down that well I I use the balancing kind of historical effect I mean it's just an ugly sort of research people working away to kind of give it that sort of edge or is it just yes there's a there
's a lot of research so we try to make it so if we get something wrong it's on purpose um but yeah there's fact there's fact checking isn't there there's definite fact check it's quite difficult to sort of do like because we sat there because we did I remember with Cancun Britain we were like um it's quite challenging to do the entire history of a nation and know what to leave out you know to me is it like um and so on this obviously we're doing the entire history of Earth that's quite it's quit
e it's surprisingly difficult to do that in several half hours I've forgotten how many episodes there are now five six five five it's five it's five it's five and a half an hour and I said six at the start as well so I let you down badly though you've got to go and create another one five half hours the entire history of Earth up to where do we go up to sort of virtual reality basically so we we go from huge accomplishment well that's making sense um one of the most kind of notable moments in I
think it's the second episode is when um Diane you're kind of creating this you're recreating a kind of medieval feast in a castle and and it looks unless I'm mistaken that is like that's one take is that is that right yeah that bit yeah it was quite difficult to do that a better one but I've got a to learn and then and then uh choreographing it in the castle some credit to Christian what and Pete Rowe the director and Director of Photography who uh you know Diana did an amazing job and we also
then had Pete on his own in running around essentially having to do the same choreography that Diane was doing it worked had gone to the toilet I think it's an incredible sequence actually isn't it it's impressive isn't it you've learned a lot of lines there not real job though is it no how long did it take to do it can you remember what to learn it well to film that to film the whole thing and you know that sequence oh what was all day wasn't it felt like the afternoon it's a long afternoon I r
emember seeing a little preview of on an iPhone yeah yeah that's right we said you just replied no no again I did not say that I think I think Charlie in the past you describe Philomena conkers being um an absence of character or having an absence of character I think that's interesting as well in the sense that she's I mean I imagine from a writing point of view that must be quite difficult because there's no kind of backstory there that you can kind of refer to or respond to very often well sh
e has there's definitely a conk Universe isn't there that mainly consists of sort of petty concerns and her mate Paul yeah well mate Paul has a terrible life but those are some of my favorite bits like in terms of writing I quite like thinking about horrible things that before um it's difficult isn't it because because because Philomena does is sort of she's sort of on some unknowable level like a horse it's hard to know what her inner life is or is that just me yeah I've sort of got a a vague i
dea of what her life is you know I think you have to to play it I don't I wouldn't say it was an absence of character is that rude of me no I I can tell you were just talking weren't you just I just said something that sounded clever yeah Panic oh panic panic yeah could you ever imagine a world where you kind of did a sort of Alan Partridge and kind of expanded the universe further and follow Philomena in her life and so forth we did discuss that oh yeah there's not there's been discussions we'v
e had discussions about things other other uh thing other formats isn't the right phrase our formats that you could see Cancun um now we've discussed it haven't we've discussed that yeah we've discussed it yeah and when you decide and when you're deciding the topics for what the other themes for each show are going to be do you try and kind of keep them quite loose to have other some that you've still got obviously for future episodes or others I think there's a sort of battle there's a there's
an endless well of info stuff that that Philomena could dig into and you've got this constant new stuff happening in the world you've got a little group who kind of work on the scripts how does that work in practice in terms of are they together and of the writer's room inverted commas or are you working on different bits out we've got some of the other right we've got some of the writers here there's like Joel is here Ben's here I live with Ben and um well he's he's not a flatmate his man um bu
t when he's writing it sometimes he will follow me around the house asking me questions and just write down what I say so that's you writing it then yeah um well sometimes we have right we'll have writers rooms where we'll sort of sit around and there's a light list of topics and we go through them all and we discuss them basically don't we when we come up with extra gags um and sometimes people are sitting especially during the pandemic people were sitting remotely uh crying at their desks and
emailing material so then and then and then and then how else does and then well there's a bit of writing that happens in the edit I think it's fair to say as we as we take those very long interviews and the other elements and crunch it all down uh and then Charlie and yet it will join the dots and Shuffle the pack a bit the edit is one of my favorite bits actually even though it's like the like because it's it's um uh yeah just it it can be bewildering because you've got hours and hours of stuf
f that you're trying to chop down but it's it's the most important draft of the script um yeah but it's uh yeah so it's a bit of a free-for-all and then we'll see whatever's coming out of your brain and the location work itself that is all firmly scripted and it's kind of in stone pretty much or is there still room to sort of move things around a bit on location as well there's extra sort of things that happen that aren't necessarily so I think there's like also there's little Grace notes and th
ings that you're LED aren't there yes people notice things sometimes I remember especially on Shakespeare yeah there would be things that we would go somewhere we'd notice things and we'd go we could use that why don't we get you know get a banana and I'll do this bit off or there'll be a thing and we'll incorporate it I think that's always nice when you you always come up with things that you would never have you know written that really works sometimes and bearing in mind it's kind of even if
it's sort of pseudo fact-based imagine learning the lines actually feels like it must be more difficult than if you're just you know doing a kind of a different kind of show I mean it is there a yeah because often you're working with other actors and their their lines will cue your lines so it's sort of easier to learn whereas this is just like a massive monologue have you got somebody there with like big cue cards and stuff yeah that has been known yes yeah you you would be up a mountain and yo
u're saying the second half of a sentence in isolation yeah your job's [ __ ] mental very hard laughs yeah they do we just cut it out some of them it's it's we have to stop for quite some time [Laughter] who's the one who's the one of my favorite ones I can't remember who I can't remember his name he's the the military one who looks a bit like Stuart Lee oh yes um who's in this series he's in this series he was in Hong Kong Britain and he he is he never breaks well no well I've seen him I've see
n him laugh because about how he manages to not break I don't yeah yeah he's brilliant hmm it's a lovely moment with I think it's Professor Kate Cooper where you get her to look at the camera and say that you know that um Jesus is like um what was it the first victim of celebrity cancer and she does look genuinely kind of kind of like bewildered and even a bit upset about that yeah I think she was definitely bewildered but that didn't know that question was coming so yeah just the fact you just
like she made her just as the camera um there is a moment in this season of a an expert laughing yes there is yes there is for the first time yeah I saw Brian Cox was it was a big laugher as well he was a yeah he never stopped thank you awkward um it made sense that Philomena would be the one who would present to a a historical documentary series I think that's it and also ours busy [ __ ] directing the show often um probably that's probably why yeah I mean she's pretty good as opposed to yeah s
o um as a poster I mean I I am a lot quite a lot like conch has to be said doesn't Ben knows yeah how much like Philomena would you say um careful how you answer this Ben fifty percent fifty percent conk but I sort of think she's the real me you know I think now we understand why you were so offended by the phrase absence of character yeah different hair different jacket put a different jacket on foreign things like that [Laughter] you really I mean that says it all no I think I think um it's pr
obably uh I don't know that it's harder I think it's it's just um probably more depressing probably more depressing that's the honest answer isn't it it's probably more depressing writing about the state of the world because it's uh because it's depressing um but I I think it's of fun doing something like this which is predominantly stupid rather than it is sort of bewailing the I'm glad I'm not doing a topical show like a series right at the moment because I'd probably be crying for for 30 perc
ent of it which would be because you did with the Trump one didn't you I didn't have a break I did have a bit of a breakdown yeah um on on camera pretty much um so yeah I mean uh so uh I don't really know the uh has that answered the question suppose there's some some topics of some subjects are better for concat than I'd like you know some work better and some something Christmas when I was that the Christmas one didn't quite work as well because it's not quite weighty enough as a thing yeah it
's not why it needs to be waiting but you mean the birth of Christ there's a little import yeah as far as you're concerned that's what you've just said yes God it's hard to remember them isn't it I mean that like I'd forgotten all of this that the two episodes it's weird how you forget everything it's not exactly a one-liner but I really enjoyed watching back I you asking uh did Aristotle say dance like no one was watching um and uh yeah that was lovely I suppose did the expert get the one-liner
on that she got the punch line anyway it's lovely yeah I think yeah I think you're right in these sort of moments like that really rather than I mean there are lots and lots and lots of there's loads of lines that I forget about someone sometimes if I go back and watch the old ones I'll chuckle uh it's a holiday bit as well that's yes it is yeah um yeah you went to Sardinia so were you were you not traveling to these uh locations with them I didn't go anywhere you were stuck in London I was in
London we invite him he doesn't want to he never turns up I never I never turn up and why did not test dying what and why'd you snap this Diane laziness yeah it's no reflection it wasn't the absence of character I think no you keep bringing that up I'm gonna keep going at that one um yeah it's a [ __ ] gaping absence of carriage Charisma vacuum here that's what it is um I think those are the best ones in a way is because it is interesting like there was that that's the one about the clock was li
ke when you wind a clock was it when you wind a clock for how do you get the oh no it's where is the money in a coin yeah yeah where is the money in a coin is actually quite a good question about it no I I really like those ones which make your head feel a bit weird as you're trying to walk through them what if you have to deliver it you sort of have to make sense of it for yourself because they they might go what do you mean and you have it you have to say well you have to you know you have to
think it through a little bit they're kind of big questions that a child might ask that you have no answer for but they're valid questions and that makes yeah it's fun to see them struggle isn't it yeah try to answer the impossible questions what would we like to do next well I mean we've done the Earth what what else is there done the entire history of human civilization Universe again backwards laughs as we did the universe next the apocalypse the universe wouldn't be a bad thing oh yeah quant
um physics Etc all of that that would be probably quite good um I don't know I think there's also probably a different a completely different uh conky format that could be explored or concon policy well we did we did we did you were in an election one we did a bit of politics democracy did democracy in the election during the election you did the swingometer business all of that so yeah we could do that um we cover communism in episode we do do quite a lot we do a lot of geopolitics in episode f
ive or five four or five horrified we do the Cuban Missile Crisis I mean it gets quite depressing some great jokes about uh Hiroshima coming up um I think um obviously you've got three more episodes still to watch so plenty to come but basically I think the show is starting on the 19th of September so it's already yeah so um no no one tells me anything 19th century I believe unless I'm wrong that they all go up on the iPlayer and a great big clod of that I'm getting a thumbs up is that right so
you can watch them in one bingeable kind of afternoon binge it to death yeah you can do all of that in one go well I'll watch you on a week like it's the old days well I have to watch them at all like you don't like it well congratulations on the great show thank you for letting us show it here uh and uh and and good luck for whatever whatever comes next a big thank you to Sam and Charlie and Diane thank you very much [Applause]
Comments