The Curse star Emer Kenny describes “absolute chaos” making new comedy

"It was absolute chaos," she said. "The People Just Do Nothing boys, and James and Tom who made Murder in Succesville, they are sort of masters of improv because they've done so much of it. And what all of them tend to do is try and shoot the script, but then do a bunch of really long takes where they just throw stuff at the wall.

"I've worked a bit like that in the past, but not as much as them. And so coming into that was interesting because they all know each other really well, and in order to improv and kind of let things go and try things out, you have to be really comfortable. But I just had to jump off and do it!"

She added, "It's the unexpected ad-lib lines that make you crack up because you're just like, 'What have you just said?' and there's so much of that. I mean, I'm really excited for any kind of blooper reel from the show, because it will be completely insane."

Asked if there was one scene that caused particular hilarity, Kenny picked out one towards the end of the series – which sees her character Tash have a frank conversation with Albert (Mustafa) and Sidney (Stamp).

"We did, like, 12-minute long takes of Allan leaving the room then coming back and saying stuff and I'm just sort of standing next to the camera actually shaking with laughter," she said. "I'm trying not to shake the camera, because they would just be off on one doing stuff. So that was one where I remember it was like, 'Oh my God, I don't know how they're gonna edit this together!'"

The series concerns a group of bumbling friends who, thanks to something of a fluke robbery, find themselves in possession of £30 million worth of gold bullion, against the backdrop of Thatcherism and a major recession in the early 1980s.

Tash is very much the most sensible member of the crew, and Kenny explained that she enjoyed playing the "toughness" of the character – something she said was a relatively new experience for her.

"I remember when I first got the character breakdown, and it was like, she's tougher than all of them," she recalled. "I haven't done much of that in my career so far, so it was really nice to get to do that.

"It was hard for me to get my head around at first, because I sort of felt like, 'Oh, am I the straight woman and you're all clowns?'," she added.

"And then I also had to deliver quite a lot of factual information and narrative. But it was really nice because I got to do quite a lot of the story, and a lot of the emotion of it.

"As you go through the episodes, she starts off very in control – she's the sort of mastermind and she's got them all like puppets on strings, she's making them do this heist. And then as you go through the show, no spoilers, but they get further and further out of their depth.

"And Tash is suddenly up against people who maybe she isn't smarter than, and she is totally used to being the smartest in the room. And suddenly, when she's not, she sort of starts to fall apart. So it's quite a nice journey for her. But it was so much fun to be in that gang with those boys."

The Curse begins on Channel 4 on Sunday 6th February 2022. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.