For anyone who's unfamiliar with you and The Horne Section, how would you describe the spirit and the style of The Horne Section TV Show?
Well, it's basically a comedian who's not good at music in charge of some musicians who are not good at comedy - it's sort of chaos, really. But it's also six men who are nearly fifty years old, who should know better, but somehow, have been given a TV show, so we're mucking around, trying to make each other laugh. It's really childish, it's very, very silly - there's no message, there's no point to it at all, we're not going to change the world. We're just going to have a laugh.
What should new viewers know before diving in and what can returning audiences look forward to? Are there any big changes, surprises or new directions compared to series one?
If you're a new viewer, that's fine - all it is, is a TV show about a TV show. So, in the real TV show, we've been given a fictional TV show, which sounds more complicated than it is; you're just going be watching me and the band try to make a TV show in my house. That's all you need to know. Every episode is standalone. There's no big narrative arc.
If you're a returning viewer, we have a new band member this year from America called Reggie Watts, who was James Corden’s band leader from his show, The Late Late Show With James Corden, but we poached him. That show stopped because we got Reggie, I think?
This time around, we’ve got more comedians in the show and it’s a funny cast. Reggie Watts, in his own right, is very funny. We’ve also got Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Stevie Martin, Tim Key is back, Anna Crilly and Ronni Ancona who is, of course, excellent.
Were there any particular comedians, shows or even specific moments that directly influenced the new series? Can you share any inspirations that left a lasting mark on the show’s style or humour?
No but I'd say subliminally Father Ted, Vic and Bob, The Blues Brothers - those are probably our touchstones. They're all silly shows that are quite tight, really, but are also just meant to make you laugh - they're not trying to get a message across. There's a car chase in The Blues Brothers, which is brilliant - when a car falls off bridge and takes about four minutes to fall into the sea. And I think it's just that sort of nonsense that we like. We all grew up together and when we were kids, we watched The Blues Brothers over and over. When we were young adults, we watched Father Ted and then Vic and Bob more recently.
When you first imagined The Horne Section TV Show, what kind of tone and look were you aiming for? How closely does the finished version match what you had in mind and what evolved along the way?
We've got a really great director called Barbara Wiltshire, who we met during lockdown over zoom and had a lot of meetings. What we've managed to do is capture the live show to some extent, so we have some bits in the show where we have unscripted sessions in the rehearsal room, and then we cut back to the acting, which we're not very good at. We’ve managed to juggle the normal sitcom type stuff, but we also have what we're best at, which is mucking about.
Can you walk us through the creative process of writing the songs for the show? How do ideas typically come together, and are there any unusual sources of inspiration that have sparked your favourite pieces?
There’s six of us in the band so one of us will have an idea for something that's funny, and then they will put it out to the band, “So I've had this idea about doing a song about a tractor,” or whatever, and someone will go, “Okay, I’ll have a go at the music for that,” and the two of them will wander off somewhere, or maybe three or four of them. We normally go for a writing retreat in a windmill, somewhere like that. Song-wise, it is very collaborative. I don't do any of the music, my job is the actual storylines of the sitcom. I went away and wrote it in about two days with my dog, Loky. I wrote really quickly and then Matt Stronge, the producer, and Babs, the director, worked on it with me for about five months after that and made it far better. The band let me get on with that, and I let them get on with music.
If you had to pick a personal soundtrack that sums up your life so far, what songs would be on it and why?
There is a song in episode one, which is about my life, and it's called Shit Show. The whole point of it in the show is that it does sum up my life and how things go wrong. But in reality, I was at the Liverpool football game recently, and at the end of the match they played, Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. I would have that - every little thing gonna be all right. I think I'm quite a positive person, so I'll probably have that on a loop forever.
Alex Horne’s new series of The Horne Section TV Show starts on Channel 4, Thursday 22nd May, 10pm.
Interview/pictures supplied by C4
