Channel 4 is showing all seven episodes of Series 1 of Spaced tonight from 11.05pm. The director Edgar Wright confirmed that he would be live tweeting the event as we watch along…to say I’m excited about this would be an understatement.
For anyone who doesn’t know about Spaced – WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??
Spaced tells the story of Tim (Simon Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Stevenson…now Hynes), two twenty-somethings who come together to pretend to be a couple to move into a London flat. Along the way we meet Tim’s best friend Mike (Nick Frost), Daisy’s shallow bestie Twist (Katy Carmichael) and their new landlord Marsha (Julia Deakin). Rounding out the ensemble is Tim and Daisy’s other flat tenant artist Brian (played by the incredible Mark Heap). Pretty much classic sitcom material with some up-and-coming comedy stars, but then you throw in the imagination of director Edgar Wright and you end up with a sitcom that transcended the cult label usually attributed to Channel 4 sitcoms in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright went on to create the Cornetto Trilogy (and ITV 2 mainstay); Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End. One of these films would be a perfectly good thing to have on your IMDB list to prove your comedic chops. All 3 put them into a different realm entirely.
Pegg went on to be a Hollywood mainstay in the rebooted Star Trek franchise and became the perfect foil for Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible franchise. Whilst Nick Frost went on to star with Pegg in the underrated Paul, worked with Spielberg in the Tintin movie and has been on many British TV with roles both comedic and serious.
Edgar Wright has since directed the cult favourite (there’s that word again) Scott Pilgrim vs The World and the cool Baby Driver He wrote the majority and nearly directed the first Ant-Man film for Marvel, and also directed the kaleidoscopic video for Beck’s Colors song.
Jessica Hynes has gone on to star in, and be the best thing in, many programmes including Doctor Who and W1A. Mark Heap is genuinely one of the funniest comedic actors and has stole the show in two of Channel 4’s outstanding shows since Spaced (Green Wing and Friday Night Dinner).
Even the actors who could be deemed less successful than these massive stars, Katy Carmichael and Julia Deakin, have worked steadily as character actors in the UK and have probably propped up in something you will have seen somewhere.
The success of Spaced came from how relatable the show could seem to people in their late teens and early twentys, even amongst the lunacy of Mike, Brian and Marsha. Tim and Daisy are the straight man/woman of the show. Tim played video games, Daisy struggled to find motivation to write, and they were like us when we were young.
The other reason Space became the success arose from its masterful use of the surreal. One of the most famous scenes involves the slow motion gun fight with a bunch of aggressive youths. You try pitching that scene and I guarantee you it wouldn’t get on TV these days.
There are guest appearances from Peter Serafinowicz and Reece Shearsmith that complement the surreal characters perfectly, as Tim’s girlfriend stealing enemy and underground Fight Club-Robot Wars opponent of Tim and Mike respectively.
The show first appeared on British screens in September 1999, and despite being nearly 21 years old still feels as fresh as it was when I first saw it as a impressionable 18 year old. I can’t wait to watch it again and look forward to the insights that Edgar Wright will share on twitter this evening.