Sam Bain and his writing partner Jesse Armstrong made their name with oddball POV sitcom Peep Show but after branching out into comedy-drama with uni-comedy Fresh Meat, the pair decided to take an even darker detour last year with Babylon.
A cop show with a difference, Babylon explored the impact of PR on modern policing, airing a full series in late 2014 following a 'pilot' episode - helmed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle - in February.
With the series available on DVD and Blu-ray from today (March 9), Bain spoke to Digital Spy about the challenges of bringing Babylon to the screen, whether the show has a future and how he and Armstrong feel about bringing their big hits Peep Show and Fresh Meat to a close.
Babylon began with a pilot, which led into a series - what did you learn from that first episode that you carried over?
"The reason that happened was basically around Danny Boyle's availability to direct - it wasn't very standard for drama but I think it worked in our favour because we have always done pilots in comedy and it does give you a great chance to see what works.
"I think the main thing we took away from it was reducing the body count. It was tough trying to make the tone work shunting from someone being killed to a joke - so you probably spotted on the series that there's only one or two deaths across the six episodes, rather than however many there were over the first pilot.
"I think that's indicative of what we were trying to achieve, which is a little bit more coherence tonally - I think at times [the pilot] felt a little too choppy and change-y in that respect."
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Is it a challenge on a show like Babylon to strike the right balance between comedy and drama?
"Yeah, I'd say that's accurate - it was a challenge getting the balance right. We wanted to do a complex, sophisticated show… it was little bit new, for us certainly it was new territory because it was quite a lot of plates to be spinning...
"Writing it… there's comedy, character, plot, research - trying to get your facts straight - plus a vast amount of characters, all of whom appear in every episode - 15 or so - so yeah, in terms of pure writing, it was one of the biggest challenges I've ever faced."
Babylon review: All-star police PR comedy deserves full series
Both Babylon and your show Fresh Meat are hour-long comedy-dramas - does it make broadcasters uneasy when you're pitching something that's not simply an hour drama or half-hour sitcom?
"I'd say that Channel 4 were incredibly receptive to both Fresh Meat and Babylon so we've never had any, 'Ooh, we're not sure what this show is' from them - in a way, that's more come from us.
"Me and Jesse talk endlessly about issues around tone because comedy-drama is a very broad church. It's a very wide spectrum and I think one of the challenges of a show like Fresh Meat or more obviously Babylon is finding that tone that works.
"So it's more nerve-wracking for us than for the broadcasters - I think they like it, because they see the potential that you can have a sad scene or a dramatic scene and then a funny moment, and I think they like that, on the whole."
With such a large cast of complex characters, do you find your sympathies veering from one to another as you write?
"In terms of sympathies, you sort of have to like all the characters - the great fun of writing a script is you get to act out all the characters on the page before the actors do - and like any actor will tell you, you can't play a part without being on the side of the character you're playing.
"It's just not possible to inhabit their skin any other way than sympathetically so… a lot of people that I wouldn't normally jump to sympathise with - like a cop who's shot an innocent guy - you end having to see things from their point of view which is one of the fun adventures of writing a script like that."
Babylon recreated the 2011 London riots in its final episode - why did you pick that event in particular?
"It's such a memorable and particular thing, the riots - obviously there are various stories in the show that you can see as being inspired by [real] headlines and that was one of them.
"It just felt like too good an opportunity to pass up - to tackle that and deal with the drama of being a police officer in that kind of situation, where's it hard to predict and out of control. It felt like a very dream-like, 'did that really happen?' time in London's history."
Babylon also aired in the US, where the police are under the microscope even more so than UK officers right now - did you get a sense of the reaction from American audiences?
"It's been really well-received by critics - we haven't really got a sense of the audience response particularly, but… a lot of reviewers mentioned those events you're talking about, Ferguson and whatever, because it felt like the timing was pretty good in that sense… and yeah, they liked the fact that the show was reflecting the sort of thing that's unfolding as we speak."
There's a strong political edge to Babylon - but does politics always play a part in your writing? Fresh Meat touches on it too in a more fun and surreal way…
"Yeah, I think the political thing is always something we're interested in, mainly because it hadn't been done much - police shows have been done a hundred thousand times, but we hadn't really seen one that had that element of top brass politics and PR.
"Obviously, Jesse wrote for The Thick of It, Veep, In The Loop and yeah, we always felt it was an interesting area that could hopefully make the show stand out a little bit, and make it a bit more distinct."
Is the world of Babylon something you'll be returning to in the future?
"Yeah, we've had some chats about what might lie in the future for the show. We're not entirely sure at the moment - it feels like we may have told all the stories we want to tell. We're just having discussions about it at the moment."
Are you working on the final series of Fresh Meat and Peep Show right now?
"We are writing Fresh Meat, which is shooting in April, and Peep Show, which is shooting in August, so we're spinning both plates at the moment."
Both of those shows have been big hits - are you nervous about bringing them to an end, and how you're going to do that?
"Not nervous, because we've thought about it quite carefully and both series feel like they're ending at the right time - Fresh Meat because it always had a built-in expiry date with all the characters leaving university, and Peep Show because we've been doing it for over a decade - you have to end sometime and it feels like now's the right time.
"So I wouldn't say we're nervous, but there's a certain amount of pressure to get it right and make sure you go out on a high note - especially on Peep Show because it's nine series, but mainly the antidote to nerves is spending a lot of time thinking about it, which is what we're doing at the moment."
Did you have endings in mind for both shows or did you have to sit down and plan it out?
"We're doing it now - we didn't have any master-plan when we started writing the shows. I wouldn't be surprised with Breaking Bad if they had an idea of how it would end from the beginning, but with comedy shows, it's much less obvious, so we're making it up now!"
And are you guys keen to keep writing together once those two shows are done?
"Yeah, we are keen to write together - we have had some chats about what we'd do after this is over, so as long as Jesse isn't bulls**ting me and shining me on, we should have a future. I'll keep you posted!"
Babylon is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from today (March 9) courtesy of Entertainment One.
