Shaun of the Dead

0:23 Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror.

0:25 Lee I'm Lee.

0:26 Chris I'm Chris.

0:27 Adam I'm Adam.

0:29 Lee and 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.

0:41 Lee from 20 years ago, cuz we're old as.

0:44 Chris That is that is just insane like really that is wrong.

0:48 Lee this month as well, I mean, when this episode comes out, it'll be just past. But yeah, 20 years in April.

0:55 Lee So that's.

0:57 Adam It was it was 20 years on Good Friday and actually it was Good Friday when we when it first went UK nationwide.

1:44 Lee Yeah.

1:47 Lee Wow.

1:48 Adam And that film is.

1:52 Adam Shaun of the Dead.

1:53 Lee Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:54 Chris He hadn't actually mentioned that.

1:55 Lee No, no, sorry, I got too wrapped up.

1:58 Lee I mean, obviously, Chris, I assume you'd seen this prior to.

2:02 Chris I had, yeah, yeah, I don't know how quickly I saw it when it came out.

2:06 Chris But 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.

2:18 Chris So I must have heard how good it was, I don't know, like I just remember being very excited.

2:23 Lee I mean, I was kind of worried when it came out, if I'm honest.

2:25 Lee Yeah, 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.

3:26 Lee but 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.

3:35 Adam Yeah.

3:37 Adam Well, funnily enough, in the run-up to this, I, I re-watched Spaced.

3:42 Adam Yeah, 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.

3:51 Chris It's not.

3:52 Adam It's not, yeah, it's not like you can't, it's not like Guesthouse Paradiso is the Bottom film.

3:59 Lee Yeah.

4:00 Adam They may have different surnames, but it's the Bottom film.

4:03 Adam It'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.

4:16 Adam Yeah, 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.

5:08 Adam even 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.

5:17 Adam Yeah, 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.

5:26 Chris On video.

5:29 Lee Yeah on DVD I think season two of Spaced was one of the first things I ever owned on DVD actually, so.

5:38 Adam Yeah, I think cuz it was very much that crossover time, wasn't it?

5:41 Adam Exactly, yeah.

5:42 Adam And yeah, it was just a it was a weird one because I think we'd missed it because we were basically the same age.

5:52 Adam So we were out, that's why, you know, we didn't see Spaced like the first time around.

5:57 Adam The 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.

6:59 Lee Well, 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,

7:24 Lee Right, 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.

7:31 Adam It's extremely addictive.

7:32 Adam And obviously most of the cast appear in a great or lesser extent in the in Shaun of the Dead.

8:22 Adam Twist isn't there and Brian like Mark Heap.

8:27 Adam Yeah, I think they're the only two notable exceptions, everyone else is.

8:32 Lee I mean, obviously, Simon Peg and Nick Frost.

8:34 Chris The the landlady.

8:35 Adam Yeah, she's she's she's that's one of my favorite bits is the alternate team.

8:41 Chris Yeah, it's that is so good.

8:43 Adam You got Martin Freeman and Reese Shearsmith and Julia Deakin, who is who's Marsha and Matt Lucas as like the alterna.

8:55 Chris So 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.

9:05 Chris I probably, in fact, I probably didn't really know some of them, I didn't know Reese Shearsmith probably at that time.

9:12 Chris And yeah, but this time I was like looking out for it, but yeah, it's

9:19 Adam Cuz Spaced Spaced is very much like a is an absolute like snapshot of the comedy scene at that point of everyone.

10:10 Adam And so like Reese Shearsmith's in there, Mark Gatiss is in there, Kevin Eldon, Bill Bailey, you know, so many people.

10:17 Adam And some of whom end up coming into the what becomes the Cornetto trilogy.

10:23 Adam But 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.

10:40 Adam It's not like Young Frankenstein or something like that.

10:43 Lee I think that's kind of what I was expecting it to be.

10:46 Lee If I'm honest.

10:47 Lee And I'm not, you know, I've said before of all the supernatural thing, zombies are my least favorite.

10:54 Lee But 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.

11:48 Adam Well, 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.

11:54 Adam Like 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.

12:23 Adam You 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.

12:31 Adam It'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.

13:28 Adam Whereas 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.

13:43 Lee Yeah.

13:43 Chris Yeah.

13:46 Chris It 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.

13:54 Chris It's like I hadn't remembered that really properly at all.

13:57 Lee I was always like, yeah, take that out, put it in another one, it was horror.

14:00 Chris Yeah, it's I completely forgot that he shoots his mum's face off.

14:05 Chris I was like that is clearly very harsh.

14:08 Chris Like and somehow, I guess you remember the comedy or at least that that is exactly what I'd done.

14:15 Lee I 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.

15:08 Adam horrific.

15:10 Chris No, it's like in a normal horror film, that would be like, yep, that is that is seriously harsh.

15:16 Adam Well, that's, I mean, that is very much Day of the Dead.

15:18 Lee Yeah.

15:20 Adam So 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?

15:28 Chris Yes, yeah, they did make him especially horrible just before.

15:33 Lee Yeah.

15:34 Adam You know, it's it's he's increasingly proved himself an arsehole and then it sort of yeah.

15:39 Lee I hate to say it, I still side with him on that.

15:45 Chris It's it's the way he does it though, isn't it?

15:47 Chris Like he could have just even just slightly and that's fine.

15:52 Lee Oh look, what's that over there, bang, oh no, the gun went off, I seem to have shot your mum in the head.

15:56 Chris Yeah, yeah, it had to be done.

16:40 Adam That's that's a lovely thing as well is the fact that everyone's shit with a gun.

16:43 Chris Yeah.

16:44 Adam You know, it's not America, it's people in a pub in London.

16:48 Chris Yes.

16:50 Adam No one can really aim, you know.

16:52 Chris Even even with the PlayStation 2 practice, it's not enough.

16:56 Adam Yes.

16:57 Adam Well, 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.

17:13 Adam Yeah, and that's kind of their sort of starting point of putting zombies into.

17:18 Adam Cuz 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.

17:29 Lee Oh, 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.

18:23 Lee Which was excellent.

18:28 Adam But I think the I mean, when so me and you saw this at the cinema, didn't we, Lee?

18:33 Adam We we it was me, you and Dean.

18:35 Lee Yeah.

18:35 Adam And 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.

18:51 Lee So 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.

19:05 Adam Yeah.

19:07 Lee We got bollocks that night, we honestly.

19:08 Lee But it was great cuz we just literally, we sat in the pub for about four hours talking about how much we loved that film.

19:15 Adam But then I walked back through and I'm not exaggerating, a genuinely deserted Romford, but like with in on a sunny afternoon.

20:05 Adam All the shops had shut, there was no one in the shopping center, like in the main shopping center.

20:13 Adam And 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.

20:22 Chris Yeah.

20:23 Adam and 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.

20:34 Chris Genuinely, his reply was.

20:38 Adam So already I'm feeling that.

20:40 Chris Anyway, so I have to, your spiders are tingling.

20:43 Adam So 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.

20:52 Chris Yeah.

20:53 Adam Again, not a fucking soul.

20:57 Adam And 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.

21:52 Chris Did you laugh and say look how drunk you are.

21:54 Adam vacant with a hint of despair, you know.

21:57 Adam And 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.

22:09 Chris Yes.

22:10 Adam So I was, you know, had had its exciting moments, should we say.

22:17 Chris Sorry, man.

22:19 Lee No, go on.

22:20 Adam No, I was just going to say, I also, I also do remember Dean and Lee having to explain me what Henry's was.

22:26 Adam just cuz I'd never heard that.

22:29 Lee No, I just never heard it.

22:31 Lee I was like, oh, that's good.

22:33 Chris Make sense now.

22:36 Chris Yeah, 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.

23:35 Chris And there's blood on the door, the the glass.

23:38 Lee Oh yeah, he's little slip in the blood and he doesn't bother looking down, he just keeps walking.

23:44 Chris It's just such a good start to a film.

23:48 Adam I 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.

24:05 Chris Yeah, okay.

24:06 Adam Back in the back around 2000 or whatever it was.

24:09 Chris Yeah.

24:10 Adam And so yeah, but yeah, they they do a very good job of sleepwalking into a disaster.

24:16 Adam

25:00 Adam Yeah, I think that they they always talk about American Werewolf and I think they've got that same thing.

25:07 Adam You 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.

25:22 Adam Yeah, but it's also piss funny throughout and doesn't have to sort of yeah.

25:27 Lee Yeah, 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.

25:35 Lee Because, 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.

25:54 Lee but 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.

26:54 Lee And 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.

27:00 Lee And 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.

27:17 Adam Yeah.

27:20 Adam Yeah, cuz I think I think it's zombies are like werewolf, people know what the thing is.

27:29 Lee Yeah.

27:30 Adam You 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.

28:24 Adam And 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.

28:42 Lee Yeah.

28:43 Adam Other than that, there's not they don't really do set pieces or anything, they create their own.

28:47 Lee Yeah.

28:48 Adam Which 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.

29:01 Adam And 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.

29:16 Lee Yeah.

29:18 Adam But 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.

30:09 Lee I 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.

30:17 Lee like Rafe Spall, I mean, he looks so completely different in it, he's almost unrecognizable.

30:23 Adam Yeah, but we've but also that's a very relatable one.

30:27 Adam Everyone's always, you know, where it's like, so what are you, 20, 25, 79.

30:31 Lee Yeah.

30:33 Adam Bryan, all right, okay.

30:35 Adam And he he is one of the the select group of people who's in all three of the trilogy.

30:42 Lee Yeah.

30:43 Adam Rafe Spall.

30:44 Adam And 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.

30:54 Lee Yes.

30:55 Adam Because literally every other British comedy thing from about 95 to sort of well, almost today, Kevin Eldon will have turned up at some point.

31:47 Lee Yeah, he's great in Hot Fuzz.

31:50 Adam is he in Hot Fuzz?

31:52 Lee How long's it been since you've seen Hot Fuzz?

31:56 Adam very long time.

31:57 Adam I mean, I I love it, but I haven't watched it for yeah.

32:01 Lee Yeah, 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.

32:06 Adam Oh, is he? Oh, right, okay.

32:08 Adam I've clearly not remembered that at all.

32:11 Lee I 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.

32:20 Lee I absolutely adore it.

32:23 Lee even 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.

32:34 Chris But is that it you you overdid it slightly.

32:37 Lee Exactly 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.

33:25 Lee I think this is possibly the second time I've seen it in the last 15 years.

33:34 Adam Probably the same.

33:35 Adam I 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.

33:50 Adam And weirdly enough, I knew everything that was going to happen, I knew I remembered everything that was in it and stuff like that.

33:58 Adam But 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.

34:09 Lee It 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.

35:00 Lee but it's still thrilling to watch, despite the fact I know it so well, I I still absolutely absolutely love it.

35:09 Lee I 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.

35:20 Lee Yeah, 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.

35:31 Adam Yeah, 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.

35:45 Lee Yeah.

35:45 Adam And so I felt, oh no, that's that.

35:47 Adam I mean, that wasn't to say that, you know, the DVD weren't going anywhere.

35:51 Lee Yeah.

35:52 Adam Or 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.

36:00 Lee Oh 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.

36:08 Lee But it's funny, the other thing Jennifer said is, has there been another really good zombie film since then.

36:14 Lee And I thought about it and I was like, for me, no, because I don't like zombie films.

36:18 Lee So it was the only ones I like.

36:20 Chris Yeah.

36:21 Chris So so was this before.

36:23 Adam

36:24 Chris 28 Days Later.

36:26 Adam Yes.

36:27 Chris It was.

36:28 Adam Wonderfully enough, in the very end of it in the aftermath.

36:32 Adam And 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.

36:41 Chris Yeah.

36:41 Adam And then it cuts before bollocks.

36:44 Chris Yeah.

36:45 Adam But yeah, it had just cuz.

36:49 Adam I think 28 Days Later is.

36:53 Lee Oh no, 28 Days Later was two years earlier.

36:55 Adam 2001.

36:56 Lee Yeah.

36:57 Adam 2001.

36:58 Chris Okay.

36:59 Adam And then yeah, and this is 2004.

37:02 Adam 2004, so so there is, yeah.

37:03 Adam But 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?

37:10 Chris Well, that's yeah.

37:10 Adam We're doing we're doing the classic version of zombies.

37:15 Adam That's like, you know, oh what.

37:18 Lee You can choose.

37:19 Adam It depends, it's like how let's face it, it's how like mythology, most horror mythology works.

37:24 Adam It's like, right, we're doing a vampire film, can these ones do these ones react to crosses, not these ones, no.

37:29 Lee Yeah.

37:29 Adam You know, it's.

37:31 Chris You can choose.

37:32 Adam And similarly.

37:34 Chris Yeah, you can choose what the thing is.

37:35 Adam It's not like, you know.

37:37 Chris But I I think it was a good choice that to to go the classic.

37:39 Chris I think them shambling around added to the the comedy aspect, I think if they were running.

37:45 Chris You know, that's not quite.

37:46 Lee It makes it more manageable as well.

37:50 Lee Like the fact that they go places and do stuff with just a cricket bat and a lovely big.

37:56 Chris That's it.

37:56 Lee And you're like.

37:57 Lee Yeah, if they're shambling zombies, you can take out five of them.

38:01 Chris You can take out five.

38:02 Lee But if they're running.

38:03 Lee And you just and you can mimic them as well and and walk between them.

38:06 Adam That I that I do wonder, I was trying to work out, I think that might be entirely unique to Shaun of the Dead.

38:13 Adam Or 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.

38:22 Chris It would it would be a bit too silly in a serious.

38:26 Chris One, no, sure.

38:27 Chris Like you'd have to do it so carefully that it didn't seem.

38:30 Adam I 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.

38:39 Chris Yeah.

38:40 Adam But it's also that cuz sort of.

38:42 Adam watching 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.

38:51 Adam And.

38:51 Adam It'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.

39:01 Adam That they could see through that anyway.

39:03 Adam But it's.

39:05 Adam But 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.

39:18 Adam Technically, you should be able to manage this.

39:22 Lee Yeah.

39:23 Adam Do 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.

39:30 Lee Yeah, it's the.

39:32 Chris But it's like the disagreements and the the people fucking idiots and will you know, it's like.

39:38 Chris Bumble about and just really.

39:40 Adam Like it's like too many people on a lifeboat.

39:42 Chris Yeah.

39:43 Adam You know what I mean.

39:44 Chris People rocking about and.

39:45 Adam People rocking about and you're all fucked.

39:46 Lee Well, 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.

39:53 Lee And then you see people, see the look at the way people drive.

39:57 Lee Yeah.

39:58 Lee And 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.

40:08 Adam Yeah.

40:09 Lee Like.

40:09 Lee What.

40:11 Adam It is it's yeah, and that's that's all it.

40:14 Adam Well, not only that, but also you then get things where it's like, like where his mum's like.

40:17 Adam Oh, well, I got bitten but I didn't like to say.

40:20 Lee Yeah.

40:20 Adam Didn't want to worry you.

40:22 Adam I'm crying, you know what I mean, that.

40:24 Chris But there probably is actually what he does.

40:27 Adam Exactly, 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.

40:32 Lee You know.

40:33 Lee And I think that's the third level to this film, so it's got the comedy, it's got the horror.

40:37 Lee It 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?

40:49 Lee Like, 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.

40:58 Lee They still manage to somehow put seriousness in it so well.

41:02 Adam Well, it's it's it's definitely it's a testament to how much you care about the characters.

41:06 Lee Yeah.

41:07 Adam Yeah, 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.

41:15 Chris And 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.

41:26 Adam Yeah.

41:26 Lee Yeah.

41:27 Adam He's essentially growing.

41:28 Chris Yeah.

41:29 Adam Yeah.

41:29 Chris Yeah.

41:30 Adam You know.

41:31 Chris Hero's Journey.

41:32 Adam But

41:37 Adam But yeah, it's I think you've got so obviously you've got Nick Frost is just exceptional.

41:46 Lee Yeah.

41:47 Adam I just, you know, I mean and he.

41:51 Adam Cuz 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.

41:57 Lee Yeah.

41:58 Adam You know.

42:01 Adam Although though that was the that was the thing I remember that was.

42:06 Adam Said about it was that it the bit that made him laugh was going for a Cornetto.

42:10 Adam Because that was I was the first person I'd ever see do that.

42:14 Adam I was like, do you want anything for breakfast, yeah, Cornetto.

42:17 Lee Yeah.

42:18 Adam Yeah, before even opened his eyes, it was the first thing on his mind was an ice cream.

42:23 Adam It's it's it's perfect, I recommend it to all.

42:26 Adam Anyone out there who's thinking no, that's too no, it's not.

42:30 Chris What flavor Cornetto?

42:32 Adam well, obviously this is the strawberry film because it's red so it's as in blood.

42:38 Adam But each of the each of the films are different types of Cornetto.

42:43 Lee Yeah.

42:44 Adam So.

42:45 Lee Oh.

42:46 Adam Yeah.

42:47 Adam And I I did manage to procure some.

42:49 Lee Yeah.

42:50 Adam for for watching as I.

42:53 Adam I don't know where I'm going to get Mint Choc Chip from.

42:57 Lee No, I'm going to be honest.

42:59 Adam They don't seem to be anywhere these days.

43:02 Lee I'm going to say I haven't seen Cornettos anywhere in a long time.

43:06 Adam Yeah.

43:13 Adam But 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.

50:05 Lee I did spot him as Tyres this time.

50:07 Adam Yeah, yeah, so obviously yeah, he's basically dressed as the character he is in Spaced.

50:10 Adam one 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.

50:31 Chris Oh, right.

50:32 Adam as 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.

50:44 Lee Yeah, yeah.

50:45 Adam Paul 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.

51:09 Chris Oh, cool.

51:10 Adam And 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.

51:28 Chris All right.

51:30 Lee Yeah, I did see that as well, yeah.

51:33 Adam And then and for for our American for our American listeners, both of them.

51:35 Lee Hi, hi, Bobby, hi, yeah.

51:37 Adam

51:39 Adam There 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.

51:51 Adam Christian 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.

52:07 Adam Remove the head, destroy the brain.

52:12 Chris Never thought I'd say that.

52:14 Adam No, I never thought I'd say that.

52:16 Adam He's he's very good, I think he just, you know.

52:20 Adam I 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.

52:29 Chris Definitely.

52:31 Adam and then.

52:33 Adam Voice-wise, you've got Keith Chegwin in there.

52:37 Adam Who again, American people, American listeners would have no idea that Keith Chegwin was a mainstay of British television from the '70s.

52:44 Adam With 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.

52:57 Lee I don't think.

53:00 Adam but 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.

53:12 Adam Who also created Friday Night Dinner.

53:14 Adam And 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.

53:21 Adam that Goblin did and then they just paid for the rights cuz they were like we can't fucking.

53:24 Lee You can't make it.

53:25 Adam They used it as a temp track and they were like just no we just want this, this is what we want.

53:29 Adam But 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.

53:36 Lee Yeah.

53:38 Adam The lady's bras as we know it.

53:40 Lee

53:42 Adam But yeah, I think that I'm so fucking pleased to have seen it again.

53:48 Adam After all this time.

53:50 Adam And like I said, I've been revisiting Spaced and stuff.

53:52 Adam I also found, I was at me mum's earlier, so I went through me old DVDs and I found it's blurry.

53:58 Adam But I found danger 50,000, danger 50,000 volts.

54:02 Lee Oh.

54:02 Chris Oh yeah.

54:03 Adam The 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.

54:11 Chris I've not seen that.

54:12 Adam But 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.

54:26 Chris Yeah.

54:26 Adam Because John John the Barman's a stuntman.

54:28 Adam Which is why they could just him with all cues.

54:31 Lee Yeah, I just I.

54:32 Lee I 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.

54:50 Lee So I wonder if he just took that as the kind of impetus, I went, oh yeah, that quite worked.

54:55 Lee Let's do that on a massive scale and that's how we.

54:59 Adam Again, rewatching Spaced, there's bits of it as well where they do sort of similar things.

55:03 Adam And I think it's something that like Edgar Wright's awareness with use and placement and how to just.

55:08 Chris Exceptional.

55:09 Lee Yeah.

55:10 Adam You know, in terms of film making probably reaches its apotheosis with Baby Driver to be honest, where you know.

55:18 Chris So 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.

55:29 Lee You definitely need to.

55:31 Adam Well, he also did the Sparks documentary recently, didn't he?

55:35 Adam That was that.

55:37 Lee Yeah, again.

55:38 Lee And 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.

55:51 Adam Well, and then obviously he did Last Night in Soho, Scott Pilgrim versus the World and the other bits, you know.

55:59 Lee Scott Pilgrim is another underrated gem, I think, I love that film.

56:03 Adam The the other thing as well is Asylum, which is where Jessica Stephenson, sorry, Jessica Hines, nay Stephenson.

56:08 Adam Simon 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.

56:18 Adam But like Edgar Wright was the director on that.

56:21 Adam Claire used to watch that when it was like when it was on and so she was when.

56:25 Adam When I was talked to her when we were first talking about Spaced, however long ago that was.

56:30 Lee Yeah.

56:31 Adam And yeah, Claire was like, oh no, have you seen Asylum? I'm like, no.

56:38 Lee I haven't heard that, yeah, I think I'm going to have to check that out.

56:41 Adam It's all on it's on YouTube.

56:43 Adam Julian Barratt's in there as well, there's quite a few Norman Love, the cast of Spaced, yeah.

56:56 Chris The cast of Spaced.

56:58 Chris And I did notice he's he's doing the running man as well.

57:02 Adam What, just dancing like it.

57:04 Lee Yeah.

57:06 Chris No, apparently, it's upcoming.

57:08 Adam Directed.

57:09 Adam Fair enough.

57:10 Lee That'd be interesting.

57:12 Lee

57:12 Lee Right, yes, so, thanks for listening everybody.

57:15 Lee I'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.

57:23 Lee Go and check out Hot Fuzz.

57:25 Lee And we'll be back in a fortnight's time to discuss that.

57:28 Lee Thanks very much for listening.

57:28 Lee Good night.

57:29 Chris Good night.

57:30 Adam Good night.