Starring Being Human‘s Jason Watkins alongside Jane Horrocks (Absolutely Fabulous) and Mark Addy (The Full Monty), Sky1’s new comedy series Trollied arrives on DVD this week, featuring all eight episodes from Series 1.

> Buy the Trollied DVD on Amazon.

CultBox caught up with Jason to discuss the show’s success and his latest stint as Being Human‘s vampire leader, Herrick…

Trollied has just been recomissioned for 27 new episodes. How did you feel when you found out?

“Yeah, that’s right; a further two series and a Christmas special, which is pretty unheard of for a British comedy. I think Sky are keen to look towards the American model for these sort of things, which is great for character development; they can evolve, it’s very exciting. I was delighted.

“I enjoyed doing the first series so much and it’s always nice when you’ve got a character that you like and people that you like. It’s such a great set up down there; it’s great to do more of something that you really like doing.”

When do you begin work on Series 2?

“I think we start filming around the end of February and that’ll take us right through to October, it’s quite a sweep. But it’s all very exciting!”

Can you sum up the show for anyone who’s not yet seen it?

“It’s set in a supermarket in Warrington and it follows the stories of the staff and their various relationships. I’m the manager, Jane Horrocks plays the interim manager and it follows the mundane and extraordinary situations that the characters get themselves into.

“It’s sort of fly-on-the-wall – a cross between The Office and Are You Being Served?, you could say, if that sounds like a palatable hybrid!”

The show has a great cast, what’s everyone like to work with?

“Jane [Horrocks] and myself and Mark Addy, we were all at drama school at the same time, so we’re the old people. Each actor brings their own flavour to the work.

“The younger actors are brilliant. They all gel and there’s a variety of approaches to it.”

You’ve been killed off in Being Human twice now. Would you be up for making it three times if they asked you to come back?

“It’s a tricky one, isn’t it? If I went back again, I’d be in the fifth series, so I would have been in the first, third and fifth series, so it’d be a pattern. I kind of feel that my work is done on it. Herrick was such a successful character.

“Bringing him back once was great and the storyline was just great: was he pretending, was he not? Had he changed? I think that was a great device and I think to top that you’d have to come up with something pretty spectacular as an idea and I’m not sure that’s possible.”

What sort of reaction did you get from the public to Herrick?

“Funnily enough, a boy once came up to me in my local supermarket wanting an autograph and he was terrified, absolutely terrified. He was shaking! I had to say, ‘it’s alright, I’m actually quite friendly’.

“The fan base of Being Human is very interesting. There’s obviously the Twilight audience but there’s an older audience as well, I get a lot of very nice comments from people.”

What else have you got coming up?

“I’ve been doing a series called Dirk Gently, with Stephen Mangan. I’m filming that now; I’m on my way down to Bristol. There’s three hour-long episodes and I’m in two of them. Then I’m in an episode of [BBC Two comedy series] Twenty Twelve.

“Also, I did a film a couple of years ago called Nativity with Martin Freeman and that did very well, so we’re doing another one of those. Unbelievable, a British sequel! David Tennant is doing that, so we’re filming that at the moment too.”

> Buy the Being Human Series 3 DVD on Amazon.

Watch a clip of Jason in Being Human…

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