Dom Joly: how we made Trigger Happy TV

Dom Joly, creator and performer

I never planned to be a comedian. Some would say I never was. I wanted to be a foreign correspondent, a diplomat, or a spy. After a degree in politics I worked for ITN doing interviews on College Green outside parliament. To spice them up, I got some mates to have a clown fight behind Paddy Ashdown, and to kick a football at David Mellor, which accidentally smacked him right in the face. ITN realised I’d set it up and I got fired.

On my first day as researcher on The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, Mark wanted to see what you could drive through a McDonald’s. I remember sitting in a tank thinking: “I can’t believe I’m getting paid for this.” This led to War of the Flea on Paramount Comedy – basically taking the piss out of politicians. We followed Peter Mandelson around with a fan club of monsters. I made the front page of the Guardian dressed as Frankenstein.

I pitched the idea of a satirical, political, anarchic show to Channel 4’s head of comedy, Caroline Leddy, but she said: “Can’t you forget the politics and just do the silly stuff?” That was the best thing that ever happened. It liberated me from trying to be this right-on, political anarchist.

I’d previously had to hire a proper cameraman and soundman but Sony had just brought out the Vx1000, which was just about good enough to use on telly. I said to my girlfriend in the pub: “I just need someone to film me.” The barman leant over and went: “I can do that.” That was Sam. He’d never used a camera, but we blagged it and spent a year filming the first series. No one from Channel 4 ever contacted us. We kept thinking: “Did they really ask us?” Then I sat in an edit for another three and a half months.

Trigger Happy was all about someone having a very slow nervous breakdown to gorgeous music. When it was announced it was going out at 9.30pm on a Friday and there were all these big posters, I was like: “Fucking hell. How did that happen?” I’m still wondering.

The big mobile has been redrawn as a satirical take on mobile phone culture, but it was just a good way of interrupting things that irritated me, like classical concerts and poncy restaurants. When people remember Trigger Happy, they always go: “Yeah, big mobile. Is that your only joke?” But that Nokia ringtone was genius guerrilla marketing. Every time anybody’s mobile rang, they thought of Trigger Happy TV.

Sam Cadman, co-creator

I’d been to art school and was working in a pub to pay for my studio. I’d never held a camera in my life. I just liked the idea of what Dom needed to get done. Production was bliss. I assumed everyone was left alone in the same way we were. It was probably because we were cheap. We’d hire fluffy costumes from this fancy dress shop in Camden, jump in our car and think of stupid things to do all day. We’d try anything that made us laugh.

The giant snail going over the zebra crossing is probably my favourite bit. We went to such lengths to waste people’s time. We had this magnificent costume made. Dom looked fantastic. We went to Chelsea, I found a hidden spot I could film from and we just went for it. We got it on the first take, but we found it so hilarious that we did it again and again. Then this policeman got out of a car, walked up to Dom, who froze, and said: “I don’t care what you’re doing but stop it right now and fuck off.”

Plenty of other things went wrong, like when Dom dressed up as the Grim Reaper, the joke being that Death has come knocking at your door, but the guy who answered was blind. Dom politely said: “Oh, sorry, I was looking for number 28.” Occasionally we upset people, like Gordon Ramsay. We were interviewing him and had a friend of ours start taking photographs midway through the interview. Dom went: “Mr Ramsay doesn’t like having his photo taken”, smashed the camera and chased him off. Ramsay was not impressed.

A lot of hidden camera shows rely on humiliation and shock but the best bits of Trigger Happy were about being silly and surreal. The big mobile simply allowed us to cause a scene. My memory is that we stole it from a display outside an electronics shop. We found this restaurant on the South Bank that would let us film during the middle of their lunch service. When Dom stood up and shouted at the top of his voice, everyone in every seat jumped. The adrenaline rush was fantastic. Doing that kind of thing in public takes a special kind of energy and Dom has that in spades.

• The Hezbollah Hiking Club by Dom Joly is out now. He tours the UK until 12 April.