I actually had that conversation with [Channel 4 Chief Creative Officer] Jay Hunt. We were at a bit of a crisis point. I'd written a totally different script - about war, basically - that got rejected at the last minute for various reasons. The whole of the series was in doubt. I said, "Well, there is one other idea ["National Anthem"]."

In the U.K. I'm probably better known as a comedy writer - or certainly that's my background is in writing comedy.

It's interesting, in the U.K., I'm known for doing comedy things, which often doesn't translate to the U.S.

Man the lifeboats. The idiots are winning.

I think somebody's marketing a thing that Hoovers up your Twitter and it will continue tweeting for you after you're dead. I have no idea whether they saw "Be Right Back" or not.

Most of the books I read these days are children's books at bedtime.

I'm actually quite pro-technology, but I'm a worrier, so I like to envision worst-case scenarios.