HENRY LEWIS

THE GOES WRONG SHOW Monday, 8.30pm, BBC1

1Three of us who appear in the series, Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer and me, created the premise of the Goes Wrong shows, about a disastrous am-dram group.

For our characters, all of us exaggerate elements of ourselves – Robert (above), who I play, is pompous and a bitofabullin a china shop.

2 Things do go wrong for real. This series, Jonathan singed his eyebrows when a piece of paper he was holding went up in flames. There was meant to be a little fire but it wasn’t lighting so more and more paraffin was added, then suddenly the whole thing was ablaze and it set light to Jonathan’s hat.

3

For this series I had to get into an incredible tree costume that was so stiff I had to lie it on the floor before I could get into it and then be zipped and lifted up by the team. If I’d toppled over I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself landing totally flat. It was my most stressful bit of filming ever. 4

We’re a nightmare for our two health and safety people. But the rules can be so strange. This serieswehada big row over cooking a potato in a microwave in one episode – we couldn’t use a microwave that actually worked in case someone burnt their hands or mouths. I found it hard to contain my fury.

5

Most of the series was made with no one watching apart from the crew. We’re so used to having people laughing at us that it felt sad and sterile. It made all the difference for our final two episodes when we were in front of a studio audience at Elstree.