Dead Drunk Detective: Made Off With His Head

This post contains spoilers for 'Made Off With His Head'.

As a comedy show about a zombie, I believe we were legally obligated to make a joke using the phrase 'braaaaaains'.

Kate's incoherent mumbling is a joy.

Santa sharing duties with the Grim Reaper is an idea I originally deployed in a flash fiction a few years prior. Like Reba Cage, his identity was revealed by throwing back the reaper's cowl.

Mark J's line reading of 'GASP. The Pumpkin!' was a particular favourite among the cast and producers. We reference it often. I make sure to bring him back each series to play equally melodramatic characters.

I make no secret of my love of Scooby Doo. This episode's unmasking of the perp was my way of emulating the show.

To clarify to the live audience what was going on, Dan (fake Grim Reaper) and Cat (Reba Cage) shared a mic. I think the former even wore a hood that he threw back at the crucial moment.

In an earlier version of the script, Reba reveals she hid Grim under her bed, then took his cloak so she could impersonate him. This was dropped as I would have had to clarify what is actually underneath the cowl - bones or a ghost. Johnny's initial query to the Reaper regarding that matter remained in the final draft.

Dead Drunk Detective: Banshee's the One

This post contains spoilers for 'Banshee's the One', episode three of Dead Drunk Detective. You can listen to it here.

Each episode of Dead Drunk Detective attempts to pull off a balance between sitcom, noir, and horror. I think 'Banshee's the One' is a great example of one which successfully hits that Venn diagram.

Mr Green is a role Dan played at the preliminary casting script readthrough. He was the only one to read for that part. His deliberate overenunciating would be later put to use in his recurring role as Satan.

The banshee's screams are a combination of Vic (who played Dawn) and Kate (Betty). They were recorded at Katharine's home studio during our first table read, then played during the live recording.

Vic technically appears in the episode twice. Cast members would sit in the audience for episodes they were not in, so she can be heard as part of the crowd reaction.

In another case of doubling up, the waiter (whose presence is revealed in a splendid pull back and reveal gag) is played by Charles AKA Dracula. Episodes one to three were recorded on the same night, so it was made sense to have an existing cast member do the small role.

The Victoria Secret's joke is one of the few contemporary references in the series. Just as I keep the show's location vague, I also aim to not tie it to any particular era.

I said episode two has some crude jokes and here the gang intimate that the Invisible Man is somewhat... lacking... in a certain department. I swear the next season is less suggestive.

Episode one gathered all the suspects for the big reveal. Episode two unpacked the mystery during a standoff. This edition is the first denouement that is just Betty and Johnny, debriefing together in the office. This will become the format's standard end to an show although later iterations of this will give Betty more jokes (as opposed to her limited role here which is apparently to mainly say 'uh huh').

Johnny declares he'll never fall in love with a client again. While he never goes on another date in the series, he will face a femme fatale in the very next episode...

Dead Drunk Detective: What Sup Doc?

This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Dead Drunk Detective. If you want to listen to them ahead of reading this analysis, they can both be found here.

What stands out to me about 'What Sup Doc?' is how blue the jokes are. I think Johnny blurting out innuendoes on seeing Hyde nude is a level of cheekiness we can just about get away with. His final scene lewd quip about the model demonstrating her gratitude however rightly elicits a surprised reaction from the audience. 

I too now find the line jarring, Up until that point, the series had been playful. This was lurid. The crowd's reaction told me instantly that the joke did not fit. It was a particularly instructive moment for determining the tone of the show. Later episodes feature few, if any, suggestive lines.

I am not completely down about the episode though. I enjoy how many visual jokes it pulls off. Indeed, the subplot revolves around a recurring sight gag: Johnny's legs have been swapped out with a set wearing tights and pedicured toes.

Admittedly how he was able to do this is not addressed. Would zombies be able to switch out limbs painlessly? Could the walking dead theoretically rejuvenate themselves with fresher body parts thus enabling them to live forever? I don't think I gave the internal logic of this much thought - the story was written more with a view to giving Johnny and Betty something to chat about in the office and to see if I could pull off a sitcom-style intertwining of both plots at the end.

In other superpowers news, Johnny's literal interpretation of 'watch your back' suggests he can rotate his head back fully like an owl. As with the limb switcheroo, this never gets referenced again.

Another source of joy for me in this episode is the abundance of Steffs. Having previously acknowledged my love of casting him as often as possible, I am delighted that he features here in multiple iterations. Doc Madd has both his 'real' voice and the deeper tenor he uses to intimidate Johnny. If you count his three clones, Steff technically plays four parts.

'What Sup Doc?' is a curious episode overall. It contains some of the silliest jokes of the series - the main plot was almost certainly reverse-engineered from the punchline 'he's besides himself' - but also the crassest. It makes bold additions to what zombies can do - which are then never addressed again. The show's voice was clearly in flux.

I am glad this episode exists though. Part of the fun in revisiting long-running programmes is being reminded of how many elements writers threw in early on that are subsequently adjusted, ignored, or dropped. This instalment is packed with them. 

Like Doc Madd, I was experimenting. Looking to build upon the pilot, I tried out a load of new ideas, some of which were mistakes. This episode, as did the entire first series, helped me figure out what feels right for the show.

That said, I really adore the next episode.

Dead Drunk Detective: Out for the Count

October 3rd is a date best known because of Mean Girls, but it is also a significant one for this show. Monday 3rd October 2016 - four years ago today - is when Dead Drunk Detective made its debut! Listeners were treated to a double bill of 'Out for the Count' (the first script I ever wrote about Johnny Stumbles) and 'What Sup, Doc?'.

I recently revisited the pilot for the first time in a while and had a few stray observations. If you don't want spoilers, listen to the episode (each one is only ten minutes long), then return for some trivia.

Most sitcoms tend to make the initial outing an introduction of sorts. This is usually in the form a character rocking up at a new place and being introduced to the rest of the cast. There is no such handholding with Dead Drunk Detective. The monologue over the theme tune is all you get in terms of setting up the world, then we jump straight into a case of the week.

I have already covered how many show staples were established in the pilot, but omitted the plight of poor Hairy Potter. This is the first of many cases in which the nicest guy in town is the target of a crime. Why do so many crooks try to mess around this sweetheart? Most perpetrators don't even know he's a werewolf! Maybe life is just unfair. In reality though, it's an excuse for me to cast Steff in as many episodes as possible.

In contrast, one thing I don't use past episode one is a group denouement. Gathering all the suspects in a room to show off your smarts is a very Johnny Stumbles move, but it is more reminiscent of Agatha Christie than noir. Staging such a scene is also, in terms of production, a logistical nightmare. We had five actors and four mics, thus necessitating the cast to repeatedly lean in and out between lines. From series one onwards, I try (key word: try) to largely keep scenes to four people.

Similarly out of place is Dracula's retelling of the shooting. This speech is the closest in style to I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, the radio show I wanted to emulate. Primarily a joke run where lines alternate between setup and punchline, it does however establish his penchant for posing existential questions. As the series went on, I tried to develop not only my own creative voice, but write more gags that come from character instead of having everyone sound like identical joke delivery machines.

Speaking of which, Kate's reading of Betty's 'quelle surprise' without the French pronunciation is an ad-lib. This is why you pick fantastically funny people for you cast - they will always find extra jokes.

Dead Drunk Detective: How we Made Series One

Turns out that it is true the key to success is not what you know, but who you know.

In a fortunate coincidence, I learnt that one of the very first people I met through improv comedy, Ed Fargher, was looking for projects to develop with radio producer extraordinaire Katharine Kerr. They wanted scripts. I had a full series of a show needing a home. Perfect.

The supernatural nature of the show made a Halloween release an obvious goal. We first met around May, so we had to move fast. Ed's cousin, Aimee Sajjan-Servaes, was quickly commissioned to create our superlative title card artwork. After having only been given the show’s premise and a few scripts to work with, Tom Hodge turned out an instantly perfect theme tune. There was also a little rebrand.

Before I thought the first script was anything other than a one-off, I had provisionally titled it after the district in which Johnny worked: Dead End. Ed and Katharine gently suggested that this was quite generic. The name was dropped as was the location idea - the show has since never been too specific about where it takes place.

When searching for an alternative title, we eventually agreed that the best option was the obvious one. What is the show about? A Dead Drunk Detective. It's simple and instantly gives you the elevator pitch. I also really appreciate the double meaning (he is dead, drunk, and dead drunk).

We decided to record the first series in front of a live audience (which appealed to me because of my love of radio comedies). We booked slots at The Actor’s Studio, a black box room in London. With the dates secured, we could now approach cast.

I pulled from the world of improv once again, staging a table read in July where people tried out for different roles. Not everyone in that room got a part, but some castings were instant locks. Except for one.

Pretty much all of the men in the room – including Ed – tried out for the titular role. One person we had been interested in however had not been available that night. I decided to contact him again, titling my message ‘would you like to play the wittiest most sarcastic person in every room?’.

That man was Arfie. I am incredibly lucky he said Yes and perpetually grateful that he continues to do so year on year.

Although we almost immediately lost him again as he had a date clash. Getting this news when I was at work, I started to formulate alternate plans while serving drinks. My panicked solution was to drop the first episode (which, as aforementioned, sets up so many things that the series would later run with) so we can record more shows across two nights instead of three. This idea was wisely vetoed.

Fortunately for the show (and my blood pressure), Arfie’s prior commitment ended up being cancelled. We had secured our dead drunk detective.

In a fitting twist, I then couldn’t make that recording. The first three episodes would shoot in September while I was out of town at a stag do (not my own).

I made both subsequent sessions despite the latter date coinciding with my mum’s birthday. I joined her for a restaurant lunch in the morning, headed to the theatre in the afternoon, then rushed to get to my bar shift. Now when we schedule recordings, I simply book the night off.

Katharine assembled edits of each edition, then sent them over to me for notes. This being a comedy, my suggested changes are either about someone's timing or absurd details like 'can the bogeyman's splat sound wetter?'. Of course it can! Katharine can do anything. She is an audio wizard.

The series launched on October 3rd 2016 with a double bill. The debut episode was 'Out for the Count' AKA the script that had started it all. From the first draft to podcast, it had probably taken three years to become a show. But what a show...

Dead Drunk Detective: How I Wrote Series One

Every year since 2016, I have written a new series of Dead Drunk Detective, my comedy zombie noir podcast. We usually release shows across October in the run-up to Halloween. However, there are no original episodes this year. You know why.

In lieu of fresh instalments of the zombie sleuth's adventures, I thought I would look back at the first four years. Instead of sharing new episodes, I will revisit the old. 

I do not know what form this will take. It could be personal essays. More likely, it will be episode guides akin to the ones I wrote about my sporadic podcast, The Booth. Whatever I plump for, it is obvious what I must cover first: the origin story.

Dead Drunk Detective is proof that you find a use for all your creative ideas eventually.

The first episode was written on a whim while I was at university, probably in the space of an afternoon and partly because I wanted to see if I could construct a solvable puzzle. My model was the pun-filled parodies which ended each edition of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue (their inspiration can also be seen in the closing ‘well, since you asked me for a story…’ segments of John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme). I often wrote little adventures like these for no reason other than it was fun and had previously started short radio spoofs of Robin Hood, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Wizard of Oz.

This script however did not seek to emulate a preestablished plot, but rather a genre full of tropes I best knew via spoofs on Whose Line. I did not truly have a particular affinity for film noir, horror, or indeed alcohol (although, aptly, I later worked as a bartender throughout the show’s run). Yes, I had, as a child, briefly toyed with being a detective, but that was more because I liked the look of a trench coat and dapper hat. I did enjoy the construction of a good mystery though, albeit initially because I was a huge fan of Scooby Doo.

Anyway, script complete, I duly typed it up and forgot about it. I then rediscovered it when rifling through old work to self-pitying moan about how talented I used to be (“oh, to be as sharp as I was when I was twenty-one!”). Surprised by how well it held up, I decided to try writing more. This was not necessarily because I had the means or drive to do a series. No, I most likely thought it was easier to build on a pre-existing idea rather than have to come up with a completely new one. Writers can be lazy like that.

The entire first series was reverse engineered from that initial edition. It is amazing how many integral aspects of the show come from that original dashed off script. The case of the week structure (which alternates between Johnny verbally sparring with Betty at the office and him investigating a crime) is in place from the very beginning. Hairy and Drac are characters I ended up using again and again because it was a joy to write for them. Johnny visits The Cough Inn, a location I realised in retrospect it made sense for an inebriated sleuth to visit multiple times, so it ended up being the setting for a mystery in episode six (which in turn led to the creation of deadpan bartender Jo, another stalwart of the show).

There is no real reason why there were seven episodes in the series instead of the traditional British sitcom run of six. I worked out the arc as I wrote and found once I was done that I had enough stories to fill seven. As episodes ended up being released weekly across October with the finale landing on Halloween, this meant a double bill to start and end the first season. Most subsequent runs are six episodes, plus a Christmas special in December.

Once the drafts were done, I made the series a coherent whole. During the rewrite, I reverse-engineered setups and added new recurring jokes, so even standalone episodes contributed to the ongoing plot. I now had myself a set of scripts that felt like a show, but what to do with it?

Having edited podcasts in university, I toyed with the prospect of producing it myself. However, these had been lowkey affairs with minimal production values (my panel show, The Booth, didn’t even have a theme song). To think I would have been able to engineer a recording session in addition to creating soundscapes and effects was a tad ambitious. For a start, I only owned one microphone! If this was to become a show, I would need help...

Taken to Taskmaster: TV Review

In January, I recommitted to blogging more regularly with what was presumably set to be a monthly roundup of the media I had enjoyed recently. Then the pandemic hit, sapping my creativity and motivation, along with the additional effect of making even the concept of joy seem futile and frivolous because people are DYING, Brendan. This is not the time to say you like a celeb memoir!

Anyway, while I have yet to return to writing silly jokes (beyond instructions for my funeral), I have binged a couple of TV series I had never seen in full before that I absolutely adored.

Derry Girls (perfectly pitched. The cast and characters are all so great that I cannot pick a favourite).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (some seasons and relationships drag, but a few episodes rank among the finest hours of television of all time).

But the one I enjoyed most is the programme whose catchy theme tune loops in my head as I settle down to sleep: Taskmaster.

This is one of the best comedy shows the UK has ever made.

The core idea of Alex Horne's creation is wonderfully simple: set five funny people the same absurd task. Watch them tackle it with vastly different approaches. Rate their efforts. Hilarity ensues.

It is a rollercoaster of a competition. The perpetual underdog can win a game with some unexpectedly brilliant moves. A spectacular triumph can be immediately undermined or revealed to have broken the rules. The number of episodes has doubled since the series began, so there are so much more points up for grabs. The leaderboard gets incredibly tight at the top with positions frequently changing every show. It is quite the ride.

It must be such an incredibly hard show to cast. And even more difficult to be on. It is such a unique proposition: six to ten episodes of a panel show in which you must justify to a sceptical Greg Davies why you did a very silly thing when panicking, on the spot and against the clock (the explanation offered is often that they were panicking, on the spot, and against the clock).

Potential players must be honest with themselves – are you a good loser? Competitiveness is fine, but the show is more comfortable for us (and you) to watch if you do not care too much about winning. The challenges range from creative to physical to lateral thinking, so surely you will not be rubbish at all of them. What if you are though? Will you visibly sulk or can you laugh it off like Nish Kumar?

The best runs of the show are where the contestants feel like a gang. Each quintet is cast from a few different comic generations, but some combinations feel like a supportive bunch of pals who love each other’s attempts, cheer the successes, and commiserate for the absolute shockers.

For this reason, series four and five were some of my faves. Mel Giedroyc specifically is a wholesome delight. Happy to be there and enjoying every second, she makes sure to pocket the tasks’ wax seals as keepsakes. Her giddy mood really embodies the show at its best: silly people doing silly things. It is the perfect antidote for these trying times.

Series ten comes out on Channel Four soon. You do not need to have seen the previous nine in order to appreciate it, but I absolutely recommend them all.

Enjoy watching this TV show. Your time starts now.