MEL Giedroyc and Sue Perkins have always been a brilliant double act. But if you’ve got them neatly box-ticked as just soft-centred TV presenters, you’re about to have your preconceptions shot down. Literally.
They are killing it in Sky One’s hilarious new original comedy Hitmen, playing hard-hearted, pistol-packing assassins.
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As Fran (Sue) and Jamie (Mel) clock on for each execution and the body count piles up, the tone is deliciously dark and delightfully daft.
This is a striking departure for the much loved whimsical comedians. It’s not every day you see a national treasure like Sue Perkins shoot a drug dealer at point blank range.
Particularly one that has just fallen from the roof of a caravan and squashed her pet dog, Elton.
But then again the duo actually spend more time bickering about what takeaway to order, or who is doing most of the work, than they do discussing how to take out their targets.
It is hard to believe that this is their first sitcom in a 30-year career together, but it has been worth the wait.
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They were immediately drawn to the unusual idea, says Sue. “This feels like a perfect storm because Sky make very classy action-based shows. They also take risks.”
“They have seriously invested in these scripts and given them a chance to really flourish visually, then populated them with great actors,” she adds.
The cast is indeed excellent. Familiar TV faces set to meet grisly ends include Jason Watkins (Trollied) and Sian Clifford (Fleabag).
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But making a comedy about assassins is a risky business. It could easily have come across as distasteful, and Mel and Sue were keen to get the tone right. Their onscreen chemistry is crucial. It is really a show about friendship – it’s just that these friends happen to kill people for a living.
“We didn’t want to revel in the violence,” says Mel. It is all about baddies getting their comeuppance. “We had quite a hard line on the fact that all of the people we kill are mob-related. They are people who deserve it. They sell drugs to kids, for instance. So you don’t actually miss them when they’re gone.”
The writers, Joe Markham and Joe Parham, have cleverly drawn on Mel and Sue’s real personalities and their natural rapport to create Fran and Jamie.
Perkins and Giedroyc had creative input too. As Mel says: “The writers have been extremely generous. We’ve been allowed to tinker and add things in. So hopefully there will be a real flavour of a proper friendship. There’s a lot of us chatting in our rusty old van, which is like our HQ.”
Sue agrees: “It feels very natural. Some lines we improvise, some lines we slightly change. However mad and crazy and stunty and shooty it gets, it’s predicated on friendship.”
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The series has a distinctly filmic feel. Sky has given it the sort of high production values, fast-paced shootouts and burning cars that you don’t get in your average sitcom. One memorable scene finds Fran entertaining a scary group of Brownies.
There is as much serious action as knockabout laughs, as well as a great soundtrack, from The Beastie Boys to Blur.
And you’re unlikely to forget the duo dressing up as folk duo Simon and Garfunkel to abduct a cocaine-snorting DJ.
The violence might surprise you but it’s testament to their ultimately gentle humour that the most shocking thing in Hitmen is Sue Perkins with a Paul Simon tache and Mel Giedroyc sporting a frizzy Art Garfunkel wig.
All episodes of Hitmen are available now on Sky One.