During their panel for Truth Seekers as part of the virtual San Diego Comic-Con 2020 event, Simon Pegg shared a story about the time he humorously mistook Nick Frost's injury for a prank. Pegg and Frost are long-time friends and collaborators. Having met while Pegg was working as a waiter, they ended living together - with much of that experience going onto influence Pegg's sitcom, Spaced. Meeting Edgar Wright through that show, the trio went on to create what's collectively known as the Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End. Since then, the pair have alternated between working together and long stretches of working on individual projects.
2020 will mark them coming back together for a new TV show set to be released via Amazon. Truth Seekers is a comedy series that follows a group of paranormal investigators led by Gus (Frost). Maintaining a Youtube channel, the group travels the country in search of ghosts and proof of other dimensions up and down the United Kingdom. Pegg (complete with an outlandish wig) will play Gus' boss at his day job as a broadband installer. They created the series alongside James Serafinowicz and Nat Saunders. Truth Seekers also stars Emma D'Arcy, Susie Wokoma, and veteran actor Malcolm McDowell. The first trailer for the series was released earlier today.
While discussing the show in a panel released via Comic-Con International, Pegg and Frost shared their joy at working together again. Furthermore, they shared several stories from in and around the time of filming. They also recounted their own ghost-hunting exploits that fuelled the desire to make the show. In one such story, they recounted the time they ventured to an abandoned train station in an area of London called Highgate. "We found the original Highgate tube station in the woods in Highgate," Pegg said. "It was like we'd stepped into this completely kind of unknown world and it was creepy. It was like Brigadoon or something, it just appeared." It was at this point that the story turned towards the humorously farcical: "Then Nick knocked himself out and I thought he was just messing around, so I just left him in the wood."
After a pause to allow the subsequent laughter, Pegg continued. "He's never forgiven me for that! I went back home and I ordered some Chinese. I just thought he was pulling the longest game. I was like, 'Nick is just really committed to this. This is amazing'. And I opened the door and he was just there all, like, soaking wet and was like, 'You left me!' Frost corroborated the story throughout, from the creepiness of the station to his return to find Pegg eating Chinese food. The panel then steered the topic back in line with the themes of the show by jokily revealing that Frost actually died that night and has been a ghost ever since.
The event apparently did little to actually hinder their friendship or working relationship. With both admitting they'd had drunk a fair amount of cider, it would appear it's given them yet another anecdote to look back upon fondly. It remains to be seen just how much of their real-life exploits were mined comedically for the show. In either case, Pegg and Frost seem to have returned to the formula that proved a success with Shaun of the Dead. Rather than just parody horror, they endeavored to take the horror of the premise seriously and work in the jokes around it. Based on Frost's statements for the show, there will also be some heart to the show and some crowd-pleasing guest-stars. As such, Truth Seekers would appear to be a show worth looking out for, with Frost and Pegg remaining as entertaining off-screen as they are on it.
Source: Comic-Con International
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July 24, 2020 at 05:44AM
