Final frontiers; Look who's talking; Fast-rising comedian Simon Pegg may soon be heading into orbit with his latest C4 'slackcom', Spaced
by Ben Dowell
Simon Pegg has many reasons to be happy. He has already wowed audiences and critics with his contribution to Steve Coogan's live show, The Man Who Thinks He's It, and he is set to appear in BBC2's new show Hippies. But with co-star and co-writer Jessica Stevenson, he also has one of his own coming out (starting tomorrow), the so-called 'slackcom' Spaced.
About two drifters, it is a daringly-visualised and in places very funny series which Pegg tackled with all the verve of man who (and this is true) had just come out of a five year relationship and wanted to channel his energy.
According to Channel 4 entertainments chief Kevin Lygo, this surreal and slobby take on the flatshare idiom is also the most important C4 comedy project of the year, so much so that Lygo has already commissioneda second series.
Pegg, one can confidently proclaim, has won a place among Britain's elite clique of 'in' comedians.
"I really respect people who can make me laugh, always," he told me over a drink. It is the kind of remark not untypical of other comedians who have enjoyed such success.
But Pegg is very sweet about Stevenson. "I love Jess, she is my best friend," he says before coming back to the suspiciously self-regarding: "She is one of the few people who make me laugh."
However, for the performer whose break came after he was spotted by Father Ted creators Arthur Linehan and Graham Matthews, and then mentioned to the likes of Steve Coogan and Chris Morris, there is some humility in the way he lauds his comedy heroes. Foremost among them are Monty Python and The Young Ones.
"I know Ade (Adrian Edmondson) and Rik (Mayall) and I always tell them: 'Do you have any idea of your impact on me?'. And they are so great. It's really good being able to meetpeople you once admired from afar."
As for his comedy partner, Pegg is similarly generous: "This show is the complete result of Jess and myself. It is neither one or the other, it is a complete symbiosis and it is a great relationship to have."
But not always that great: "We did fight a lot and would not speak to each other for a morning and after lunch it would be gone. But it was a necessary process to go through.
"We would be yelling at each other and people would say what's wrong with them? The fact is nothing was wrong, it was only about how we would get over certain points. I love Jess. She is one of my best friends and however testy we get with each other nothing is going to change that."
As for the show itself, two drifters in a flatshare may seem a tired starting point, but Spaced is rather special, as Pegg explains.
"It is about being a bit spaced in your twenties, about people who are not sure what they are supposed to be doing," he elaborates. "We have been given this ten year extension of our youth. For our parents it was about getting married and getting jobs. When we think about our thirties we are playing video games.
"Comedy is great when it is grounded in the truth and the show has a level of truth in it, although most of it is complete fantasy."
What he means by fantasy is the adventurously cartoony look to the show. In fact, the look was so important that he also insisted that the daring and innovative director Edgar Wright work on the project so as to realise what he and Stevenson had mentally visualised.
"There is not another person in the world who could have done it," Pegg says of Wright.
The series which is piled with cultural references, also owes a big debt to Pegg's favourite sitcom, The Simpsons.
"What we wanted to do was make a live action show that was to a degree cartoonish," he says.
Next up, he is taking a holiday, before writing the second series of Spaced,and will also appear in Coogan's forthcoming film project. The world seems to be his oyster.
As he concludes: "I would love not to care as much as I do about my future. Tim is basically me minus ambition and drive.I am a show-off... and I am driven by the need for external validation.
"At the moment I am happy and I hope to stay that way. I just believe in working with people you trust and if you can orchestrate that you must do it. Jess andI spark off each other like no one else."