Fans of BBC comedy Outlaws may be looking forward to the second series next month but filming it in the pandemic was no laughing matter.
Creator Stephen Merchant says he was so panicked Hollywood star Christopher Walken , 79, would catch Covid, he now has low-level PTSD.
Stephen said: “It turns out shooting under a pandemic is a f***ing nightmare and I’d suggest no one does it.”
He added to fans at this weekend’s British Film Institute and Radio Times TV Festival, on London’s South Bank: “Every day you’re on a knife edge hoping he doesn’t get Covid.
“If anyone even looks like they’re going to sneeze near him you try and jump in front of him like you’re taking a bullet for the president.
“There is a slight feeling of PTSD having been through it.”
The show, also starring Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson and EastEnder Nina Wadia, follows seven very different characters brought together by community service.
Stephen, 47, was already producer, director, writer and an actor in the series so being Oscar-winner Christopher’s bodyguard too was a tall order.
Luckily, Stephen is 6ft 7in.
