What's the best new comedy you've seen recently? Don't say anything you're involved in.

W: The Thick of It. Erm...

Surely there's more than that?

W: In terms of new comedy...
M: I enjoyed the first episode of The Peter Serafinowicz Show.

Are you too busy concentrating on your own thing to watch other people's shows?

M: I find now that watching new comedy is a bit like work.
W: Mmm.
M: It's become one of the bad things about my job - one of the things that used to be a real pleasure of mine has slightly disappeared as a hobby. But I don't find watching other people's stuff helps me to do my stuff. It just makes me a bit stressed. Either because it's really good and that's intimidating, or it's really bad and that's annoying. So I don't follow comedy religiously anymore.
W: It can be really stressful when you've got a series of sketches in the bag and you watch someone else's sketch show. Now and again you'll see something that's a bit like what you've just done - and you know that your series is coming out after, even though you've made it first. And it looks like a bit we're copying! And we didn't! That's not fair!
M: Originally they wanted the series for around now, but changed their minds about a week before we started filming so it was too late to change it. It's done now and I'm really pleased with it, but any gap is unnerving because you never know what's going to happen in the world. If there's a big sketch you like, with someone called Arthur Jenkins in it, and then a guy called Arthur Jenkins goes mad with a gun in Washington, then suddenly you can't do that sketch.
W: There are various people who must not die between now and February. Although I'm not going to tell you who.