Co-writer Iain Stirling returns for a second series of sitcom Buffering, which follows the lives of kids’ TV presenter Iain (Stirling) and his housemates: Ashley (Rosa Robson - Black Mountain Poets, Inside No. 9, Heavy Entertainment), Rosie (Jessie Cave - Harry Potter, Trollied, Black Mirror), Greg (Paul G Raymond - Plebs, Avenue 5, Starstruck), and Thalia (Janine Harouni - Stand Up with Janine Harouni (Please Remain Seated), The Batman, Modern Horror Stories) as they attempt to navigate their late twenties.
Buffering, ITV2, Mondays from January 30, 10.05pm, ITV2.
Click here to find out who the guests are in the new series.
Interview with Iain Stirling
Q: How pleased were you with the reaction to series one?
A: Yeah, delighted. Obviously it's so hard to get, particular scripted stuff, made these days. So for ITV to want to make another one it’s nice to feel like you've done something right. And it was a mad slog, series one, because me and Steve made episodes one and two almost like a pilot. We hadn't made anything like that before and then we didn't really have any input from anyone else. So it was just the two of us. We filmed in this house and then COVID hit. So filming was delayed for ages and then we couldn't get back in the house so we had to build the house as a set. So I feel like episodes one and two are almost series one, then episode 3, 4, 5 and six are series two because there’s almost a year in the middle of them! It's why, not all of us, but a lot of us in it are pushing our mid 30s now. We were in our late 20s when it was commissioned, then we filmed it, and then it took a year and a half to get series two made plus a year of COVID and all that. Put it this way, we’re all shaving every day, well, the men are anyway! So when we came back for series two, like everyone does, we knew what we'd done wrong and what was right.
Q: Did you feel a pressure coming back the second time around or was it easier in a way because the characters were established?
A: Yeah, I think it wasn't so much a pressure, I think we're quite lucky in that it felt part of the furniture quite early on ITV. So we weren't that smash first album and you worry about the second. It was just a solid thing that everybody liked. So it was more a solid base to build from as opposed to a really hyped up thing. To a lot of people that would sound quite glib, but it actually isn't. Especially having worked on Love Island where it is this phenomena, it is nice to make something that can slowly build. A lot of my favourite stuff did, not that I'm in any way making a comparison, but if you look at something like Schitt’s Creek, which became absolutely loved as they announced they were making the last series of it, do you know what I mean? It's quite nice to have that. I think series two could do that, I do genuinely think series two is just so solid and so fun. We've gone a lot lighter and a lot sillier and a lot more character based rather than story based.
So the only pressure was the pressure that me and Steve put on ourselves to make it work. The effort that goes into a 25 minute scripted show compared to what goes into a 25 minute panel show, from a creative side anyways, it's unbelievable. It's a year of my life as opposed to 10 days of my life. So I'm a lot more invested in this just because I've poured so much of my time, love and effort into it.
Q: You mentioned you’d made tweaks to this series, what differences do you think you needed to bring into this series?
A: I think we've brought it a lot more into the flat. I think it's a lot more of a flatshare sitcom. My character’s background in kids' TV, that's still really heavy in there, but it's a nice world to break it up and to bring in comedy because that's basically what the kids' TV was like. The kids' TV story came from the fact that every time I tried to talk to my friends and family seriously about my job, it's just innately funny. If I was talking about how I was nervous because I was working with Dick and Dom next week, they would laugh that I said Dick and Dom. So it's a lot more about friends in a flat and how they navigate life. The show's called Buffering and I don't think it really came across in the first year, but it’s called Buffering because all the characters are trying to load into adult life. That's the idea. So this series is about all those stages you go through as you're approaching being a proper adult. Your friends are getting married, your friends are having kids and you're struggling to pay rent and it just feels like you're not a grown up yet, but you're not an adult. It's that in between no man's land.
Q: Like the moment you swap house parties for dinner parties and don’t really know how that happened?
A: Yeah, David Carlisle's in that episode. I'm a massive fan, I saw him at the BAFTAs when he had his nomination. I think he agreed to it because he was just like, "This is so many of my friends." Which is what you want really when you're trying to get someone involved in a show and they just read it and go, “yeah this is perfect”. And ironically the house was a walk from his actual house. I'd like to not think that's the only reason he accepted the job! I think that dinner party episode is the perfect example of what I'm talking about, where you just find yourself airdropping into this world where your friends are grown up.
Q: Is there a moment in your real life when you found yourself buffering between two eras?
A: I just generally get it all the time! I have moments where if I'm making a spaghetti bolognese I will have this almost out of body experience where I'm like, “I can't believe I'm doing this”. I'm a parent, so pretty much every time I do anything that involves looking after a child, the whole time I'm going, “I can’t believe this”. Every bath time I'm like, "I cannot believe I am washing a kid. This is insane." I think that dinner party episode is pretty close to life. When I was in my mid 20s and kids’ TV actually moved up to Manchester and people could buy houses instead of flats, I'd go a round a friend's house and nights out definitely changed overnight from a few drinks in a flat to people bringing out Shiitake mushrooms, like, “What is going on?”.
Q: You take inspiration from your own life when writing the show, is there anything that's happened in your 20s that's too naughty to put in this show?
A: Well, the great thing about scripted is there's nothing I can't put in there because everyone can remain nameless! I always find it quite stressful back in the day when I was doing interviews or stand-up and I have to talk about other people, like my wife or my parents or anyone, I was always worried that they've not signed up for this. I'm getting better at it, but it's always a niggle in the back of my mind. But the great thing about scripted is there'll be people that watch the show and go, “He’s a major prick”, but also there’s never one specific character that is one specific person from my life. It's always an amalgamation. Even me, I play myself and I'm called Iain and there is stuff in there that I actually did do when I was in my 20s. There was definitely a point when I thought I was going to be the next Bill Hicks, but I was actually talking to a puppet dog called Hacker, dressed as Queen Victoria thinking this isn't what I saw myself doing in my 20s.
Interview and Buffering picture supplied by ITV/Avalon.
