Hold on to your takeaway pizzas, Matthew Crosby, Ben Clark and Tom Parry return to BBC3 on June 2 for the second series of Badults, in which they play three flat-sharing, prank-playing, fun-loving mates Matthew, Ben and Tom. Live comedy fans will know the trio as Pappy's – last year they picked up a Foster's Comedy Award nomination at the Edinburgh Festival, where they have a following bordering on the fanatical. Beyond The Joke asked the trio ten questions to find out more about the new series and their future plans.

1. What did making series one teach you about the sitcom-making process? 

Matthew: That it’s really hard but really fun. 

Tom: With Badults series one we were learning who these characters were, what the show was actually going to be. With series two we sort of knew what kind of show we were making.

Ben: We also learned that, if you write something, you also have to film it. Sometimes we’d come to film a scene that we’d written and suddenly think, “How are we going to do this?”

Matthew: Actually we still made that mistake in series 2. There’s a scene where I have to run a race. It was only when I finally came to do it that I realised I hadn’t run since a school sports day in 1989. And we did about 7 or 8 takes.

2. How does the writing process of Badults differ to the writing process of your live shows - you have a director/script editor here - did you ever have directors/script editors for your live shows?

Ben: We actually have to have a script for Badults. 

Matthew: When we do live shows we tend to write a script, learn it a bit and then try and rewrite it onstage. Just go onstage and ad lib around the idea until we find the funniest version. With Badults we had an actual script that we had to stick to. Mostly. When we could remember it.

Tom: We have used directors for our live show. In fact, the guy who directed Last Show Ever- a guy called Ed Gaughan- is in the first episode of Badults. But I think we write each episode like we would an Edinburgh show. A silly plot that spins off into something more epic. 

Ben: I don’t think you can call Badults epic.

Matthew: It’s not Ben Hur.

Tom: Too late. I’m calling it epic.

3. This is not the first time you’ve tried to recreate your live magnetism onscreen but it is certainly the closest you’ve come yet. What do you feel the main difference is between a live show and TV – you still film in front of an audience don’t you, but is it the fact that a studio is very different to The Pleasance Dome?

Tom: We’re slowly learning that although the studio audience are important, it’s actually the people watching at home that you’re performing for. 

Ben: If you watch our earlier pilots we’re shouting all the time. Because that’s how we are onstage.

Tom: That’s our performance style: shouting. We’ve had to tone that down a bit for TV.

Matthew: Having the live audience gives the show a good energy. I think we’re best if we’re showing off in front of strangers.

Tom: Actually that’s our performance style: showing off in front of strangers. By shouting.

4. Why did you change the title from Secret Dude Society - was it your decision to change it or did it come from above (it meant that the pop-up restaurant joke in series one - Secret Food Society – didn’t really work, though nobody would have realised except for people that knew the original title)

Matthew: Firstly, how dare you say that ANY of the jokes in series one didn’t work. This interview is OVER!

Tom: The title was a reference to the pilot script we wrote. It was the name of the characters’ childhood gang, which was a big part of a couple of episodes but became less important as we wrote the rest of the series.

Ben: Plus Badults is a better, catchier title. We were surprised it hadn’t been used before.

Click on "Next" below on the right for more illuminating and amusing answers from Pappy's.