Given it’s been two long decades since Spaced, the last time Nick Frost and Simon Pegg collaborated on a TV project, it’s safe to say their new eight-part horror comedy Truth Seekers is eagerly anticipated.
It follows two broadband engineers, Gus (Frost) and Elton (Samson Kayo) as they complete assignments from boss Dave (Pegg) and conduct paranormal investigations on the side.
Also roped in are Elton’s sister Helen (Susan Wokoma), Gus’s father-in-law (Malcolm McDowell) and Julian Barrett’s mysterious academic Dr Peter Toynbee. Expect the usual blend of big laughs, sudden scares and a scene-stealing wig on Simon Pegg’s bonce.
‘The only prep I did for the show was ask the prop designer to bring a selection of wigs,’ he laughs. ‘I was very happy with it.’ But who really believes in ghosts, and who doesn’t? We asked the show’s stars for theor take on paranormal activity.
Simon Pegg
This show came out of silly adventures Nick and I used to go on when we lived together.
We went on various pseudo-scientific expeditions to abbeys or woods to look for scary stuff, even though we didn’t expect to see anything.
We found a Tube station in Highgate Wood, stumbling out onto the platform like it was Narnia. That was a good night!
But we had zero supernatural encounters – I’m very evidence-based about that stuff. I used to be a believer. As a kid I loved reading The Unexplained and stuff.
I assumed UFOs and spontaneous human combustion were a thing. I do think there’s stuff going on that we don’t understand, stuff existing in the world of physics.
I don’t believe in an afterlife or anything, but I don’t know everything. I said that like it’s weird!
Nick Frost
My mum is one of six sisters. They’re all from Pembrokeshire and they give off this ‘weird sisters’ vibe.
They always knew someone something had happened to – that used to fire me up as a kid brought up Catholic.
I’m convinced my Auntie Melanie is a vampire, I’ve never seen her in the daylight. Sometimes I’d run away from home and stay with her. She was cool and drank coffee with me – I went to bed and could hear the noises of cups moving across a table.
Her house is the closest I’ve been to ghosts, although Simon and I had a thing in our kitchen where I’d convince him there was a weird spirit in the room.
Sometimes I’d gaze off into the corner of the room and he’d know we were joking, but he’d get a bit frightened too, and we’d both go insane.
Susan Wokoma
My parents used to watch Nollywood films about demonic possession – I remember having a year of nightmares after seeing some woman turning into a cat. I was only six!
I shared a room with my brother and we told each other stories. One time, he told a story and I saw a head coming down upside down at the end of the bed from the top bunk, with fangs and dripping blood. I quietly said, are you looking at me? And he said, no, and carried on.
So that was weird. I don’t know if I believe it, but it scared me.
Malcolm McDowell
I’m very sceptical. My parents were from the north of England and in the war my mother ran a little hotel in Brighton with her sister.
They had a Polish general staying there, and there was lots of drinking involved. This general was on the phone and my aunt was on the extension going, [ghostly voice] “ooooh!”
She freaked out the Polish general who I’m sure was completely plastered. That’s where I learnt about ghost stories, so I’ve always assumed it was my Aunt Vera.
Julian Barrett
I was massively into horror and the supernatural as a kid, then went through a phase of jettisoning it. I used to be a staunch non-believer, but I’m more open to it now.
It feels like we’ve got something wrong about the nature of reality and that may be what ghosts are. Reality might not be what we think it is, because we see a tiny two percent of the electromagnetic spectrum so our bandwidth is very small.
My front of being a rational human being was a front – why would I be scared if I was rational?
Truth Seekers is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from Friday.
