By Miriam Brent

Asbo kids with superpowers? It doesn’t sound much when you put it like that, but Misfits was the surprise hit of last year, beating off The Street, Spooks and Being Human to a Bafta for best drama. Calling it a Skins-meets-Heroes affair doesn’t really do justice to the writer, Howard Overman, who effortlessly straddles comedy, horror and drama to come up with a rare televisual treat.  If it doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, don’t be too quick to judge: Misfits has a fanbase that spreads from teens to Guardianistas, and if the explosive first episode of series two is anything to go by it’ll soon win you over. It’s one of the freshest, funniest dramas Britain’s come up with in a long while, and Screenjabber was lucky enough to catch up with its stars Robert Sheehan (Nathan), Lauren Socha (Kelly), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Curtis), Antonia Thomas (Alisha) and Iwan Rheon (Simon) for a chat.

When you first saw the script did you think it would be as popular as it was?
Robert: Well, we were hoping that this would make maybe late-night television, you know, a few reruns, maybe the internet, and then it would go away. But people caught on and liked it for some reason …
Iwan: We all loved the script when we first read it. We really enjoyed making it and all believed in it and the people we had around us making it: the directors, Tom Green and Tom Harper, and Chris Ross the DOP – and Howard’s scripts are fantastic. It was amazing that it turned out to be such a success.
Antonia: I think it was only when we saw it that we thought “Oh my God, we’ve got a really cool show here” because you never know quite how something is going to turn out until you’ve seen how the whole production works.
Lauren: And I think also what helped was with all the directors and both Toms, we had an input and a chance to sit down and go through the script with them as well, so we could make more of our characters than what was on a piece of paper.
Nathan: I think what’s been most surprising is the scale of the fanbase, the differing ages – its appeal is universal.
Robert: What’s rare about Howard’s scripts when we first read them was they’re genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, off the page. I find the script is a very aggressive format to read any kind of story; it’s just ‘Exterior. House’ and none of the production design has gone in and it’s all quite stripped raw. But these stories were hilariously funny and I think Tom and Tom and Owen and the directors, they really helped to beef up the drama of the show and make it quite dark and serious at points. So you’ve got this massively fluctuating mood throughout. It’s rare when a show is that laugh-out-loud funny on the page. It was a great start.

There must have been moments for all of you when you were thinking ‘I’m not going to do that on camera’?
Antonia: Yeah, big time! I was like ‘Tom, really? Do I really have to do that?” and he was like “Yep, the fans will love it”. I think that’s the thing about Howard’s scripts – the show is so good a lot of the stuff that happens, it’s really kind of borderline. But it seems to have gone down quite well, so …
Lauren: I think my hardest thing is the ADR (audio dialogue replacement). I had to re-do the noises of a sex scene, which was quite embarrassing, in a booth with people staring. It was very, very difficult to do. So things like that for me, I’m not prudish, but to make it sound believable while standing up doing the actions is always going to be quite difficult. You’ve kind of just got to get into it.
Iwan: I had to do some kissing, which isn’t quite as bad, but I had to get into that kissing your hand …
Nathan: They told me to just do it with my mouth …
Iwan: No, I was kissing my hand …
Robert: What about the Fisherman’s Friend scene?
Iwan: Oh yeah. There’s a lovely Fisherman’s Friend scene coming up. We won’t say any more about that. It’s the Christmas episode. Fisherman’s Friends are going to get a big shout out. Sales are going to rocket. Everybody will be getting Fisherman’s Friends for Christmas!
Robert: In episode 2, I’m standing in the smallest pair of brown briefs and I’m applying lots of sunblock on my almost naked body in front of the gang … but it was also in front of lots and lots of passersby who were locking up and going “Woooooohhhh”, so I was doing my party-boy application of the sun cream and it was awfully embarrassing.
Iwan: Deeply disturbing for everyone …
Antonia: You loved it. You absolutely loved it!
Robert: I was dying on the inside, of insecurity, trying my best to flex.

How have things progressed going into the second series?
Iwan: For me personally, as Simon, he becomes more a part of the gang. He’s not so much of an outsider now, which is nice. He’s got some friends! I think generally we become, because we’re a bunch of people who wouldn’t necessarily be friends as characters, a really tight unit in the situation they’ve been thrown into. They now have a bond, which is really nice, and you see them become more a gang of five.
Nathan: So much happens that they have to go through things together and see different sides of each other.
Antonia: They become very reliant on each other as well, I think, which is something they would have never thought. Especially Alisha. You’d never think that she would need to rely on any of them.
Lauren: I think no one wants to admit that they really are the best of friends, because they are, genuinely. They’d do everything for each other. They’re all quite ashamed, in a way, to say that they’re all friends but really, deep down, they are. They’re misfits and so different from each other …
Nathan: They’ve all got shared secrets, a bond …
Lauren: Yeah, that’s just between them.
Robert: And plus, the second series only helps to expand each character individually. Like my guy, we – like the first series – go back into his family life, which is completely separate and outside of the group and you start to see why this guy is the way he is and why he’s such a complete fool. There’s the discovery of a long-lost half brother that he’s no idea he had, so there are great involvements into the backgrounds of each character, which then expand and add new layers. It’s Howard’s writing. He just basically sets the characters up as ‘this’, and then shows you the complete opposite side of the coin as they go along, because that’s how the characters expand. The extremities of each side.
Iwan: I think that’s one of the wonderful things about Misfits and particularly the way that Howard’s written these characters, certainly the way it’s been directed, is that they’re all very three-dimensional characters. Although on the surface they seem like a stereotype, you all know someone like that – you’ve got you athlete, your chav, your slag, you’re weirdo and just your annoying bastard! – but then you delve deeper into each character and you start seeing all these different things and Howard’s done a wonderful thing and brought in more characters that challenge each thing and it’s great. We’re really lucky to have these great scripts to work with.
Lauren: I’m a little bit concerned if it gets commissioned for next year what more weird shit he’ll come up with – literally, it’s incredible. I could never think of things like that – it’s quite sickening. The five of us would sit there going “Fucking hell, what does he think about!” But the shit he comes out with, as well as being sickening, is quite magical.

• Misfits starts on Thursday 11 November, 10pm, E4. Series One is available on 4oD. For exclusive content visit E4.com