SIMON TRAINS FOR SCARY ROLE;
PHIL GOULD HEARS HOW SIMON PEGG IS PLANNING TO SCARE THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF CINEMA AUDIENCES
Simon Pegg is best known for tickling people's funny bones but in the near future he is hoping to scare the living daylights out of movie-goers.
The comedian and writer is about to start work on the script for a new horror movie but he has warned people not to expect a spoof shocker like the recent box office hit Scary Movie.
Pegg says: 'It is going to be a comedy-horror film about zombies, but I want to make sure it has equal amounts of comedy and horror. I don't want it to end up like one of those ironic comedies.
'I want the horror bit to be horrible and the comedy bits to be funny. Something like they achieved when they made An American Werewolf In London. It made audiences laugh but it also scared them.'
He is back on our screens on Monday in BBC2's surreal comedy sketch show Big Train. The show is written by Father Ted writer Arthur Matthews. The first series won Best Broken Comedy at the British Comedy Awards three years ago.
The second series promises to be as equally surreal as its predecessor. It features Spanish Flamenco dancers who have a speciality for defusing car bombs, tortoises that speak fluent French and three grown men who discover that the only way to deal with a duck is to stand up to it.
'I think the first series of Big Train struck a chord with people,' says Pegg. 'I find it quite relaxing being in the show as I don't do any writing - I know it is in the capable hands of somebody else.'
Pegg recently showed his serious side when he appeared in the epic drama Band Of Brothers. 'It was my agent's idea,' he says. 'He thought I should do some serious stuff. I actually got the part quite late on, which was good because it meant I didn't have to go to boot camp like the rest of the cast did.
'It was an amazing thing to do but some of the stuff I did got cut. So I felt it was a case of blink and you might have missed me.'
Born and raised in Gloucester, Pegg was encouraged in his early acting ambitions by his parents. When he was 16-years-old he moved to Stratford-upon -Avon to study A-levels, which was followed up by a film, theatre and TV course in Bristol.
'I've always been interested in acting,' he admits. 'I studied a course in drama but that put me off the idea of being an actor because I couldn't stand the thought of jobbing and doing things I didn't really like.
'Stand-up comedy was a way of performing and keeping it on my terms. My stand -up act was sort of surreal observation.'
Pegg is one half of the duo responsible for creating the Channel 4 comedy Spaced - the other being Jessica Stevenson, aka Denise's best mate Cheryl in The Royle Family. He admits that both he and Stevenson have been a little taken aback by the critical praise heaped on their Channel 4 show, a sitcom centred on the nightmares of two twentysomethings sharing a flat.
'It's been phenomenal - Jess and me are really thrilled that people have been so forthcoming about liking it,' says Pegg enthusiastically.
'We wanted to revamp the whole notion of sitcoms. We wanted to make one that started off looking conventional but turned into something different - which doesn't often happen in the genre. In Spaced there's that cultural awareness going on - which people just seem to have picked up on.
'We've made lots of different references to films and TV shows which people seem to like.'
In the past there has been speculation that the couple might be an item, but Pegg insists they are just good friends.
'Spaced is not the first time we have worked together. We worked on a sketch show called Six Pairs Of Pants, back in 1995, and got on immediately. 'Then two years later we did a show called Asylum and were approached about doing our own show. We agreed, but only if we could write it. But because we were involved in different projects, we didn't actually get round to writing it until 1998.
'As a writer, I think you have to cull the truth from your life because that's the stuff you can transmit with the most honesty. Write what you know -- always.'
Big Train is on BBC2 on Monday at 9.30pm.