This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
Comedian and actor Chris Addison might be more familiar in front of the camera than behind it, but he’s actually been directing since 2012 – even if that first foray isn’t an entirely positive memory.
“The very first thing I ever directed was an episode of The Thick of It and I was also acting in it,” he says. “It was such a mind-melt. I don’t know how people do it. The notion of being in a thing and directing it – I wouldn’t jump at doing it again.”
So Addison is firmly off-camera for his new series Tall Tales and Murder, which follows two Dublin care home workers, Paul and Bridget (Casey Walsh and Ella Lily Hyland), who find themselves chased by gangsters as they hunt for missing treasure.
Based on a series of books by Caimh McDonnell – and adapted for screen by Addison and Irish screenwriter Stuart Carolan – it’s an offbeat tale stuffed with strange costumes, folklore, dry one-liners and plenty of explosions.
“There’s a little bit of Bonnie and Clyde, a little bit Treasure Hunt, Gangland, all those ingredients,” Addison says. “But it’s hard to explain what it is. I guess ‘crime caper’ is as good as anything.”
View oEmbed on the source websiteCertainly, the series has an unusual visual style, with plenty of heightened sequences including an extended flashback that sees Paul and Bridget transported back in time while sitting on a hospital bed. “I had this idea for the camera kind of circling them, and the landscape changing,” Addison says. “But I had no idea how we were going to do it.
“And our brilliant key grip – a man called Richard Egan – built this contraption to put the camera on, that we put up in the old people’s home, and then subsequently put up on the Wicklow Hills three months later.
“We were always thinking, ‘Oh, this will take a bit of special effects just to flux it together.’ Nothing. It was all grain-perfect from the minute that we did it. You don’t get to do many shots that are both cool and serve the story. I loved it.”
Tall Tales and Murder begins on 3 November on BBC One.
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