Shaun of the Dead
00:39:14
About
As Johnny Vegas once said - “Who’s ready for ice cream?” After nearly 200 episodes, we’re finally getting round to Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy, kicking off with the absolute belter that is 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead”. A film which features more dead celebrities than Austin Powers’ address book; more cameos than a karaoke machine stuck on “Word Up”; and dares to ask the eternal question about whether or not dogs can look up. Having honed their cinematic flair with the essential turn-of-the-century sitcom “Spaced”; Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg took their love of Romero’s Living Dead Trilogy (as it was then); melded it with British RomCom mundanity and created probably the best horror comedy hybrid since “An American Werewolf in London”; with scares, gore and laughs in equal measure, plus an absolute genuine heart. Twenty years on, this film remains a high watermark of British Horror and British Comedy, its status as a classic was never in doubt from day one. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Cornetto.
Famous lines
- "A romantic comedy. With zombies."
- "You've got red on you."— Various
- "Sort your fucking life out, mate!"— Pete
- "I'm perfectly alright, Barbara. I ran it under a cold tap."— Phillip
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror.
LeeI'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
Leeand we are here this week for a very spoiler heavy, very sweary look back at one of the best films, well, one of my favorite films.
Leefrom 20 years ago, cuz we're old as.
ChrisThat is that is just insane like really that is wrong.
Leethis month as well, I mean, when this episode comes out, it'll be just past. But yeah, 20 years in April.
LeeSo that's.
AdamIt was it was 20 years on Good Friday and actually it was Good Friday when we when it first went UK nationwide.
LeeYeah.
LeeWow.
AdamAnd that film is.
AdamShaun of the Dead.
LeeYes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
ChrisHe hadn't actually mentioned that.
LeeNo, no, sorry, I got too wrapped up.
LeeI mean, obviously, Chris, I assume you'd seen this prior to.
ChrisI had, yeah, yeah, I don't know how quickly I saw it when it came out.
ChrisBut it was big and being an English film and I'd seen Spaced and it was like, yeah, okay, this is pretty much all kind of the best bits of Spaced distilled into an amazing film.
ChrisSo I must have heard how good it was, I don't know, like I just remember being very excited.
LeeI mean, I was kind of worried when it came out, if I'm honest.
LeeYeah, I, I loved Spaced, Adam introduced me to it and I absolutely just fell head over heels with it, but I was aware that it has got a very specific audience and I was like, it'd be such a shame if they tried to like go all big and Hollywood with it and it fell on its face.
Leebut yeah, people who I would never suggest watching Spaced to were coming to me and going, oh my God, have you seen this film yet, it was just fucking everywhere.
AdamYeah.
AdamWell, funnily enough, in the run-up to this, I, I re-watched Spaced.
AdamYeah, and and the one the one thing I would say is go back and watch Spaced because Shaun of the Dead is not the Spaced film.
ChrisIt's not.
AdamIt's not, yeah, it's not like you can't, it's not like Guesthouse Paradiso is the Bottom film.
LeeYeah.
AdamThey may have different surnames, but it's the Bottom film.
AdamIt's yeah, this is cuz I mean the one key factory is Jessica Hines, Jessica Stephenson, as she was then, you know, that's an integral part of Spaced.
AdamYeah, and but but still it's like it was also one of those things where you just like you felt like especially cuz a lot of people were then like, oh, this is amazing, have you seen Space? it's like late to the party.
Adameven though even though I kind of was, I I I first started watching Spaced in the second series, which I think when I showed it to you, Lee.
AdamYeah, but my sister had been watching it like I'd seen the first series and the first series had just come out on video so we could watch that and yeah.
ChrisOn video.
LeeYeah on DVD I think season two of Spaced was one of the first things I ever owned on DVD actually, so.
AdamYeah, I think cuz it was very much that crossover time, wasn't it?
AdamExactly, yeah.
AdamAnd yeah, it was just a it was a weird one because I think we'd missed it because we were basically the same age.
AdamSo we were out, that's why, you know, we didn't see Spaced like the first time around.
AdamThe two people who told me about it were like I say, my sister and Wesley's brother Wayne had also watched it and it was like, oh the people like the person who's now older so isn't out on a Friday night and the person who's too young to be out on a Friday night are the two people have sort of clocked this and just gone, yeah, this is brilliant, you should watch this.
LeeWell, the irony of it is, yeah, as you say, the reason we didn't see it is because it was on a Friday night, but the first time I watched it, I it was a Friday night, Adam had given me the VHS of season one, I'd gotten home from work, gotten ready to go to the pub, and I was ready half an hour before my bus, and I thought,
LeeRight, I've just got time for one episode, so I thought, I'll put this on, I'll watch the first episode before I go to the pub, I didn't make it to the pub that night, I sat and binged the whole season.
AdamIt's extremely addictive.
AdamAnd obviously most of the cast appear in a great or lesser extent in the in Shaun of the Dead.
AdamTwist isn't there and Brian like Mark Heap.
AdamYeah, I think they're the only two notable exceptions, everyone else is.
LeeI mean, obviously, Simon Peg and Nick Frost.
ChrisThe the landlady.
AdamYeah, she's she's she's that's one of my favorite bits is the alternate team.
ChrisYeah, it's that is so good.
AdamYou got Martin Freeman and Reese Shearsmith and Julia Deakin, who is who's Marsha and Matt Lucas as like the alterna.
ChrisSo I I didn't recognize cuz I was looking out for him this time, for some reason, I didn't recognize them, so I think this is my third viewing, and I didn't pick up on it first time around.
ChrisI probably, in fact, I probably didn't really know some of them, I didn't know Reese Shearsmith probably at that time.
ChrisAnd yeah, but this time I was like looking out for it, but yeah, it's
AdamCuz Spaced Spaced is very much like a is an absolute like snapshot of the comedy scene at that point of everyone.
AdamAnd so like Reese Shearsmith's in there, Mark Gatiss is in there, Kevin Eldon, Bill Bailey, you know, so many people.
AdamAnd some of whom end up coming into the what becomes the Cornetto trilogy.
AdamBut but yeah, it's the thing you get watching it is obviously, there's so many things with Spaced where it's direct film references rather than Shaun of the Dead, which is it has like little minor bits, but it's essentially its own story, it's not a take on Dawn of the Dead.
AdamIt's not like Young Frankenstein or something like that.
LeeI think that's kind of what I was expecting it to be.
LeeIf I'm honest.
LeeAnd I'm not, you know, I've said before of all the supernatural thing, zombies are my least favorite.
LeeBut I was like, do you know what, knowing how much they know about films, if anyone can get this right, it's going to be them, but I didn't expect it to be anything near as spectacular as this film ended up being.
AdamWell, I suddenly realized, again, going like watching Spaced, that was the thing I got is it was like, that is one of the smartest movies ever.
AdamLike obviously, Edgar Wright directed Spaced as well as doing the the Shaun of the Dead and but when you think about it, it's like all of the bits in Spaced where it's like right, we want to recreate this bit of Stanley Kubrick or this bit of Steven Spielberg or the spinning number plate from Back to the Future.
AdamYou want to put all those things in, but it's actually, you then have to learn how to do all these genuine like film techniques, you know, how to be able to.
AdamIt's not as straightforward as it sort of sounds and you have to learn how to do, you know, you have to really understand film and I think that, you know, it's such a brilliant sort of thing of, well, we can do all these things without people going, oh, you know, oh, that's just you ripped that off, you know, it's a reference, it's not a rip-off, if you were to just present a film and you put those bits in.
AdamWhereas in Spaced, it's it's always a reference, so it's always you you get to learn all these techniques and show them off, but you're not actually then people just going, oh well, it's not as good as when they did it in that, because you're doing when they did it in that.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisIt was interesting, I didn't realize how many of the the horror scenes could actually be horror from this if they were in a different film.
ChrisIt's like I hadn't remembered that really properly at all.
LeeI was always like, yeah, take that out, put it in another one, it was horror.
ChrisYeah, it's I completely forgot that he shoots his mum's face off.
ChrisI was like that is clearly very harsh.
ChrisLike and somehow, I guess you remember the comedy or at least that that is exactly what I'd done.
LeeI always remember that bit, you know, I do think of the funny scenes, and then my brain always on like the third mental image hits Dylan Moran being dragged out of that window and his guts ripped.
Adamhorrific.
ChrisNo, it's like in a normal horror film, that would be like, yep, that is that is seriously harsh.
AdamWell, that's, I mean, that is very much Day of the Dead.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo much and it and watching it, it's almost very Day of the Dead because it's basically, what do we do with the fucking most horrible character in this?
ChrisYes, yeah, they did make him especially horrible just before.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, it's it's he's increasingly proved himself an arsehole and then it sort of yeah.
LeeI hate to say it, I still side with him on that.
ChrisIt's it's the way he does it though, isn't it?
ChrisLike he could have just even just slightly and that's fine.
LeeOh look, what's that over there, bang, oh no, the gun went off, I seem to have shot your mum in the head.
ChrisYeah, yeah, it had to be done.
AdamThat's that's a lovely thing as well is the fact that everyone's shit with a gun.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, it's not America, it's people in a pub in London.
ChrisYes.
AdamNo one can really aim, you know.
ChrisEven even with the PlayStation 2 practice, it's not enough.
AdamYes.
AdamWell, cuz that's that's that's that's the thing as well is cuz they did in Spaced there's the third episode of the first series is Tim's done a load of speed and he's playing and has been up all night playing Resident Evil.
AdamYeah, and that's kind of their sort of starting point of putting zombies into.
AdamCuz even those bits are actually done for horror effect, you know what I mean, they're not sort of they're not comedy zombies, they're horrible zombies.
LeeOh, shot at the Pleasant Theater, I've been there twice, that that theater where they shot all of that, is the theater where I went to see the Night of the Living Dead musical thing.
LeeWhich was excellent.
AdamBut I think the I mean, when so me and you saw this at the cinema, didn't we, Lee?
AdamWe we it was me, you and Dean.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd then I had my own Shaun of the Dead experience afterwards because like I say, it was Good Friday, and you and Dean, we we've like we've gone gone to the pictures, but it was like mid-afternoon or whatever like that.
LeeSo you and Dean went clubbing uptown, Yeah, we got the train and went to the the Intrepid Frox in Wardor Street to wait until Skid Row had finished playing at the LA LA2 till they've turned it into a nightclub.
AdamYeah.
LeeWe got bollocks that night, we honestly.
LeeBut it was great cuz we just literally, we sat in the pub for about four hours talking about how much we loved that film.
AdamBut then I walked back through and I'm not exaggerating, a genuinely deserted Romford, but like with in on a sunny afternoon.
AdamAll the shops had shut, there was no one in the shopping center, like in the main shopping center.
AdamAnd I walked through and went down to the car park, but the car park gate was locked and like had been bordered across, which I'd never seen before.
ChrisYeah.
Adamand so I had to walk back, as I'm walking back, there's one guy in the distance clean and I said, excuse me, mate, is there do you know if there's if there's another way around the car park.
ChrisGenuinely, his reply was.
AdamSo already I'm feeling that.
ChrisAnyway, so I have to, your spiders are tingling.
AdamSo I well I had to double back out of the Liberty shopping center to get walk around the street to get to their car park.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAgain, not a fucking soul.
AdamAnd then just as I turned the corner to get in the car park, what I now realize or what I quickly realized was a very, very drunk woman staggering at me, but looking very sort of vacant and drawn.
ChrisDid you laugh and say look how drunk you are.
Adamvacant with a hint of despair, you know.
AdamAnd yeah, so I got the I got the full experience, I got like the Secret Cinema experience of that thanks to a conflagration of a early closing in Romford.
ChrisYes.
AdamSo I was, you know, had had its exciting moments, should we say.
ChrisSorry, man.
LeeNo, go on.
AdamNo, I was just going to say, I also, I also do remember Dean and Lee having to explain me what Henry's was.
Adamjust cuz I'd never heard that.
LeeNo, I just never heard it.
LeeI was like, oh, that's good.
ChrisMake sense now.
ChrisYeah, no, like the start of the film is just so good, the way it's referencing what's going to happen, like all the way through, you're just seeing in the background these are the things like picking up and the way he doesn't pick up on any of it, and then the obvious that day when he's then walking through and it's just chaos but he's so out of it.
ChrisAnd there's blood on the door, the the glass.
LeeOh yeah, he's little slip in the blood and he doesn't bother looking down, he just keeps walking.
ChrisIt's just such a good start to a film.
AdamI I think also it's just I think that came I read somewhere that Edgar Wright was saying it was something to do with he basically turned on the telly one day and they were setting fire to loads of pigs and he'd not heard about Foot and Mouth.
ChrisYeah, okay.
AdamBack in the back around 2000 or whatever it was.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd so yeah, but yeah, they they do a very good job of sleepwalking into a disaster.
Adam
AdamYeah, I think that they they always talk about American Werewolf and I think they've got that same thing.
AdamYou know, American Werewolf has genuine scary horror or genuinely like stuff that stuff that is unquestionably a horror movie, gore, you know, tension and stuff like that.
AdamYeah, but it's also piss funny throughout and doesn't have to sort of yeah.
LeeYeah, again and I think it was one of the first ones to really get that balance right as you say, I think that's why it hit the mainstream so well.
LeeBecause, yeah, it was just it was comedy that reached everyone, as you say, it wasn't too nerd-centric, you didn't have to like with Spaced, you didn't have to know, you know, you didn't have to know Star Wars, you didn't have to know all these classic horror movies, you could just go in and watch it.
Leebut yeah, and it and so it kind of again, it's one of those that does catch you off guard, cuz you're getting into the jovialness of it all and then all of a sudden, when it kicks off, say it starts off quite subtle like when he's in the shop and he can see the guy who's about to eat the pigeon and you're like that's a bit wrong, yeah.
LeeAnd then before you know it, it just goes bat shit out of nowhere, yeah, and all of a sudden there's a strange girl in the garden.
LeeAnd and it's it's the little bits they set up as well, like Peter Serafinowicz, I always forget every time when he comes in and he goes, oh yes, I'm crackered bit me and that's it and I've got a headache and it's kind of left there, yeah, and then about 10 minutes later you suddenly go, oh shit.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah, cuz I think I think it's zombies are like werewolf, people know what the thing is.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, it's very simple, so it's quite like you say, you can go into this, you don't have to it's not something that's essential that you know your zombie movies, you can present this to someone who's never watched one in their life, they get what's going on, they yeah.
AdamAnd it doesn't and it doesn't really there's a couple of throwaway references, but it doesn't really indulge apart from the similarity between Dylan Moran dying and the the cat the major in Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead.
LeeYeah.
AdamOther than that, there's not they don't really do set pieces or anything, they create their own.
LeeYeah.
AdamWhich is essential as well, you know, you've got I mean, even down to the fact that this was the I just again talking about like how this was that sort of cusp point between buying it on video, buying it on DVD.
AdamAnd I think similarly, this was just it was just a brilliantly observed joke at that time when it's everyone at the bus stop and it used to be the everyone looks at their watch in unison, but this time around it was everyone checked their phone in unison because that's how everyone that's how everyone tells the time.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut you know, it was that sort of, oh yeah, that that was the sort of first thing I saw that acknowledged the fact that that's what you do, you know, it's not.
LeeI mean, and the cast in this as well is, you know, as we said, the amount of people who come in and do like little bit parts.
Leelike Rafe Spall, I mean, he looks so completely different in it, he's almost unrecognizable.
AdamYeah, but we've but also that's a very relatable one.
AdamEveryone's always, you know, where it's like, so what are you, 20, 25, 79.
LeeYeah.
AdamBryan, all right, okay.
AdamAnd he he is one of the the select group of people who's in all three of the trilogy.
LeeYeah.
AdamRafe Spall.
AdamAnd but no, I mean, there's I did you know the one person who is weirdly missing from this trilogy though, because he should be there is Kevin Eldon.
LeeYes.
AdamBecause literally every other British comedy thing from about 95 to sort of well, almost today, Kevin Eldon will have turned up at some point.
LeeYeah, he's great in Hot Fuzz.
Adamis he in Hot Fuzz?
LeeHow long's it been since you've seen Hot Fuzz?
Adamvery long time.
AdamI mean, I I love it, but I haven't watched it for yeah.
LeeYeah, he is one of the, I thought you meant he should have been in all three, yes, he is one of the coppers in Hot Fuzz.
AdamOh, is he? Oh, right, okay.
AdamI've clearly not remembered that at all.
LeeI can't wait for you to rewatch that, now I'm jealous again because as I say, I can't go since it's been released, I have not been out to go six months without watching that film.
LeeI absolutely adore it.
Leeeven above this, as much, that's what I mean, when this came out, I went so bat shit for it, I think I kind of watched it once a month for about two years.
ChrisBut is that it you you overdid it slightly.
LeeExactly and I've not I mean that's obviously an exaggeration, but I think I did watch it five or six times in the first couple of years it was out, yeah, then kind of didn't go back for a long time.
LeeI think this is possibly the second time I've seen it in the last 15 years.
AdamProbably the same.
AdamI think that certainly at the when it first came out was absolutely obsessed, and even sort of what and it's one of those weird ones where I watched it watching it back for this, obviously is yeah, like you say, it's probably been about 15 years.
AdamAnd weirdly enough, I knew everything that was going to happen, I knew I remembered everything that was in it and stuff like that.
AdamBut that it was just like an old mate, you know what I mean, it was just it was just just great watching it again, I didn't you know it was just yeah.
LeeIt is one of those, I can close my eyes and pretty much just run through this entire movie scene by scene exactly as it is, I remember it so vividly.
Leebut it's still thrilling to watch, despite the fact I know it so well, I I still absolutely absolutely love it.
LeeI had such a great time and that was the thing at first, I was like, oh, I know these films so well, do I have to rewatch it really and I was like, oh, it's a weekend, I've got time, I'll squeeze it in.
LeeYeah, and then as Chris said, just before we started recording, I wish I'd watched it all yesterday, then I could have rewatched it all again today.
AdamYeah, I mean, it's it's it is interesting cuz like you say, I don't know if I don't know if killed it would be the right word, but it was just I'd watched it a lot.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd so I felt, oh no, that's that.
AdamI mean, that wasn't to say that, you know, the DVD weren't going anywhere.
LeeYeah.
AdamOr or anything like that, you know, there was it wasn't going to be like a I I need to have this in my collection somewhere.
LeeOh yeah, cuz when you're in the mood for it, there's nothing else that will that will scratch that itch, this is such an essential.
LeeBut it's funny, the other thing Jennifer said is, has there been another really good zombie film since then.
LeeAnd I thought about it and I was like, for me, no, because I don't like zombie films.
LeeSo it was the only ones I like.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisSo so was this before.
Adam
Chris28 Days Later.
AdamYes.
ChrisIt was.
AdamWonderfully enough, in the very end of it in the aftermath.
AdamAnd I'll tell you some other names Edgar Wright is one of the radio voices and it's a voice that's just going, it's like along the lines of reports that the outbreak was due to the due to angry monkeys have been dismissed as bollocks.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd then it cuts before bollocks.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut yeah, it had just cuz.
AdamI think 28 Days Later is.
LeeOh no, 28 Days Later was two years earlier.
Adam2001.
LeeYeah.
Adam2001.
ChrisOkay.
AdamAnd then yeah, and this is 2004.
Adam2004, so so there is, yeah.
AdamBut at this point, I think also cuz they then had the sort of conversations and people go, well, why aren't you doing running zombies?
ChrisWell, that's yeah.
AdamWe're doing we're doing the classic version of zombies.
AdamThat's like, you know, oh what.
LeeYou can choose.
AdamIt depends, it's like how let's face it, it's how like mythology, most horror mythology works.
AdamIt's like, right, we're doing a vampire film, can these ones do these ones react to crosses, not these ones, no.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, it's.
ChrisYou can choose.
AdamAnd similarly.
ChrisYeah, you can choose what the thing is.
AdamIt's not like, you know.
ChrisBut I I think it was a good choice that to to go the classic.
ChrisI think them shambling around added to the the comedy aspect, I think if they were running.
ChrisYou know, that's not quite.
LeeIt makes it more manageable as well.
LeeLike the fact that they go places and do stuff with just a cricket bat and a lovely big.
ChrisThat's it.
LeeAnd you're like.
LeeYeah, if they're shambling zombies, you can take out five of them.
ChrisYou can take out five.
LeeBut if they're running.
LeeAnd you just and you can mimic them as well and and walk between them.
AdamThat I that I do wonder, I was trying to work out, I think that might be entirely unique to Shaun of the Dead.
AdamOr certainly at that point, they were possibly the first person to do it because I don't see it in any other zombie movie, people pretending to be zombies.
ChrisIt would it would be a bit too silly in a serious.
ChrisOne, no, sure.
ChrisLike you'd have to do it so carefully that it didn't seem.
AdamI I think you, I mean, it's it's a tense enough scene whilst when in a comedy film, I think it actually be could be quite a good one to attempt because it.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut it's also that cuz sort of.
Adamwatching it with Clarence, she said, I was that, you know, she was asking me and I was like, no, I can't think of another instance when that happened in something.
AdamAnd.
AdamIt's also the question is then can in certain films if you were to do it, do the zombies know, do you know what I mean, is it is it not just an appearance thing, is it a smell, is it a sense, is it some weird connection that they all have or whatever like that.
AdamThat they could see through that anyway.
AdamBut it's.
AdamBut I think but it's back to the thing that they're the slow-moving zombies are really good, particularly comedic ways, but it's also that thing of it's being stupid and fucking about that gets you killed.
AdamTechnically, you should be able to manage this.
LeeYeah.
AdamDo you know what I mean, technically you should just be, well, stay out of their way and don't get caught by them or cornered by them should be the sort of.
LeeYeah, it's the.
ChrisBut it's like the disagreements and the the people fucking idiots and will you know, it's like.
ChrisBumble about and just really.
AdamLike it's like too many people on a lifeboat.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know what I mean.
ChrisPeople rocking about and.
AdamPeople rocking about and you're all fucked.
LeeWell, it is like and it's what gets me every time, you know, when people do things that you kind of, oh you go, you know, oh no one would really be that stupid.
LeeAnd then you see people, see the look at the way people drive.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd then you suddenly go, oh yeah, people really are that stupid, you know, the bit when he answers the phone outside the pub, when they're all pretending to be zombies and he goes, oh just a minute, oh yeah, I know people who are that stupid who would think, oh yeah, but it's a call, I've got to take it.
AdamYeah.
LeeLike.
LeeWhat.
AdamIt is it's yeah, and that's that's all it.
AdamWell, not only that, but also you then get things where it's like, like where his mum's like.
AdamOh, well, I got bitten but I didn't like to say.
LeeYeah.
AdamDidn't want to worry you.
AdamI'm crying, you know what I mean, that.
ChrisBut there probably is actually what he does.
AdamExactly, it's like it's it's funny but it's also quite heartbreaking because it's like, well, I didn't want to worry, didn't want to make a fuss.
LeeYou know.
LeeAnd I think that's the third level to this film, so it's got the comedy, it's got the horror.
LeeIt definitely does play to stuff like that, the stuff with his mum, the stuff when it's just the two of them in the basement at the, well, and it in the basement at the end and they're trying to decide are they going to kill each other, are they just like, how are they going to get out of this?
LeeLike, it's really, it really is dramatic, it's really hard to watch in the middle of a an over the top gory comedy movie.
LeeThey still manage to somehow put seriousness in it so well.
AdamWell, it's it's it's definitely it's a testament to how much you care about the characters.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, you know, it's not just sort of empty laughs or something like that, you develop a real affection for everyone, you know, for for for good or ill as it as it goes on.
ChrisAnd I suppose especially Shaun cuz because he does start off he's so useless and he just gradually does become not quite a hero, but he's like, yeah, you're actually taking charge, you are making decisions, still getting them wrong sometimes but yeah, you're.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamHe's essentially growing.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know.
ChrisHero's Journey.
AdamBut
AdamBut yeah, it's I think you've got so obviously you've got Nick Frost is just exceptional.
LeeYeah.
AdamI just, you know, I mean and he.
AdamCuz again, it is that thing of you get why Shaun's his friend, but also it's like, Jesus Christ, you know, he is a fucking menace.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamAlthough though that was the that was the thing I remember that was.
AdamSaid about it was that it the bit that made him laugh was going for a Cornetto.
AdamBecause that was I was the first person I'd ever see do that.
AdamI was like, do you want anything for breakfast, yeah, Cornetto.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, before even opened his eyes, it was the first thing on his mind was an ice cream.
AdamIt's it's it's perfect, I recommend it to all.
AdamAnyone out there who's thinking no, that's too no, it's not.
ChrisWhat flavor Cornetto?
Adamwell, obviously this is the strawberry film because it's red so it's as in blood.
AdamBut each of the each of the films are different types of Cornetto.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo.
LeeOh.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd I I did manage to procure some.
LeeYeah.
Adamfor for watching as I.
AdamI don't know where I'm going to get Mint Choc Chip from.
LeeNo, I'm going to be honest.
AdamThey don't seem to be anywhere these days.
LeeI'm going to say I haven't seen Cornettos anywhere in a long time.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut there's I mean, the good thing is is that as the repeating of the cast means that we can talk about them as we're going to go through the Cornetto trilogy and stuff like that. But I mean, there's a there's a few notables in there, but I the weirdest thing was going through cuz the zombies, the majority of the zombies were people that they recruited through the website Spaced out, which was like a a fan site for Spaced that was on, I don't think it's being updated anymore, I think it's still there, but but it was like a fan site and loads of they basically got loads of people through to sort of come along and be zombie extras for I think a pound a day. but you know, it was like basically you get the call on you're on the Spaced out website and there's a thing on there saying, right, if you're in London next week and you're not doing anything, do you want to come and be a zombie in our film, fuck yeah. So they got quite a big crowd, but amongst that as I've described them, the celebri dead. you've got Joe Cornish who directed Attack the Block and he's from Adam and Joe. Lucy Akers who is Sophie in Spaced, the one who works for the comics guy in the second series of Spaced. Lauren Laverne from Knicky, Russell Howard, Michael Smiley's in there and is Tyres, he's like dressed as.
LeeI did spot him as Tyres this time.
AdamYeah, yeah, so obviously yeah, he's basically dressed as the character he is in Spaced.
Adamone of the Fundead, the the game show thing at the end, it's Garth Jennings, who's the director of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Son of Rambo, who's who is one of the few people who's in all three.
ChrisOh, right.
Adamas well, and Andy Diggle who was an editor for 2008 D and a comics artist is in there. Paul Kaye, the comedian who's Hoover in Spaced and was Dennis Pennice and Mike Strutter.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamPaul Putner is one of the zombies as well from as as Clare always mentions, Len Pounds from Look around you, but obviously but he's another one like Kevin Eldon, interesting facts about Paul Putner, I did once hold the door open for him at a Matt Berry gig.
ChrisOh, cool.
AdamAnd and and and thanked him because it's Paul Putner and he's been in so many fucking great things, he was the curious orange in this morning with Richard and Judy and lows of shit. and the twins from the twins who turn up in Hot Fuzz are in there as well and also Chris Martin from Coldplay but you know as well as being one of the talking heads who's in it as well.
ChrisAll right.
LeeYeah, I did see that as well, yeah.
AdamAnd then and for for our American for our American listeners, both of them.
LeeHi, hi, Bobby, hi, yeah.
Adam
AdamThere a lot of the people who there's Trisha, who obviously had her own talk show at the time, so there's a lot of familiar British TV faces.
AdamChristian O'Connell Murphy is the Channel 4 newsreader who's also in Dead Set, so he was doing quite well in like zombie comedy stuff for a while. Carol Barnes, the newsreader, Rob Butler, the newsreader and Jeremy Thompson from Sky News, who was the destroyed the head.
AdamRemove the head, destroy the brain.
ChrisNever thought I'd say that.
AdamNo, I never thought I'd say that.
AdamHe's he's very good, I think he just, you know.
AdamI think all the newsreaders are pretty good anyway because it's like you've probably had to say quite some very quickly and maintain a gravitas, you know what I mean.
ChrisDefinitely.
Adamand then.
AdamVoice-wise, you've got Keith Chegwin in there.
AdamWho again, American people, American listeners would have no idea that Keith Chegwin was a mainstay of British television from the '70s.
AdamWith Checker's Place pop and multicolour swap shop and that thing he did called Naked Jungle where he presented it in just a hat and call that was that was commitment that he didn't need to have shown, I don't think.
LeeI don't think.
Adambut other voices like radio voices, Mark Gatiss is in there, Julia Davis and Rob Brydon, David Williams, and Robert Popper, the guy from Look Around You.
AdamWho also created Friday Night Dinner.
AdamAnd yeah, there's some fucking there's also some good tunes in here cuz they use bits of Dawn of the Dead like the score from Dawn of the Dead.
Adamthat Goblin did and then they just paid for the rights cuz they were like we can't fucking.
LeeYou can't make it.
AdamThey used it as a temp track and they were like just no we just want this, this is what we want.
AdamBut fortunately half of Day of the Dead, half of Dawn of the Dead is library tracks so they could get stuff like the Gonk, you know.
LeeYeah.
AdamThe lady's bras as we know it.
Lee
AdamBut yeah, I think that I'm so fucking pleased to have seen it again.
AdamAfter all this time.
AdamAnd like I said, I've been revisiting Spaced and stuff.
AdamI also found, I was at me mum's earlier, so I went through me old DVDs and I found it's blurry.
AdamBut I found danger 50,000, danger 50,000 volts.
LeeOh.
ChrisOh yeah.
AdamThe Nick Frost show because there's an extra on basically was him going around talking about survival techniques and things like what to do in the event of a get trapped in the desert and that sort of thing.
ChrisI've not seen that.
AdamBut one of them is there's an extra on here Danger 50,000 zombies, which is him and Nick him and Simon Peg how they would deal with a zombie apocalypse and John the Barman's in it as a as a zombie.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause John John the Barman's a stuntman.
AdamWhich is why they could just him with all cues.
LeeYeah, I just I.
LeeI picked up on that as well, it's because one of my favorite things about Baby Driver, which I always rave about, is the the shootout to Hocus Pocus by Focus, again, I forgot that this kind of preempt it with them like hitting him in time to Queen and I was like, oh yeah.
LeeSo I wonder if he just took that as the kind of impetus, I went, oh yeah, that quite worked.
LeeLet's do that on a massive scale and that's how we.
AdamAgain, rewatching Spaced, there's bits of it as well where they do sort of similar things.
AdamAnd I think it's something that like Edgar Wright's awareness with use and placement and how to just.
ChrisExceptional.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, in terms of film making probably reaches its apotheosis with Baby Driver to be honest, where you know.
ChrisSo I still haven't seen that, I know Lee you went mad over it, I did didn't realize it was Edgar Wright, I mean, you probably mentioned it, but so that's yeah, I think I should probably watch that.
LeeYou definitely need to.
AdamWell, he also did the Sparks documentary recently, didn't he?
AdamThat was that.
LeeYeah, again.
LeeAnd I've not I've never really listened to Sparks, I just knew the one song and only knew that from Green Wing, but yeah, but actually I still found it really entertaining, I thought he did a really good job of yeah, of showing them and making it interesting even for someone who isn't really interested in the music particularly.
AdamWell, and then obviously he did Last Night in Soho, Scott Pilgrim versus the World and the other bits, you know.
LeeScott Pilgrim is another underrated gem, I think, I love that film.
AdamThe the other thing as well is Asylum, which is where Jessica Stephenson, sorry, Jessica Hines, nay Stephenson.
AdamSimon Peg and Edgar Wright first met, which was a Paramount comedy series and they all just it was the pre-runner to Spaced, basically it's where they met and started and came up with Spaced and.
AdamBut like Edgar Wright was the director on that.
AdamClaire used to watch that when it was like when it was on and so she was when.
AdamWhen I was talked to her when we were first talking about Spaced, however long ago that was.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd yeah, Claire was like, oh no, have you seen Asylum? I'm like, no.
LeeI haven't heard that, yeah, I think I'm going to have to check that out.
AdamIt's all on it's on YouTube.
AdamJulian Barratt's in there as well, there's quite a few Norman Love, the cast of Spaced, yeah.
ChrisThe cast of Spaced.
ChrisAnd I did notice he's he's doing the running man as well.
AdamWhat, just dancing like it.
LeeYeah.
ChrisNo, apparently, it's upcoming.
AdamDirected.
AdamFair enough.
LeeThat'd be interesting.
Lee
LeeRight, yes, so, thanks for listening everybody.
LeeI'm sure you've already seen Shaun of the Dead, but if you haven't seen it for a while, go back and check it out, you won't be disappointed.
LeeGo and check out Hot Fuzz.
LeeAnd we'll be back in a fortnight's time to discuss that.
LeeThanks very much for listening.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
