The Wooden Overcoats 5th Birthday Party

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So I click this.

Georgie, is this?

Am I coming through all right?

Yep, chat.

One, two, one, two.

I can hear you.

Oh, okay, good.

I'm more used to blue jeans than this.

Um, sorry.

Uh, you've oh, you got this set up very quickly, Georgie.

I'm great at logging on.

Hello?

Oh, God, watch that.

Oh, oh, Antigone, hi.

Yes, sorry.

You're coming through just fine.

Watch!

Antigone, can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

My voice should be coming into your ears now.

No, I'm on, hang on.

No, I think.

Shut up.

Where's Rudyard?

Is he coming?

Reverend, stand up.

Reverend.

Rudyard.

I need you to balance.

Balance, Reverend.

Reverend, up, up.

A bit further.

Rudyard,

you're coming through just fine.

I think you can let the Reverend go now.

That's it.

Just stay constantly.

What are you doing?

Bloody Nora.

That's the cold open.

Are we all here?

Everyone's here.

Great.

Tom, you were muted for some reason.

That's interesting.

Now you're not.

Oh.

Wonderful.

Good.

Okay.

So I hear French police going by.

This is very interesting.

They're trying to catch the Rona.

Doesn't take much.

Well, it's a noise siren, isn't it?

It is, isn't it?

It's how I picture a siren sounding anyway, but it doesn't.

What, was there something insipid about that that I said?

What?

No, it's just a

great observation.

I suppose.

Anyway, guys, what day is today?

Do we all know what day today is?

The 10th of September?

September 2020.

We are recording this on the 10th of September, and it's going out on the feed.

for the fifth anniversary of Wooden Overcoats, which is ridiculous.

I'm not entirely sure how we got there.

So welcome everyone to this celebration.

Shall we say our names to remind people who we are?

Yeah, let's go round.

Starting with me, I'm Tom Crowley.

Who plays Chapman in the series?

Yeah, sorry, I'm Tom Crowley.

I play Eric Chapman.

I write for the show as well.

I'm Kira Baxendale.

I play Georgie.

You wouldn't know.

You do it so well.

That's David K.

Barnes.

And I'm Andy Goddard, one of the producers.

And the other one is...

John Wakefield, who said the stuff stuff at the beginning.

I'm Beth Air.

And I'm Beth Air.

I play Anti-Fun.

And...

Don't not get to be Kira anymore.

You get to be Kira.

I am Kira.

We're all Kira in our old way.

And Liz, Liz, Telesio Roller.

I don't think we had it announced.

I'm Liz Campbell.

I'm the production manager.

Hi.

Welcome everyone to this celebration.

We've all got...

We haven't had Kirk.

No, that was delicious.

I said hello already.

I'm also Beth Air.

How have we even released three series of a podcast?

I don't know if anybody else in the room.

Yeah, I'm getting there.

Okay.

Is that a gin and orange?

Bipping on gin and juice.

So, Scotch and water, please.

So, starting this afresh, am I quiet?

You're now very loud.

Sorry.

Shall we pick an order for people to go in and then just do it in an official way?

Yes, please.

Yeah, yeah.

I think, John, do you want to just call...

Yes, I will let everyone introduce themselves.

So, my name is John Wayfield.

I'm one of the directors and producers of Wooden Overcoats.

The other director and producer is...

Hi, me, Andy Goddard.

And then, our lead writer is...

David K.

Barnes.

Hello.

Hello.

Oh, David.

Our production manager is...

Elizabeth Campbell.

Hi.

And then over to our starring cast, Antigone Fun is played by...

Beth Eyre.

Hi.

Rodjard is played by Felix Trench.

Hello.

And Georgie is played by.

Kira Baxendale.

Howdy.

And Eric Chapman.

Hello, I'm Tom Crowley.

I'm Eric Chapman and also a writer.

Job Mod!

So, welcome.

I thought the nicest thing to do was we've many, many, many times when we've talked about wooden overcoats, we've told everyone how the show came about, what happened.

And I think most people who listen to the show are aware of that by now.

So I wondered what you guys were thinking on the day that we released five years ago, when we actually put that first episode out into the world.

David, can I turn to you first?

Steve, when the episode first went out into the world,

I'd imagine as the time when we first came up with the idea of it, Felix had probably just stepped out of the shower at that point, saving you the flat that we did.

I'm sure the water was probably glistening upon his shoulders.

The water often glistens upon Felix's shoulders, and I probably remarked upon that and thought, in the light shining off the droplets of water now running down the small of his back, is the future of the wooden overcoats, which could go on for seasons, seasons, could even go on for four seasons of terrific episodes.

And I saw our futures intertwined in that moment along with those of everybody else in this program we're currently recording.

And I thought, what a wonderful thing.

We might even reach five years potentially if there's a delay to the fourth season.

Five years.

And

what what a wonderful thing that'll be.

Sorry, David, can you say that about Felix getting out of the shower again?

Just because I'm sitting record on my Zoom, we'll have an extra 10 minutes of it.

And what about Felix, Tom, Beth, Kira?

You recorded the show.

It had all been done.

Nobody had heard it yet.

What did you think the future held for wooden overcoats at that point?

I found my tweets.

Oh, well done.

On September 24th, 2015, I tweeted, it's out, it's out,

it's out.

Ring the bells, hug your children.

Whoa.

A sitcom is born.

Hashtag wooden overcoats.

Then I tweeted, we're number five.

We're number five.

And still are today.

In what?

What was the ranking?

I don't want to look at it.

up

uh i think it was the euros wasn't it

euro what

euro the football right yeah

coats was fifth yeah yeah we'd we'd just beaten denmark in euro 95 yeah i remember it well it was good yeah

so i think like i remember on that day that me and andy had sort of worked for some reason like we often do till about two minutes to midnight uh-huh or probably more likely three in the morning before the the final got sent up and then the next day actually watching it appear on all of the iTunes charts on the sort of new and noteworthy pages and realizing this is actually a thing this is going somewhere

yeah I think you're right I think there was still a question of will anyone listen to this you know that's the sort of main feeling I remember and not to be cynical I was also very excited but there was also the thought that hey you know a lot of people have put a lot of work into promoting this and making sure people are aware that it's coming out and even so you know the first few people that that downloaded it straight away, supported people on day one, getting involved, was lovely.

But I had no concept whatsoever of just how many wonderful people would not only listen to it, but give us money to make more.

I think not a lot of people did listen to it.

We started tracking download figures from about week three.

Yes.

And we still don't,

I haven't looked at them, but I seem to remember that it was something like 17 people downloaded the third episode on release date.

Yes.

They were all my mum.

And that was still personal best.

One of them was me.

Oh, great.

And me.

Oh, yeah.

Great pre-Liz being on the show.

You were just a fan.

I say just a fun.

Just a funny fan.

Like, also a housemate of several people in the show.

Well, and that's, I can tell you exactly

my feelings and thoughts on the day of release, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the show at the time.

I lived with David and Felix and saw how much work and effort and strain and love had gone into it.

And I remember all you guys coming around to our flat to talk about it and getting in the way, all those cups of tea.

And I remember when it finally released and I listened to it right away and I thought, oh my God, thank God this is excellent.

You know,

I can look David and Felix in the eyes.

All of those efforts have been worth it.

Oh, man.

I mean, you know, you get nervous.

But yeah, mercifully, all the hard work was

worthwhile.

It was great.

And then I slowly elbowed my way into the show.

So, not that slowly.

Come on.

You were there by what?

Season two?

Come on.

That's pretty good.

Yeah.

And have done an amazing job making it possible to keep going ever since.

It's a brilliant production team and crew that we've pulled together for all three seasons and season four when we eventually are able to bring it to you.

So

we sent out a call for many, many people to send in messages, memories, and questions for all of you about the show.

And we've had actually an amazing response from some people involved who you may never have met.

Mainly from Kira's mum.

17 from Kira's mum.

And some questions that they will be putting to you in person over the course of this evening.

Before we come on to those questions, actually,

so David, how is the series in your mind changed over like all the seasons since you were writing the first one?

Because I'd imagine the world has changed in your head since then.

Yeah, no, I think

season one is very firmly...

It was about the sort of frustration of not knowing how to sort of get started with all the work I really wanted to do.

It's firmly about a rivalry.

It is about one person desperately trying to take down somebody else who doesn't really know they exist.

And it was a very good way of me putting all my petty frustrations and darker thoughts into one area, making it palatable and funny.

As the show has gone on, I think the sense of some of the things where it's really about have really come to express themselves.

It is still a show which is about a rivalry, but I think increasingly as the show's gone on, it's become about found family, about different sorts of family, about the ways that people can support each other, help each other, even if somebody is a rival.

And that's certainly something which we can't give too many details away, as I think we'll carry on into the fourth and final season.

It is a show about people working out what it is they want to do and how they can best do it whilst the sort of the

silliness and the strangeness and the background continues to go on.

I think overall it's a show which, despite the fact it's about death, is quite a hopeful and happy show, which is not what I expected it to become.

Certainly in the first season when the writers would keep trying to come up with happy endings and I said, don't do that.

I want it sad and I want everyone to fail.

I want misery and said, David, please, misery, I yelled.

And that started to not happen quite so much in the later seasons.

And I thought, you know what, some of these people deserve

things to go well for them.

Yeah, I remember when we were giving the brief to James Whittle for the

for the theme tune, I got into my head that I just really wanted it to feel like curb, like to have that like melancholic but very jolly theme tune.

So that every time we got to the end of there was another like deep pit of misery that Red Yard had fallen into, there would always be that kind of like

come out.

It didn't end up like that because James correctly read the show as not something that needed that in the long run.

But yeah, I think that was when we were going into it.

That's kind of what we were going going for and trying to make, like, was like the funny misery show.

And it's so not that now

by end of season three.

Yeah, it is so, so beautifully evolved to be about a lot more than that.

And I think that is something, as we'll hear, a lot of people appreciate.

In fact, I'm going to go over to a question that we've been sent in from piffling's new switchboard operator

hello hello are you there i know who that was

miss scruple here i've got a phone call putting you through now dear

hi um i hope this isn't coming in too late my name is rose

one of my best friends found wooden overcoats earlier this summer and i bidged it all in like a week and I've just finished my second re-listen of the series.

I just think Wooden Overcoats is so delightful.

I love the characters and the town

and the way they're all developing.

I

cried at the end of season three both times.

It's just so lovely.

Wooden Overcoats hits such a fantastic balance between

hilarious and ridiculous and also just like so tender and real.

I think about the quote that Bijou said all the time.

I am the most important person in the world and so are you.

Was that backwards?

You are the most important person in the world and so am I.

It's so stunning.

My friend who introduced me to it, between the two of us, we've campaigned to get a lot of our other friends listening as well.

and I've got my sister and a couple cousins on it and slowly but surely everyone in my life will understand what I mean when I say enjoy yourself

I just really love wooden overcoats a lot Can't wait for season four and I do have I guess one kind of production question.

With so many different writers, how do you work to keep the voicing and the characters consistent?

Also, I just have to express my undying love for Madeline.

The like the narrator is a mouse.

This is the greatest conceit of maybe anything ever.

Thank you so much for wooden overcuts, and I can't wait for more.

Oh, thank you, Rose.

Oh, wow.

So kind of Rose to send in a lovely message like that.

Very, very thoughtful and kind message while also hiding from the Blair Witch.

I thought that was really.

That could be the supreme sacrifice there from Rose.

But thank you so much.

I really liked something.

That was a beautiful thing.

And Madeline being highlighted as well was Madeline played by Belinda Lang in narration and Holly Campbell in all the mouse squeaks.

A really good fusion of acting talents that create this one character.

In terms of Rose, in terms of the question about scripts and the sort of consistent voice, I suppose usually at the beginning of each season I meet with all the writers.

We all come up with ideas I have together.

Sometimes people come up separately or they have time to think about it later.

But I think there's a great deal of writers being involved in sort of pitching of the ideas up front and I suppose as the seasons have gone by it's been easier in a sense to sort of think oh I want to play of that character I want to develop this aspect I want to do this and that I suppose one thing is I often on the whole rather than giving ideas to writers or indeed plotting the season in advance saying I want to do this this and this now you're going to do this and this I like the writers to come up with their ideas first and I want to see what are the other writers excited by because if they're excited by something then the listeners are likely to be excited by it too.

Once I find out what the writers want to do I then start sometimes of those plottings of the rest of the season around it.

I'll always have some ideas up front, but I like to sort of plot things around what other people are excited by.

When all the scripts are in, and I'm very involved with helping writers do plot stories, and afterwards I do a little polish and sort of brush up myself of scripts to make sure that things are consistent across a series.

It's always about just creating things that are consistent.

It's never about a writer submitter script that doesn't work.

It is always a case of

A scene has been written where Antigone does this, but Antigone also does a similar thing in a later episode.

So I sort of get in there to change things up a bit and make sure that things are kept consistent, but there's a good amount of variety.

But I think it really comes down to the writers all tapping into the voice of the series, which has been always great to see across the four seasons and all the many seasons we've done.

We've had lots of other writers involved, including writers from other podcasts.

It's about tapping into that world and people really want to play in that world, the sort of playground where

all the children are actually adults, but they haven't really realised it yet.

Tom, as a writer who I've now edited several times, how have you known me

absolute torture?

Well, the way we capture the voice of the show is that David just rewrites everything as soon as we send it in.

I was actually not sure at all.

No, it's a fantastic process every single time.

I have a wonderful time writing for the show.

I mean, I have an advantage in that I was there from day one of the idea kind of first germinating and then turning into the show we now know.

But I'm also going to correct you a bit, David, because you suggested that welcoming other writers' contributions to the structure of the series is a recent thing.

And I have have to say, one of the impressive things about you as head writer right from the beginning was that you invited plot ideas straight away.

And, you know, the series arc was sort of loosely there when you began, but it was deliberately very simple.

You know, the eventual murder mystery bit of fun at the end of series one was kind of already in your mind.

But other than that, you weren't saying, right, this episode's going to be about

Reverend Wavering getting into writing stilts.

You have to go write that now.

Like you were very, very permissive with all the writers about contributing ideas early on.

Don't spoilers for season one.

I was going to say, Whereas was not that warrior's that episode.

I don't give up the stilts, Miss.

As long as I don't tell them that he falls off them and dies.

Oh!

No!

But no, but you did straight away let us all contribute our own ideas for episode plots.

I mean, I wrote The Little Death, where Antigone goes to watch French cinema.

And French cinema.

We're all drunk here.

For sure.

I wrote The Little Death, Series 1, Episode 3.

Antigone goes to watch some pretentious French cinema.

And that, I think, was just an idea that we had sort of spitballed together at some point and said, well, what would she do for fun?

And we thought, well, go and see some really depressing continental cinema.

And, you know, that was something that was part of that process of just quite organically absorbing ideas and letting the writers tread their own path to some degree, which I think hugely contributed to series one.

So you're a liar.

In many ways, yes.

And I will consistently lie throughout this programme.

You also read through, like...

Yes, I suppose I do have a weird thing where before, once I have all the scripts in, I take each character one by one and read through all of their dialogue across the whole season in a row, doing as best an approximation of their voice as I can to try and make sure that the voice is consistent, that the dialogue is

to hear them.

Georgie, I need to get out some sort of dialogue to do it in.

What are you great at today?

I'm great at doing dialogue.

Let's just grab, because we can edit all this out later.

I need a translator where you actually say a lot.

Okay, what about this one that Tom wrote?

Yeah, where's Georgie?

Okay.

You're happy now, Eric.

Yeah, Chapman, Eric, you can't do this.

Actually, I don't actually do her actual accent because I can't.

That sounded spot on to me.

Stop saying things.

It was like there were two Gira Baxendales on the call right now.

Ah, Chapman.

Think of the worst five-word sentence possible.

Mum and dad are back.

Oh, dear.

I have a speaker for him.

Imagine living with that.

Erin Chapman, Mayor of Piffling.

It's repulsive.

Just think of him up there on his throne, clutching his gavel.

But you'll never live it down.

Mmm, gaffle.

Exactly.

You can't let a man like that govern this whole entire island.

He's got to be stopped.

I do that.

And then we all do anticipate that.

Just across the square.

Yes, everybody.

No, shut up, what you're saying.

Spiders.

I like doing Sean Baker as the mayor.

He's not even wearing a tie.

That's amazing.

I know, so good.

Yeah, it's something I try to do, and it amuses me, if nothing else.

Home by myself, sat here not able to leave my flat, just reading the scripts out again, all in order, doing all the voices myself.

Well, on the subject of quarantine, just for a second, and turning to some sort of nice little character trait.

Feel a segue coming on guys.

I'm going to go back to Piffling's brand new switchboard operator.

Hello, we've got a message from Jam.

I'm putting you through.

Hello Wooden Overcoats team.

So firstly I would just like to say that Wooden Overcoats has been my anxiety cushion during this pandemic.

It's

such a wholesome thing to come back to again and again and I love it so much.

So thank thank you for that.

I have a couple questions.

So, the first one is, how have the people of Piffling been dealing with quarantine?

So, any ideas that you might have about that, I would love to hear.

And question number two is, what type of birthday cake would each character choose?

Happy birthday, and I'm so looking forward to season four.

Aww,

thank you all.

Thank you very much.

We should ask our central cast what sort of cakes and what their characters would be doing.

Okay, here we go.

Absolutely.

I think Antigone is the one I'd like to hear first.

Yeah.

Cake-wise, I think something with very, very dark, very rich chocolate

with

coffiny decorations or

something, something very black.

Maybe spiders' webs, maybe something

more than the mortuary.

In terms of quality, I don't think she would mind it particularly.

I think she'd she'd be fine.

It's a good time to get on with things.

Would she even have noticed?

It depends what season, doesn't it?

To begin with.

No.

This is possible she hasn't noticed.

I like the idea that in the arc of Antigone gradually sort of blossoming like a beautiful flower socially, that she would just one day decide, I'm going to go out today and I'm going to hug somebody.

And she'd go and find, let's be honest, probably Bill or Tanya, and just throw her arms around them and say, you're a person, I appreciate you, and they'd scream and pull their masks up a little bit because she were turned around to back and she's going, I don't know what's happening, and run back inside.

And that would put pay to her social development for another five, ten years.

Rudyard, Felix.

There's an ongoing trait of Rudyard that doesn't get picked up on much, which is that he is coffee mad.

That's true.

Every time coffee is brought up, he is brought to an absolute standstill and can't think of anything other than having that coffee.

So he probably would want a coffee cake.

As far as the pandemic is going, I suspect that he's got a bit of a scheme to try and get as much of the village out and about and mingling

and spreading in the moment.

Does Rod Young look conservative?

Felix.

I mean, two candidates.

But before that, there was the

underpants.

Yes,

major undercrackers.

Oh, yes.

Yes, major undercrackers.

Created by me again.

Yes.

I mean, Piffling Fairly is essentially like,

it's a sort of a low level of tyranny, isn't it?

It's many despotism, and yet no one minds.

Oh, dear.

I hope you're not.

Well, it's just a one-party system.

Like, there's still democracy, and everyone turns up and votes, but no one has stood against Desmond because no one could be bothered.

That's the thing.

That's the important thing.

And I think there's, well, I mean, I don't want to get too sidetracked by the political realities of Piffling, but it's a benevolent dictatorship.

So, we've got coffee cake, chocolate cake, which

Kira, what is Georgie's birthday cake?

So, I'm thinking like a treasure chest of cakes within a cake of every cake flavor you can think of.

And Georgie would definitely have just baked it herself because she's great at baking cake.

But, wait, Kira, hang on.

I can think of three birthday cake flavors.

Can you really guarantee

all three lemon drizzle,

cheesecake flavor,

chocolate cake flavour, carrot cake, nice flavour,

walnut and hazelnut, and

rainbow flavour,

and orange cake, and chocolate orange.

It's good.

And velvet cake.

And

that one with the cream in the middle.

Sponge cake.

That's your standard.

That's your standard.

What would the treasure chest cake be made of?

Would that be a gingerbread cake?

It's also made of cake.

Or is it just made of cake as well?

Right?

No, sorry.

You know, online when you've got these things that are all made of cake and it's like a dead person or like

a Nintendo or a fish.

Would it be one of those?

How do you go to dead person first?

Yes.

Yes.

What an overcast.

The Holy Trinity.

It'd be a light-sized coffin.

Or a treasure chest.

Oh, God.

Something exciting.

Something a bit out there, you know?

It's not just a cake.

And how is Georgie dealing with Lochdown, kira bloody brilliant i feel like she'd be one of them people

who gained like 11 million skills and like i learned 15 languages playing the ukulele whilst riding a donkey inside the house kind of bad smashing it basically she'd be smashing it in every way absolutely quarantine

king of quarantine how about across the square at chat well i think we had we all can be in agreement that he would find a way to turn the Blonde Supreme into a cake and it would be every bit as successful.

He'd make just one for himself, everyone would have a slice and then he'd have to end up franchising it into like a multinational cake business because everyone liked it so much.

I'm also, David, I'm going to pitch you the episode now, right?

So Rudyard notices Chapman's is receiving these huge like palette fulls of hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes and face masks.

And he thinks, oh, gosh, what a dreadful man.

He's hoarding all of the crucial PPE.

I'm going to phone the press.

Sid, Jennifer Delacroix.

And then he calls them all around saying, Look, it's an expose.

I'm mounting a journalistic expose of Chapman's for hoarding crucial equipment.

And then the second they arrive, they see him freely donating all of these products to the people of Piffling.

And it ends up being an enormous PR coup for Chapman's.

I think that's what would happen.

I'm afraid we've already got that as the series finale.

Oh,

spoiled it.

What did we say?

Your birthday cake would be Blonde Supreme.

A blonde supreme cake.

with chocolate and caramel.

On confection, we have another message that is coming in.

Hello,

I've got another telegram for you.

China's amazing.

This is from Rachel.

And it says,

hello.

I have been a fan of wooden overcoats for a couple of years now.

And it has stood firm as my favourite comedy podcast since I first listened to it.

My question is,

how long did it take Chapman to get through all of Antigone's Memento Maury chocolates?

Does he eat them when he needs a quick nap?

Thanks.

And happy five year.

Good question.

Oh, wow.

He didn't let me finish.

He's getting through lockdown by binging on Manto Morris and sleeping through it.

Can we talk about Ellie Dickens for a second?

Yes.

Miss Scruple.

You're an absolute hero.

A legend.

A one-scene wonder in season one.

It's like that one scene in Tom's episode.

But she's become one of your utility characters.

Yes, it's just, you know, think where we...

I think Miss Scruple has now been sort of a local busy buddy.

She's helped with mysteries.

She's been a secretary for the mayor briefly.

She's whenever we need

we need someone to fulfill a role, I think Miss Scruple can kind of do everything and show up and usually slow

and if to slow things down to an extent where nothing is actually sort of happening.

I think the you know, she's one of my favorite characters put in there.

I think, yeah, Ellie Dickens, what a wonderful performance.

She is, she is incredible.

And I will say, we will be hearing from Ellie before this episode is out.

Excellent.

Miss Scruple seems to be able to do every single skill that's handed to her, just not very well.

She's also the organist

in Wedding and the Church.

Like she's sort of old Georgie.

Like Georgie with a bit of a girl.

She's loopering Georgie just very slowly.

She hasn't got round to it yet.

She forgot what she's there for.

I'll take her in as my apprentice.

Yeah.

Oh, no, hang on.

No, Georgie would have to looper her, I think.

But anyway, that'll come.

That's for season four, and sorry for spoiling it again.

I'm gonna throw straight over to another message

hello oh now I've got a call here from Nico in Israel oh Israel oh where's this where's the stop it oh where's the

oh there we are

putting you through now dear

So excluding Georgie because that would be cheating who in Piffling Bale do you think would make the best partner, either in general or for you personally, be it a business partner, life partner, sports partner, whichever?

Oh, damn it.

Who would like to take this one first?

I'm going to say straight away, and I think this is in absolutely any capacity of being a partner, whether that's a business partner, romantic partner, or anything, would have to be Bill.

Because I feel like Bill has proven himself time and again to be adaptable, sensitive.

He's a good protector.

Come away, Tanya.

You know, knows when to step in.

And I think also, you know, has made people feel strange about the relationship with Tanya coming up so quickly after Jerry's demise.

But I think he was there for her.

I think he helped her deal with losing Jerry.

I think he's a sensitive person, a competent person, and a kind person.

And so that's why my pick is Bill.

Also has a wonderful sense in paintings.

That's the other thing we learned from.

And he's an anarchist, which makes him exciting.

Yes,

that is true.

Kira, Georgie, your character has been excluded from this.

Well, I would have picked Georgie.

Thank you for watching.

As would have Georgie.

I think it's fair to say.

Georgie would have picked Georgie.

Kira would have picked Georgie.

But as Georgie isn't allowed,

I'd probably pick Samuel.

Oh, thank goodness, Bill's here.

Bill, would you join me in my romantic adventures and as my business partner?

Hi, Bill.

Bill, it's the actor Tom Crowley here.

We've been asked whether, you know, which resident of Piffling would we like to have as our ideal perfect partner, whether it be in a remote relationship or a business venture, and I picked you.

How does that make you feel?

We all want to shag Bill.

So this is the actor Tom Crowley?

Yes, this isn't Derek Chapman.

This is the actor

writer Tom Crowley.

Oh, well, in that case, then, yes.

Oh, great.

Thanks.

Absolutely.

Well, Well, I'll contact your people to make the relevant arrangements, and I'll see you next Monday.

Excellent.

I'm not doing it, I think.

A big hand for Bill.

Hooray, Bill, aka the actor, Pip Gladwin.

Yay!

Thank you.

And Mr.

Bendus, of course.

Quite fun.

And the bearded lady.

Many other incredible roles.

Zones, I am a genius.

Zones, I am a genius.

Valentino, Valentino, Darius Valentino, Derry is Valentino, Pip Gladwin, the secret source of Wooden Overcoats.

We've got a couple of actors in Overcoats who act as flexors that we bring in for all of these small characters.

Pip and then Hoy Campbell, who does an Asquix and Tanya and so on.

And Sarah Burton in the first place.

And Max Tyler, who

was mostly Jerry before we killed him.

That's true.

But I wanted to say, because we killed Jerry and we sort of didn't realize that meant we had to lose Max, which was the real...

Going way back to series plotting and character development and stuff like that, one thing I love about our series is the fact that every character, whether they have a tiny role or not, is fully formed in the world and has the opportunity to become something bigger, as demonstrated by Bill Tanya Gender.

And Darius Valentino, especially.

Zones.

In terms of partner, I thought the obvious answer was Madeline,

the clearly most competent

resident of Piffling, best friend, accountant,

award-winning writer, best-selling author, you know.

I mean, how could you...

And fits in small spaces and can rearrange funeral flowers.

You'd have to fight that crab for her, though, wouldn't you?

Yeah.

Well, the crab is a perfect gentleman.

We know this now.

Yes.

I think for me, it's possibly what Reverend Wavering.

He's just a good guy.

Like, he's just a good bloke.

And there's something really nice about having all that doubt in your life.

Is there?

Like,

I don't think that was the only major drawback.

Constant doubt is not.

I'm not trying to make a dinner reservation.

Can you?

Oh, no, nine.

No, you're 30.

No, nine.

But having a partner where, like, you just know the one problem with them is pretty good.

There's like, don't worry, I'll just make the call.

It's fine.

Like, you know, we're going to have dinner at six.

God's real.

we're fine.

Would anyone else like to jump in on this one?

Any suggestions from anyone else?

Uh, we're not allowed Georgia Crusoe, but no one said anything about Nana Crusoe.

Yeah,

Nana Crusoe.

You have killed off a lot of characters in the world.

Yeah, a lot of characters we love, played by actors we love.

So, thanks very much.

Yeah, it's all right.

It's okay.

I've got a live one: Lady Templar.

Yeah,

she's smart, she's clever, she's a kind of nightmare.

She loves to jump

out of

a hot air balloon and sort of reach the greatest.

Obviously independent.

Absolutely physically.

Yeah, a very dashing eye patch.

Yeah, true.

Yes, that's true.

God, yes.

That was the one Steve Hudson stopped us, right?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Steve, who is the incredible actor who played Mayor Desmond in Series 1 with all his wonderful growls and

laughs.

There was one line that david had written which was about her having her eye taken out wasn't it originally it was a deadly coconut shy it was a deadly coconut shy which said um and he has a like don't be a fool rajan it's all you can see it's knocked her eye out already and he took me aside and said i'm not sure that's this line

i just think it's a bit much because that would hurt wouldn't it and i think she would she'd be in hospital she wouldn't be there having this i said no you're right you're right oh he said it's got to be a leg or

leg off i I don't know.

What about a glass eye?

You know, she's already lost a glass eye already.

He went, oh, yes, yes, that's fair.

I like the glass eye.

I mean, Carrie went, and in a way, actually, oddly enough, I think the idea of a coconut smashing a glass eye is actually a far more potently violent image

than the one we had before.

But he was happy.

I was very happy.

In all these years, I never pictured the glass eye smashing.

I thought it'd just be

knocked out and rolling under an impression.

This is the worst birthday ever.

Sexy.

That would hurt.

Exactly.

It's all on audio, so we don't realize how violent the show actually is.

But

that is true.

We get away with a hell of a lot in our sound effects.

Can I A, revise my shout to Marlena Magdalena?

Yeah, I was going to say her, but then I thought it was too obvious, you know?

Yeah, it is a bit obvious, isn't it?

Especially as a business partner, to be honest.

If we're having the option of different kinds of partner, like that woman's running a successful.

To be able to run a full circus on the island of Ifling with its limited resonance traveling, you got a

traveling circus.

That's some business now.

That's it.

And we know it just goes up and down again

all day, all year, just to one end of the island and back again.

They still run it down to the other.

Unlike many festival shows, the audience is probably members of the circus.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Just rotating, paying for tickets.

It's just insane.

It's insanely profitable.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, for good business partners.

I mean, Herbert Koff, he's doing all right.

He's doing all that.

He's keeping a cinema open, despite the fact he only seems to have like one person who goes to it.

So he's doing incredibly well in managing to keep this going.

You've got to think he owns the land.

He's got to own the land to do the other thing.

And also, we've never actually seen anyone ride the donkey.

Mr.

Crumble.

Mr.

Crumble, yeah.

Mr.

Crumble's got the donkey.

He just takes Mr.

Crumble for a walk.

Georgie was riding it around in quarantine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, there you go.

Can i say it's only just sunk into me now that the piffling vale circus had 40 plus clowns in it and it's kind of yeah

that that must be as like as a percentage of the population of the island that that yeah

half the island is literally clowns the other half is it's an incredibly violent series in that one season two you know season for now i i got rid of 50% of the island in just one fellman and no one noticed.

Well, that's part of the town.

There's Piffling Vale, and then there's Piffling Circus Town up in the north.

Coolerville up in the north, yeah.

Also, I've noticed we've had a lot of other town chat as if Piffling Vale is a town, it is not yet a town.

It isn't a town yet.

We're utopian thinkers, Andy, that's the thing.

We all backmare Desmond's vision.

Oh, sorry for being a realist.

Well, I say you're a dissident.

But with that behaviour, Tom, towards the funds, I've got another question that seems to be coming in.

Hello, it's Miss Scruple here.

I'm getting more and more of these telegrams.

They're piling up all over the place.

Look, I've got one here

and it says,

happy birthday.

This podcast has held a close place in my heart for a long while now.

And I've always wondered, how much do the Thuns and Georgie actually consider Eric a friend?

They put up a front that they absolutely loathe him and that they think a man's a monster.

But there's all those moments where they genuinely seem to enjoy his presence.

As much as they refuse to say it, it seems to me that they do consider him a friend and that Eric does too

but he just doesn't push it for their sake.

Thank you for all the lovely work you've done with this podcast.

Nisha.

Here's a question.

Can I just say that person's reading of Eric is completely correct?

Eric's very sensitive.

He definitely considers them a friend, and he would never push the issue just out of horror at making them feel uncomfortable.

He'd never want that.

I I think that's a very correct view of that relationship.

I've always, I mean, it's something which I think has sort of gone back and forth as the series has gone on.

Having a rivalry of somebody across the street is great for sort of plots and stories, but ultimately, at some point, you kind of need to bring people together and then sort of explode them again and keep doing that.

I was going to ask actually the

actors here how they felt about the sort of dynamic of these characters as it sort of developed in terms of their attitudes to Eric and so on.

Well, Chapman's secretly a werewolf, so he's all this time just been sizing them up as a potential.

Season four?

Sorry, yes, season four.

Tom, please.

A werewolf vampire hybrid, and he's just looking for his next meal.

That's my answer.

So what do we think about Chapman lads?

I think Georgie just sees Chapman as quite useful sometimes.

Interesting.

Yeah, I like that.

I mean, she tolerates him.

She doesn't, I don't think she hates him.

She sees the benefits.

I think she's annoyed by him in the way that anyone sort of is when somebody's got a crush on them and they feel a bit like they don't want to hurt their feelings, but it's just like, okay, but just leave it now.

You know, he kind of got the picture with that, though, didn't he?

Over time.

It took a bit.

He kind of got the picture.

He was getting there.

What do the fans think about Chapman at the moment?

I think Rodiard

sort of goes back and forward a bit.

I think after

season one,

he's definitely accepted him as part of the community, and that's the big shift, is he's sort of not trying to drive him out of town anymore.

But he's also

driven and painfully aware that this is a man who has stolen his livelihood.

Like, that is not something that

I think rationally you can go, well, that's just market forces, but it's not

something that you

kind of forgive and forget.

Yeah.

But he also knows that

you kind of have to just get on with your lives and find a way to live with it and a way to all live together.

Yeah.

Very beautiful.

Very pointless.

A lovely, sincere silence.

Especially in a place like Piffling Vale, when, you know, I think what you're talking about with the word community, like there's kind of no getting away from people.

That's the...

Dave was talking about found family and things earlier, but that's one of the great things about the setting, I think, is that these are people who are drawn together by circumstance.

And

even if you aren't best friends with someone, there is a certain point where you have to function and have a modicum of respect by just being part of the community.

Yeah.

And Rudyard prizes the community above anything else.

That's, you know, I think you once said, David, that he

could tell you the history of Biffling to the last 500 years, but didn't have any idea what was going on in Dover, sort of thing.

Yeah, I think it means community being one of the sort of important aspects of the series.

I think it's correct,

this idea of their sort of toleration of Eric because it's easy to do so.

And they're quite a pleasant sort of guy and everything.

And as the series goes on, I think they find more opportunities and more common ground.

And to be honest, that's sort of the core dynamic of fun funerals and chapman, how it's changed over the years is a very key fundamental part of season four, as we will find out when we make and release it.

But it's something we sort of go, you know, I really wanted to look at because there is that sort of tension in the middle of, yes, we want them to be quite friendly towards each other because it creates nice dialogue and scenes and mutual support.

But I think it would be dishonest to push that without recognising the fact that this person did come in.

Clearly, not only just with more sort of maybe talent and drive, but certainly more resources and more finances than fun funerals.

And that, you know, it was a direct threat to their livelihood.

And that is something that still needs to be there, that he bears a genuine threat towards how they live and function.

And he does have all these resources.

He does seem to have a business which takes over about 50% of the island by now with a monorail and like Lord knows how many floors and how many businesses.

I disagree about Rudyard personally.

I think he only cares about piffling as a vehicle for reaffirming his own position in the world as he sees it.

I don't think he fully understands that other humans have their own feelings and opinions if they don't service his position in that community.

That's my feeling about Roger.

You can play him that way.

That's a very Eric thing to say.

I also think, yeah, I agree about Chapman, though.

I do think that his obliviousness about completely eradicating every other business on the island is his greatest sin.

Not just the funerals either, like, you know, starting opening a cafe and a pub and everything else in a steak restaurant.

He is the Walmart.

Exactly, yeah, and that's his greatest sin.

Well, it's the big shout out to Rudyard Makes a Friend in season two when we get Jerry the Baker and his

view of Chapman, who's running a funeral home and still decimating every other industry on the island.

Yeah, I think Jerry is, despite also being one of our most sort of, you know, unequivocal villains and cleanly manipulative of Rudyard, and he is a baddie, also has, you know, a fairly sort of genuine sort of grievance, which is my business has been I've been put out of business by this person who didn't need to open his own bakery where we already have this one.

He's very much the Thanos of Wooden Overcoat.

I've always seen Jerry as the hero.

He has a motivation that has weight behind it, and you know, there's a point to what he wants to do, but his reaction is disproportional, and that's the reason we dislike him.

Yeah,

uh,

Jerry, good old Jerry, bring you back, bring back Jerry, season four.

Come on, let's go to another beautiful uh listener message.

Hello,

it's Miss Scruple here.

I've got a call for you

from

Mute.

Hey guys, congratulations on five years.

I was a fan of the show first back in 2015 when I was in high school.

That's quite right.

And as, you know, people of that age are wanting to do, once the first season finished, I immediately got out my laptop and wrote some fan fiction about it.

And I posted it to a website and didn't really think anything of it.

But a few months later, I remember I was listening to an interview that Andy and David did on the podcast Radio Drama Revival.

And they mentioned

one that I remember the words exactly, said, got the voice of Madeline absolutely perfect.

And mine was the only one on that website at the time.

So I remember thinking, oh my god,

the creators of Wooden Overcodes found my fan fiction of the show and read it, and they think I'm a good writer.

And that was such a memorable moment for me, especially because, you know, I was just starting to get into podcasts.

I wasn't used to that level of fan-creator, I guess, interaction.

So, first off, I wanted to say thank you guys for being so, so generous with my, at the time, definitely not fantastic writing skills.

And second, I wanted to say thank you so much for helping inspire me as a writer.

Since then, I've put out my own podcast, finished that one, am starting another, and I'm in college, which is just crazy considering how time has passed.

So yeah, congratulations again on five years, and I just know season four will be amazing.

Thanks, guys.

My question is, Wooden Overcoats is a show about death, which is a very taboo topic, but it's also dipped its toes a little bit into portraying mental health.

I'm on the autism spectrum and I've seen a lot of my experiences and the things that I do in Red Yard and I know a lot of other Autistic fans have as well.

So I wanted to ask,

was it intentional just sort of writing Red Yard as, I guess, coded as Autistic?

Or did that just sort of develop over time as you fleshed out his character more?

What a roller coaster of emotions I felt during the asking of that question.

I mean, like, I was so terrified when it was mentioned that we'd seen the bit of fanfiction.

And I do remember that one.

And it was very good.

I'm really surprised that there wasn't a plug for the podcast that came out in that.

Have you ever seen that?

I want to know what it is.

No, I haven't.

I think that's genuinely, like, genuinely.

I want to know what it is.

I want to see the development of that bit of fanfiction into what became their podcast.

I'd love to.

It's a Madeline spin-off.

Absolutely fantastic to know that you were the person who wrote that particular story that we sort of made a bleak reference to on the Radio Drama revival.

I think think I would also specifically state when we first created Wooden Overcoats, the idea that people would not only enjoy the show, but would be so inspired by the show to go out and create their own things.

Because we've had people who have sort of done pictures, they've done videos, and they've written fiction based on the show.

It is absolutely incredible to see that we've inspired that sort of creativity and we are really excited by that.

I would say when it comes to specifically sort of the fiction, I think we read the first few stories because it was a pure massive novelty that people were doing this at all.

And then quite early on, made the conscious decision not to read any more of them, partly ever sort of, you know, not wanting to be too influenced by what people were writing, but also because we thought people want to be able to play with these characters and play in our world without the creators looking over their shoulder.

So it isn't something that we sort of really indulged in or read ever since those very early days.

But I am still utterly delighted to hear that.

uh you were really taken with the fact that because it was it was a brilliant story and i'm really glad that you caught the voice of madeline i think when it comes to the the second part of your point which was to do with the

mental health of characters and the mental background of our characters I would state up front that Rajiard was not consciously created as

an autistic character or somebody with autism so I can't you know I want to make that quite clear that we're not saying that the character is something that they're not.

But what I would say about these characters is that I think when we engage with characters that who we care about and we enjoy and we like, everyone's individual interpretation of their character, what they see in that character, the sort of shared experiences of what the character does and how they behave and how one behaves and experiences we've had, I think they're all entirely valid.

We often have listeners saying that they see elements of themselves in characters in Piffling Vale and that they take a great deal of joy in that and they feel that with the character voicing something that they've privately felt or held close to them, that they feel much more heard somehow.

I say there are many aspects to the characters which are almost either incidental or things we hadn't consciously thought,

but when our listeners say that they recognize something in a character and something that of tremendous meaning to their own lives and experiences, I'm always thrilled, especially if it's sort of helped them in some way or they found it entertaining.

or they've just made it feel warm, or it's made them smile and carry on with their day much happier than they did before.

That's a tremendous thing for us.

And we always, you know, when people say that, we're utterly thrilled.

And thank you very much for your message because it was such a lovely message to receive.

It's so nice.

And just to build on that, I think, you know, everyone who comes to this show comes from many different perspectives and brings a lot of what they bring to the table.

And as a result, I think there are a huge amount of wonderful, happy accidents that let people have ways into the show.

But again, thank you so much for your question.

It's really lovely.

I'm going to have another story of someone who's been affected by their show through their life.

It's someone quite a few of us, I think, met at the live shows.

So over to Miss Scruple.

Hello.

Me again.

You've got another telegram from

Jimmer.

It says,

congrats on your upcoming fifth birthday.

I started listening when I was an aspiring mortuary worker.

Now I am a full Antigone level mortician.

I can now fully relate to her desire to make people smell their very best in death.

I find cheery is my go-to scent currently, in case anyone wondered.

Not only have you created a wonderful show, but I love meeting you all at the live events.

Thank you so much for everything you've done and continue to do

Mortuary Gem.

Yes, hello.

Isn't that you, Spark?

Hello, Mr.

Gem.

Hello, Mortu Gem.

That's a lovely rest of your life.

Congratulations.

Yeah, yes, I am.

Mortu Gem endorses Cherry as well.

That's important to say.

Cherry is a real standby.

I did a few members of Gem at the very beginning.

I think in the the early live show, saying that she was some training to be involved with Mortu stuff.

I really like it.

Yeah.

And does a very, really, really interesting blog.

And a while ago did ask if I'd like to have a tour around a mortuary to see so I can actually know what the thing was that I was writing about.

So she'll certainly have to take her up on it.

But

no, I've loved seeing Jem, the live shows.

And it's terrific that she's actually had this journey whilst the show is being made and released.

She's some incredible mortuary stories already as well.

I already had them by Series 3.

I'm sure Jem knows far more about the undertaking business than we have known at any point during the production as well.

Absolutely.

Please write down any mistakes we've made.

We won't read them, but please do if it's helpful to you.

I haven't

write them down.

Point out the many things we must have got wrong.

Absolutely.

I'd also say a wonderful sort of theme that we've got over the live shows and over the course of things is people giving us scented embalming fluid scented things.

Scented candles, cakes, Lovely cakes.

I've still got the very end of my cinnamon and clementine jar candle.

Oh, do you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've saved the end of it.

To light over a celebratory drink when we finish series four.

It's very cupboard ready to go.

Someday.

No, the responsive flow of listeners engaging with the show to that extent in creating these things is absolutely incredible.

I'm absolutely astonished.

It's been great.

We've all been surrounded by these amazing fan creations.

And in fact, in the emails for requests for messages for the birthday week, we had some more beautiful fan art that came through of morticians, equipment, and fun funerals, business cards that were just stunning.

So thank you, everyone.

I mean, it's astonishing that anybody takes any time to make something out of what we've made, quite frankly.

Can we all agree?

It's incredible.

I mean, that's an experience which I don't think any of us has had.

at this level before certainly and it's it's humbling is the word

i haven't had anything before or since but you you know, I've made a few things to like BBC and that, which have in theory larger audiences, and no one's ever bothered to draw a thing of the thing that I've been involved in.

And

it's so, it's so lovely.

I'll draw ending.

Yeah, please.

Thanks, Beth.

You can do the John Clayton's Christmas show.

I'm really proud of you.

We'll all draw ending.

That's the promise here.

That's the fifth anniversary promise.

So, just diving back to some more memories from the show, here's another surprise member of the team with a message.

Hello, Mr.

Fruple here.

I've got a phone call from Ella.

Putting you through now, dear.

Hey, happy birthday, Wooden Overcoats.

Woo!

Dude, there has been a request for happy memories.

So, hi, my name's Ella.

I was a runner on season three.

Everyone was very nice.

And I think that, like, maybe my best wooden overcoats memory was

when

you were recording the end of season three

and you were recording, I think it was the balloon scene, and I was sitting in the studio with a little script making notes and Andy and John were like looking at the desk and listening and, you know, everyone was doing a great job.

And I remember like I lost my granddad a couple years ago, but there was just something about like that entire episode, but the way that that that scene was written that really sort of reminded me of both,

you know, the sad things about losing him, but also the comfort and love of my friends and family.

And so I remember I sort of burst into tears and I distinctly remember John turning and looking at me and sort of just grinning and going, Yes.

And that was delightful and perfect.

And

thank you all for everything you've done and all of your amazing work.

You're a group of fantastic people and you have made a beautiful thing that has certainly made my life better.

And it has been a privilege to be a very, very small part of it.

So happy birthday, Wooden Overcoats.

Woo!

Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

Thank you, Ella.

Thank you for being our runner on season three.

That's not a small part of it.

That's not a small part of anything.

My goodness.

I thought Ella was going to say John turned to her and said, where's my coffee?

When

rather than just like cheering at her pain daddy,

what a monster.

Cappuccino, two sugars.

I thought that's what was going to be the story.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ella, for that message.

It's really beautiful.

It was so good working with you on the show.

And indeed,

who wrote one of our fun fragments for

campaigning?

Yes, yes.

We initially just bring that up.

She's got one on season three.

Doesn't even mention that she wrote some of it.

I have.

I've brought it up now.

I wonder if that question's not maybe the time to talk about the shift to dealing with death in the show.

Obviously, we've spent a lot of time making very silly jokes about people getting knocked down by a bicycle at the bottom of a mineshaft, and then also the end of season three.

And

I have definitely, even in my small role, have had a lot of people coming up and talking about how much Wooden Overcoats has

helped people with their grief or cheered people up or given them some relationship to death.

So just to parenthesise there, Liz keeps underplaying herself.

She just said small role.

Without Liz, we wouldn't have anyone looking after our finances.

No one would be making contracts.

Filing taxes.

No one would.

But filing our bloody taxes.

I tried to write a contract once and I accidentally sold a kidney.

So

Andy would and now I own that kidney.

Liz owns like

Liz.

Andy would literally be piecemeal right now.

So we need to

thank her for that.

Absolutely.

But yes, that episode seems to have had a really important role for a lot of people.

I'm going to throw straight to the switchboard again.

Hello.

Now I've got a message for you from

oh, from Peter Wicks.

Oh that's nice.

Here goes.

Hello there wooden overcoats.

Wow the happiest of happy birthdays to you.

You're such a wonderful, heartbreaking, hilarious, beautifully written and performed show and it's great that you are celebrating such a such a milestone birthday.

today.

I love you.

You're brilliant.

And I just wanted to share some of my fondest memories of you.

My name's Peter Wicks, and I was lucky enough to have been a part of the Wooden Overcoats live shows for

a very long time.

I played Reverend Wavering, I played Herbert Koff, I played all sorts.

It was great fun.

It was especially just wonderful being able to perform those amazing scripts in front of a live audience.

It's just electric.

But I think my fondest memory of performing those shows in particular was

the finale of season three, putting the fun in funerals.

It's

such an emotional episode as it is.

But to be able to perform that in front of

a crowd was something else.

And

it was just great kind of sitting back there and watching...

Kira Baxendale's fantastic just tour de force performance as Georgie as she goes through all the pain and anguish of having to say goodbye to Nana Crusoe.

I was also having, you know, this wonderful moment of Desi and Nigel finally getting hitched.

It's just a beautiful, beautiful episode.

But my favourite moment and the one that just always sticks in my mind was the very end of the episode when Rudyard, Antigone, Georgie and Madeline all take off in the hot air balloon and that beautiful slow, gorgeous piano music by James Whittle just starts playing as Madeline narrates their journey up into the sky and just being able to perform that to an audience was magical, just beyond beautiful.

Now before I choke up, I just wanted to ask a question.

Maybe two questions.

I'll try just one.

Linked to that beautiful music by James Whittle.

I was just wondering if any of you have a favourite piece of music from the series.

So yeah, go ahead.

Tell me your favourite musical motif.

Or here's a second question.

I just wanted to know.

Wooden Overcoats is a phenomenally erotically charged show.

We all know this.

We realize.

Agreed, yes.

From

saucy French films to

delightful erotic fiction.

I don't know what I'm talking about.

But anyway,

my question is this.

What is, what

the undisputed sexiest moment in Wooden Overcoat to date?

And can we expect many more in season four?

Okay, thank you.

And apologies for all of that.

That was just waffle.

But yeah, have fun.

What a hero.

What a mess.

Peter Wicks, hello.

Oh, Peter.

Most lovely people I've ever met in my life.

Yes, so season, and it says

Liz was saying earlier, it was an episode which I think having set myself the challenge for the end of season two of wanting to write a finale where I took a very, an entirely ridiculous situation and tried to find the drama in it.

I wanted to flip it in the end of season three, take a very serious situation and try to find not necessarily just sort of the humour in it, but say the lightness and the sort of some kind of happiness and ability to go forward.

Because having realised this is a show which is about death and with all the silly jokes attached to it that you know occasionally we should sort of touch upon the genuine seriousness of the subject and it was you know even my I mean my my own grandmother had been diagnosed with an illness shortly after I started work on season one and she passed away shortly during the process of writing season three and so though you know Nana Crusoe was never based upon there was an element of that in the writing I thought I would like to treat the subject with the seriousness it deserves certainly There comes a point when you're trying to write a season finale of a script which is approximately 60 minutes and you started writing it about two days before it's due to be recorded and indeed have finished writing it as half the series has already been recorded to a bunch of actors who quite understandably would have liked to have seen this script weeks ago so they could properly prepare for it.

Where you sit there and go, I don't know how to end this script.

And you think, well, we do have a fantastic musical composer, James Whittle.

I could literally, you know, it's 4 a.m.

I'd like to go to sleep.

I should just write, they get into the balloon and there are some wonderful music plays.

And I wrote that in entirely passing the buck to James who then came back with the most wonderful piece of music and if you ask me which is my favourite piece of music in the show there are some absolutely terrific pieces like the sort of Mexican restaurant music we had in season one.

There was some

the French cinema music is absolutely terrific.

My favourite piece is the music at the end of series three, which is absolutely beautiful.

It says far more than the writing could have, which is just as well because I had just entirely collapsed at that point.

And it was tremendous listening to it in the live show.

In terms of the most sexually charged erotic moments, I don't believe that a single scene in Wooden Overcoats has been anything other than the most highly sexually charged fiction that's ever been created.

But I'd have to throw that question out to everybody else here as to what their favourite sexy moments have been.

My favourite sexy moment was

Desiree Valentino.

Now, what's his name?

It was Darius Valentino, played by Pip Gladwin, the magician.

He's my favourite sexually charged moment when he's performing his stage show and screams, Zones, I am a genius.

I don't think there was a dry seat in the house.

But

the other two things I really want to say at this point are: firstly, that Peter Wicks there skillfully avoided mentioning that he plays Timmy Todd.

What's his name?

Teddy Todd.

Teddy Todd.

Teddy Todd.

There you go.

Something Todd.

He plays a psychopath in the

Wooden Overcoat Summer's version of the summer special.

And

which is available now.

That's the sales pitch.

The Wooden Overkurt Summer Special.

He's a fantastic guest performer who's also been an incredible guest performer as our sort of our regular live Reverend Wavering.

Whenever Andy Seacomb, the podcast mainstay, is unavailable, he fills in and does so tremendously.

He is one of, I think, the finest actors any of us has had the pleasure of working with ever.

In a series of so many great great actors across the show and so many great guest performances and Peter Wix and the sound special is one of my favourite guest performances, the sheer joyful lunacy in which he forces Eric to read comics from the Beano and the Dandy in scenes that must have baffled most of our listeners, but were there very much to amuse myself.

And I think he's absolutely terrific.

Fantastic, gleeful performance in that episode.

And also it's really great that he recognises Kira's amazing performance in that episode as well.

Incredible.

Really amazing.

Kira, for those at home, has just sort of done a weird bow into her microphone.

I mean, also, and of course, I mean, Peter Wicks himself has brought to us some of the most erotically charged moments of Wooden Nova Coats as well.

By just being coming up.

Just by turning up.

Just by turning up.

Not even at recordings or live shows, just by being around in the world.

I mean, I think one of our earliest episodes being about

Antigone seeing erotically charged French films and then seeing Eric Chapman in them.

That's certainly.

We have some terrific French voices from Kieran Hodson and Freya Parker.

Yes.

Yeah.

The most criminally underused actors.

Would you like to do some of that?

We gave them three lines each, some of them improvised and erotic.

Now they're very

to be fair.

Freya did also play the Australian Cafe.

Hetty.

That's right.

That is true.

That is true.

Amen.

We're talking about such wonderful humans like Peter Wicks.

I think now is a good time to shout out

all the

creatives, all the actors and musicians and everyone who has who has been there you know peter's been somebody who has been with us since the beginning for live shows and has been a constant supportive presence and there have been so many wonderful benevolent humans who have who have been with us supporting us and been part of the you know the big old wooden overcoats family since the start and i i just i don't think that we could possibly thank them enough no matter what we did so for what it's worth thank you to every

every person who's ever come to be a runner or come to a live show or played the oboe or whatever it might be.

We are eternally grateful.

We are, and we actually have a message from one of them.

Hello,

I've got a message from a famous musician.

It's coming from Carl Kramer.

Hello,

hello.

I'm Carl, one of the musicians from Wooden Overcoats, Hiffling Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yes.

My favourite memory from the Wooden Overcoats series is probably singing Noggins.

Ode to Noggins, which I believe is series two,

Funeral House Divided, I think is the episode.

James Whittle, his composing is brilliant, and he wrote such a serious,

ridiculous, silly song about this legend, the grass measurer of Piffling.

And yeah, that's probably my favorite memory.

I loved doing everything from the mandolin playing to all of the vocal work, like Piffling, get them ready.

What a great show.

I'm such a fan.

My favorite characters, Antigone,

Madeline, the house mouse, and probably the Reverend.

The Reverend's hilarious.

He's such a wild card.

Yeah,

such a privilege to be part of Wooden Overcoats.

I'm fabulous.

I've forgotten that song.

That was a terrific song.

The musicians are talking about good music.

Where we've got the most lucky, right?

Like, I think I don't know how everyone else feels, but as an actor and writer, like, when I meet somebody who's very, very skilled as a composer or musician, I really feel like

I'm a pretender.

I'm pretending to have some sort of skill that's quantifiable in any way.

If I can see somebody that can play an instrument, I think, well,

what I do is sort of child's play.

What I do is the equivalent of fitting the star-shaped block into the star shaped hole in the child's play set, you know, compared to someone who can play the mandolin, for example, as I know Karl Kraner can.

Is the first person that you hear on the podcast?

Is he the bang bang bang banger?

He is

the uh the first person you hear on the show.

Amazing.

And I think we had a few chats where we sort of said with James that the mandolin is Rudyard when it comes to the music.

I think that Carl is the only true Rodiard, to be honest.

Well, speaking of Rudyard and the Mandolin, the last question asking for musical moments, I think

we have to quite appreciate it.

That time that Felix taught himself to play the mandolin to then have to pretend to be able to play it badly

for the show.

Well, it was originally, I think, a ukulele.

Yeah.

But I had recently bought a mandolin online.

So we changed it to mandolin.

So I was sort of trying to learn anyway, and it was a happy coincidence.

Uh my mandolin is awful.

I mean it's it's it's got a pickup unusually, but it's a proper plazy piece of junk.

It sounds dreadful.

Have you got better during lockdown?

No, I've I've not touched it in well.

But if you are trying to learn the mandolin, I recommend mandolessons.com.

You heard it here.

It's brought to you by mandolessons.com.

Not until we get licensing money, okay?

We need to do it.

Not until you get a bit of like sideline sponsorship, Felix.

Not at all.

But, Andy, let me ask you this.

What hobbies have you picked up in lockdown?

Has it been the mandolin?

And if not, why not?

It hasn't been the mandolin.

I've taken up 3D printing.

I've got into making corporeal things because I spend nearly every day making noise.

And it comes to a point where it's not actually that satisfying to send someone a digital file anymore.

And you want to have made something that you can hold in your damn hands i'd love one day to like print uh wooden overcodes vinyl so so we could hold it like that amount of work that we've done like hours and hours and hours just to actually hold something that we've made i support that life goal yeah yeah to 3d print the waveform of episode one and then that would take so long

so i want to wear it as a choker oh yeah it would choke you

like a renaissance rough as a choker just in audio print me off the theme tune i want that.

That'd be good.

Oh that's a good idea.

Yeah we can all wear it.

Answering the question of the favourite music, it's the theme tune.

Because every time I hear it, my heart bursts and grows.

I have to say it is really

like the Poirot theme in that you have that kind of where it is that you have that kind of bang ba bang ba bang bang bang like you it's memorable it has the interesting thing about that is that it's still the series one recording because we when we did the series one thing we did it in this big hall at york university uh because that's where james whistle was still doing his phd was it yeah um and it was where you could easily let's be honest press gangalone musicians down to come and help us and we recorded it okay but we were kind of outsourcing a lot of like how you do that at that point before between john and i we got better at learning how to record music and there's something about just the feeling of it in this room where you're kind of hearing everyone playing at the same time this united thing where we tried to record it for re-record it for series two and it just wasn't as good like it just didn't

have the impacts and like the yeah yeah it's brilliant big congrats james on all of that work james whittle the new ronnie hazlehurst and the full piffling philharmonic it is absolutely incredible

to have had like have an orchestra

orchestra to do the music for not to bang on about the music at the end of series three episode eight one more time but i do remember when we recorded that in uh in tom's dad's church all saints he's been sweet yes that's right yes i was gonna say i was there and and as that was being played i cried i was there too.

And Felix was there.

Felix also cried.

I was recording it.

I also cried.

I turned around and saw John.

John was also crying.

And that was before we'd even mixed it.

Just the sound of that being recorded brought...

four of us immediately to tears.

It really did.

And then hearing it again,

remembering seeing it recorded, it also made me cry.

More so because I'd seen them playing it.

It was very cathartic, that recording, I remember.

I remember that we i think we'd been so sort of not on edge but you know you you can't help but have be on a high after being stuck in a box recording a sitcom for five days

and there was something about

watching other people taking over and taking over a different flavor of it that was very reassuring it was like it's over but it's sort of not over don't worry this this thing still exists and good news it's beautiful but as an actor you don't get that very often.

You don't get to see any of the other post-production stuff.

You don't get to see the score being recorded.

You don't get to see the edit room often as an actor.

You just, all you do is you try your best.

You never see your costume.

No, you never see a costume.

You don't see your own face ever.

They keep you in a just darkened box.

Covered in mud.

But you don't.

You don't.

You don't under you.

Normally, as an actor, you get your part.

If you're lucky, you have a few days to prepare it.

And then you record it in the room doing the best you can.

Then you leave.

And if you're lucky, you ever hear it again.

But in this case, you know, because we're part of this independent production where we're all kind of, we have a bit of a hand in various different areas of production, we get to then sit in a lovely church hall and hear this beautifully composed piece of music, which we've pictured abstractly before because we've seen the script.

We've seen the, you know, the stage direction that says, you know, Madeline says that the hot air balloon rises up into the sky.

She says this beautiful line and then this plays us out to the end of the series.

And then you've done all that work and you've prepared the part, you've acted it, and then you sit there and you hear the music that's going to play when it happens.

And what an amazing thing to experience.

I would wager most Hollywood actors, I'd wager Tom Cruise, after falling out of the 11th plane of the day, doesn't actually get to see Hans Zimmer or whoever it is conducting the orchestra while that music is recorded.

And I've got to to say, that was a rare and special privilege to see it happen.

It is a privilege.

And also, you know, for being a podcast, for being a radio drummer even, it's a privilege.

It's not something that most people get to do.

And it's a mark of how lucky we've been with the show.

And the process

when we work with James and the musicians, but James particularly in this case, we sort of give him abstracts.

We show him scripts.

We give him abstract ideas.

And then he goes away and turns it into magic.

And then, you know, know, we might hear a MIDI file that comes back in the middle, but to suddenly hear that come to life for real is something else completely.

I was going to ask three seasons in, and still, obviously, a fourth left to go, which is still in the process of pre-production, and still scripts being put together as we speak.

But what people's favourite moment of sort of doing the show had been, or if there was a single favorite moment of recording or writing or being in or making that people had.

Tom Jansis, a fan of the show, actually asked this exact question so he'd love to hear the answer.

Hello, it's Miss Scruple here again.

We've got a call from Tom.

Putting you through, dear.

A very happy birthday unto you, wooden overcoats.

You don't look a day over free.

Tom Jansis here, long time listener, first time recorder of audio notes.

My question is this.

We all love goofs and gags.

Cast, were there any lines that you just had to keep doing again because you couldn't get your mouth round it or just got a terrible case of the giggles?

David, similar.

Any lines that you were chortling to yourself late at night?

Tyranny, let's start with you.

I love all my lines.

That's a very correct answer.

I can't pick a favourite.

Right here.

No, honestly, it's such a joy playing Georgia.

I couldn't.

How could I pick a favourite one?

But I do love the consistency with, I guess, my catchphrase of saying that I'm great at everything.

I do love saying that over and over again.

On Georgie's stuff, I think I'd say Rodgard takes a hike, Rosie Fletcher's amazing episode, where the scouts will go into the wood.

Georgie's put-down lines of Chapman throughout that entire episode, I think, are gold every single time.

Yeah.

Hold your own Georgie is one of my favourite ones.

Oh, my God.

Oh my God.

There's too many to list.

This is what I mean.

Like, how can I pick?

That one's brilliant.

I forgot about that.

Thanks for reminding me.

David, you saw that.

Yes, I've already done it.

David, God, yeah.

Yeah, that one's fuck.

Beth.

I have way too many brilliant lines.

I have no idea when I went to Samson.

When someone says,

Yeah, no, you're mad.

When I was asked to be in this, Felix was like, oh, David's written this thing.

Do you want to play my sister?

And I

was obviously terrified and had no idea what was going on.

Those questions were unrelated.

And I would like to pick up that conversation again.

Let's come to her.

When I first saw the first episode and Antony appears, and she has this line about what she's been up to, and she said a tiny, a tiny dash of cinnamon.

And that's the point where I was like, okay, I can do this.

I understand

what this person is like.

I understand how she says this.

So that was a massive relief, and it's been a joy ever since, really.

Hasn't it, Josh?

Hasn't it, Josh?

Liz, as someone who has watched the entire series come together,

what is a line that's stuck with you?

Oh, God.

I mean, the line that David will never lid down because he didn't write it.

Yes.

I knew it's all coming.

Yes.

Sugar.

No, Georgie, this this isn't a brothel, which everyone quotes as their favourite language.

I thought it was Cordelia Lynn, Royal Court playwright

who wrote that, I'm pretty sure.

You know it wasn't.

It was you, Tom Crowley.

It was you!

How dare you?

My favourite line, which I'm almost certain was written by David K.

Barnes,

for me to perform, was...

We've got Michael Douglas.

I mean, but the thing is, with David's writing, you can't just pick out one line because you have to get the build-up of it.

And to do that adequately, I'd have to dig the script up and then read every single part, which we've already had this evening, so I'm not going to do it again.

But yeah, that was one of my favourite to deliver, certainly.

My favourite window.

But again, with the build-up, it would be better.

But we can't

do it.

That performance by Pip Gladwin, who did a little cameo earlier, is incredible because it's a Wilhelm scream of a performance.

It is.

My favourite window.

He goes like my favourite window.

It's an incredible arpeggio of an exclamation.

It's brilliant.

Oh, man.

Felix.

Oh,

I always like it when Rudyard.

He's got this kind of second mode where he goes very introspective and very inner.

and starts to question everything he's ever done and where he's going in his future.

And I like all of those softer moments with Rudyard.

But the line that really rings in my ears, and I hear it quite often, is

after a very dramatic moment after the cave-in,

when Antigone and Chapman are stuck and Rudyard's trying to get them in, is Alison Skilbeck turning to Andy Singicum and going, Have you got a bucket of sand?

Gosh.

What

a cracking Alison Skillbeck impression thing.

Oh, yeah.

Yes, very good.

Very good.

David,

as a callback, what's your Alison Skilbeck?

Truebody Sweets.

Very good.

My line is not aligned so much, but I love going through the scripts.

And David has put these audio directions in that

are easy to write.

Let's put them that way.

They're easy to write.

And

incredibly fun to record.

But when it then comes to actually making these things sound like they have some sort of semblance in reality, it's fun.

But there's a Madeline line in episode six of series 1, where it's something like, and there was a yacht-shaped shape, which turned out to be a yacht.

And then it's just written in the subtitles: a yacht appears, a gang plank is put down with a party going on, and people come aboard the rowboat.

This is basic stuff.

You're supposed to be radio producers.

Why on earth is this so difficult for you?

I think there was.

Wasn't David the man who wrote the direction Lions Cry?

I was going to say this.

One of them used to be like, A lion roars sadly.

Yeah.

The owls attack.

Like...

Right, I've literally got a video open on Reddit right now, which is about how owls don't make any sound with their wings.

Aggressive hooting.

As the person who did both of those sound effects in the show,

the sad lions are actually lions copulating.

Nice.

How did you get that?

That was the sexiest moment.

Yes, There you go.

John and I went

on a safari a couple of years ago.

End of story.

I mean, surely one important sound effect is, I think, in season one, I think it's The Cliffhanger, which is the sound of an angry cat being thrown into a bin.

Oh, it's so fun.

Which I don't believe is a real cat.

Who was that?

No, that's Beth Air.

Was that Beth Air?

It's partly Beth.

Partly Beth Air.

It's a huge composite of different bits, but

I had Beth do a cat impression while attacking a pillow,

which was hugely helpful.

And then I threw said pillow into a bin and recorded that.

And then

I did a composite of myself screaming and a cat to make the sound of it flying away.

So when it's immediately near you, that's the start of a cat going, ah!

And then it having the full screamer landing in the bin had to be me because I couldn't find a cat sound effect that did it properly.

So

that was a lot, a lot going into Cat is Putin in.

I'd like to point out that me and Andy were housemates at this time and shared rooms next to each other.

And our neighbours must have thought we were insane.

Your neighbours was us.

Yeah.

And we did.

Yeah.

I stand by it.

On favourite moments from the show, I think

we've had an awful lot from Miss Scruple this episode.

And we said earlier, Ellie Dickens is extraordinary.

Here's a little something from Ellie herself.

Oh my goodness.

Well I think my most special moment would have been my very first appearance and I just had the one speech to do

and I did it you know sort of as one does

and what was wonderful was I had to do it a couple more times because the people on the other side were laughing so loudly it penetrated the boot.

And I didn't think I was that funny.

But everybody else did, so that was great.

And that's my best memory.

Oh,

that's so true.

It's very true.

Remember, we used to get people in for one line.

Oh, we wouldn't do that anymore.

Time's past.

Well, Ellie, you were that funny.

That's the reason that the laughter.

That was the amazing scene.

Smashed through the walls.

I think my favourite Ellie Dickens line reading is somewhere in season three where she's trying to put Rodiard.

She's coming to Rudyard and goes, Yeah.

Get in the sack.

It's so warm and yet sinister, authoritative.

You would do it.

Isn't it?

Isn't the follow-up line to that?

I shan't say why.

It is

as good if not better.

Yeah.

I think there's also something lovely about the way she says, okay, Vicar.

Ellie Dickens is always absolute gold,

a genius.

So good.

She is fantastic.

And thank you so much, Danny, for Ellie voicing the script off.

Ellie Dickens.

And for being the switchboard.

I mean,

when did this happen?

No, that was Mr.

Show.

Nice surprise.

I think having this sort of really

exceptional cast of actors of so many different sort of backgrounds and talents and being able to work with

all of us and also people like like Andy Seacom, Alison Skielbeck and

Sean Baker, Steve, Paul Putnam.

We've had so many incredible actors.

Belinda Lang doing Madeline.

It's just exceptional privilege to work with such very, very talented and funny actors consistently.

Who've also been happy enough to come back, which is always the sign of things going well, is if the actor wants to come back and do it again.

These are people who should be beating us up for our milk money in the schoolyard, you know,

in the acting field.

They should be drubbing us mercilessly and stealing our lunch money, but they're not they're helping us out which is astonishing yeah i remember actually my favorite moment for recording the show if it is and i'm really glad georgina and the waves just means season one episode six has come for a few people because that's the one which that first recording week which was i think four days in which we did eight episodes and were absolutely sort of brain dead doing it just with so all the energy had been sort of sucked out of us But it was an incredible experience having all these people doing all these scripts and it was an absolute sort of whirlwind.

But Georgina and the Waves has always been kind of my private favourite episode of the scripts I'd written at least for that season.

And it is the,

with all the silliness that goes on in the show and all the wackiness and strange characters, that the cliff top argument of Bradyard and Antigone while Georgie is trying to mediate and Eric is sort of across the way in his ship.

That was the sort of argument which I remember we did several times between, especially the higher

register of it between Felix and Beth.

And that was the scene which I kept thinking, if we get this scene right, not necessarily like then the show will work because a lot of it is clearly working, but I will personally be in I will feel that yes we on a personal level we have done an absolute perfect job.

This is the scene that it was the scene that meant the most to me in writing it.

I mean it was for me the sort of private linchpin of the whole season and kind of ethos of the show itself and listening over several takes then the final take which I assume must be the one that we actually used of Felix and Beth doing that argument and the just not good enough and Rajah's rejoinder.

Worth a note for me that was the most magical moment, I think the most magical sort of few minutes of the entire recording recording week.

And still, I think Stanza was probably one of my most electric moments of ever recording the show because it was just this moment of, yes, this calm acceptance of, yes, I think this show is really good.

I think it's going to be a really good show.

And I'm so pleased.

Yeah, it was absolutely stunning.

And I think it's the move both in the writing and in the characters where you know

these characters are going places.

They're not going to be stuck in their roles that you heard in series one.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

It's really beautiful.

There's been a few wonderful moments like that across recording the series and they're always in the studio, I I find.

It's lovely putting it together, putting it out, and seeing

how the audiences receive it.

But it's when you're watching this wonderful cast come together and make it, and also when you're kind of watching it through the gaze of people coming in for a day to watch it happen.

And one of my favorite ones of those was when we were doing three and Julia Deacon was in for the day to

finish.

like finish Nano Crusoe and when we did series one she gave me a real chewing out for a bit of direction that she didn't love and then she came back in series three and did an incredible job as nano in that last episode like really unbelievable performance and at the end of the day gave me a preemptive telling off for ever undervaluing the show and it was a really incredible moment where you know she's one of my absolute like comedy idols i mean if you if you haven't watched spaced dear listener go and watch spaced uh among um wonderful other things and and she kind of took me to one side and went you've got something good here

i didn't know that that's beautiful i hope so I was like, yeah.

She did the same to me.

Look after it.

Yeah, she did the exact same to me.

She was as if I hadn't seen these scripts before.

We were sitting in a sort of waiting room to go in and do the recording.

And she was saying, you get some scripts sometimes, don't you, where you just go, well, this really hasn't got it.

You know, whatever it is, this hasn't got it.

But this is funny.

Like pointing at the page as if that was a massive surprise to me or anyone else.

Like, no, no, hang on.

Wait, shut up.

This is funny.

And I went, well, thank you, Julia,

venerable, you know, expert at comedy.

I will pay attention to what you're saying and I'll recognise that this is what funny is.

And I've never forgotten that.

I've never

devalued that.

The episode of like, that's for Georgie and the waves of Julia Deacon coming in for, I think, possibly 10 lines.

Yeah, about 10 lines.

Yeah.

Doing them all brilliantly.

And you've got Tom Tucker doing a

wonderfully over the top performance.

And over there on the ship, there's a brief scene of Alison comes in and there's Andy Seacomb vomiting over the side of a boat.

And Steve was, it's just yeah this sort of all these actors in one place it was it was a really it's just really joyful thing and I will have to say though one of the lines I do even quote to myself sometimes is still we've got Michael Douglas that is still one of mine as well we've got Michael Douglas no

yes no I mean that is yeah that's right that is the best don't you don't you play Michael Douglas actually in the sound design

my father was Kirk Douglas that's if you listen to it

you can hear me say in the in the walla

Um, we're going to wrap up, I think, because we've been talking for a very, very long time.

But do we have any more listener questions?

We have quite a few.

I want to play you one just really beautiful one that I think you will enjoy.

Well, hello,

see again.

We've got a reverse charge call from Vancouver, Canada.

Will you accept it?

Yes, sure, yes.

Yeah.

Hi, my name is Megan and I'm 21 years old from Vancouver, Canada.

I started listening to Wooden Overcoats in late 2016 in my first ever term of university when I felt at my most isolated.

But listening to this podcast, I found a family in the characters of Piffling Vale and the community surrounding the show.

Wooden Overcoats made me laugh when sometimes I couldn't find it in myself to get out of bed.

It inspired me to be creative, drawing fan art for the first time in years, and listening through the episodes to mash up every time Felix Trench screams Chapman.

It's over 200 times in four seasons, if you're wondering.

It stayed with me through several moves to several cities over the years and the familiar voices of the cast were a constant comfort through these periods of transitions.

I doodled quotes from the show and the coffin logo all over my lecture notes, even through to my second and third years at uni.

I've laughed, I've cried, both publicly on a bus and in my sister's room to her shock, as she was under the assumption it was a comedy podcast.

But I've always felt at home listening to the show, despite the endless days of trying to explain to people that it's a podcast.

No, it's fiction.

Like a British sitcom, Before Your Ears, about funeral homes, was the best show I'd ever listened to.

In the early days of quarantine, I re-listened to the entire show, specials and all, and reflected on how much this show has meant to me over the years and how much love I have for it in my heart.

I was so overwhelmed with affection for the show that I emailed David K.

Barnes, who, by the way, is the world's nicest man, and by some luck it didn't end up in his junk mail.

We bonded over moving in uni to assert our independence, Wolf359, and the importance of found families.

The kindness of everyone I have ever interacted with about the show has been overwhelming and incredible, from the writers to the cast to the fans.

I feel so lucky to be even one small part of such a special family.

Happy five-year anniversary, Wooden Overcoats.

Where did the time go?

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

Isn't that such a beautiful word?

Well, that's quite frankly.

That's amazing.

That was amazing.

That's why we ever got involved in any industry relating to this.

I mean, we all felt the exact same way the first time we saw any number of sitcoms when we were young people.

And we felt the exact same way.

Comedies and dramas, comedies, especially for me.

And, you know, it is exactly that.

That's why we set out to make these things is to create comedy characters because comedy,

well, let's be honest, it's better than drama.

And that's why we make a comedy podcast.

It is the best one.

It's a broad claim.

It is.

It just is.

That's the thing.

It just is better than drama.

And the reason is, for exactly that reason, is that we've connected in that way.

And that is maybe the most rewarding thing we could possibly hear for the very reason that that's why so many other comedy programs.

connected with us in the exact same way and it means so much that we could do the same thing for you.

It really does.

I was saying, actually, Megan, I do remember that email exchange and talking about the sort of themes of the show and Times at University and the rest of it.

I do remember that exchange, and I think the conversation that we had over those emails got me thinking a great deal about the themes that would later go to shape season four, which is so in the process of being written still as we speak.

So, a very valuable sort of conversation.

It really got me thinking.

And thank you so much for sending in that message.

I always think that the mistake people make about comedy is assuming it ought to be funny.

I think it's always very helpful if it doesn't have to be, and you just make people cry at the end.

I think every comedy,

sad comedy.

Sad comedy is all I want.

Endless people failing and then having to get up and carry on doing it anyway.

That's all I want.

It strikes me listening to that that one name that you can say in a very similar way to Chapman is Magan.

Well, I think I'd like to say thank you to everyone who wrote in, who sent us voice notes.

We haven't got through quite all of them, but they were all brilliant.

And I assure you, we'll all have read every single one of them, even if they didn't get featured on the show.

We're still working towards season four.

We are going to make it.

It is going to come out the moment we can get into a studio.

to record it safely with our cast.

But thank you everyone for coming together to celebrate five years of Wooden Overcoats.

This has been really brilliant.

I'm so glad we did this.

Thank you for those beautiful questions.

And yeah, that was, yeah, wow, what a treat.

What a treat to see all your faces again.

Yeah, nice to see everyone.

Yeah, lovely to see all of you, gang, and lovely to hear from everyone who wrote in.

Incredible.

Here on Zoom.

Special guest, Pip Gladwin.

Yes.

Special guest, and Andy's housemate, Pip Ladrin.

I'm sure it's much more special for all of you.

Special guest, Ellie Dickens, as well.

Yes.

I want them both to be my house, mate.

Well, happy birthday, Wooden Overcomes.

Thank you to the Flaming birthday.

Happy Piffling Birthday, everyone.

Happy birthday.

And we've said it enough throughout the show to lots of different people, but the show really wouldn't be possible without a really large number of incredibly talented people.

Over 100, 150 now, isn't it?

Must be.

Must be.

So we're so grateful to them and so grateful to you for all listening still.

And we can't wait to bring you more shows.

And a big round of applause for John for cutting all those questions together.

Thank you.

To be an undertaker,

sometimes it kind of makes you

want to be the one that stands.

It can be so very lonely when you feel that you're the only

one who's stuck inside your head.

I'm surrounded by coffins, but the truth here, of course, is I get the body in the coffin, in the ground, on time.

Yes, the ground on time.

I get the body in the coffin, in the ground

on

time.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

I'm surrounded by coffins, but the truth here, of course, is I get the body in the coffin, in the ground, on time.

Yes, the ground on time.

I get the body in the coffin, in the ground

on

time.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

The Fable and Falling Network, where fiction producers flourish.

Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other.

When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a four-litre jug.

When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.

They called it truce for their holiday and used Expedia Trip Planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip.

Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.

Whatever.

You were made to outdo your holidays.

We were made to help organize the competition.

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