Unmissable show?
Inside No 9. I’ve been watching that religiously. I loved the Sheridan Smith episode. I think that’s the best one so far, but that seems to be the general consensus. Brilliant acting, brilliant writing. I like that it’s billed as comedy, even though it’s not really. It’s a series of dark dramas, but they have these wry moments in them. I love the fact that an anthology show has picked up such a great following. It proves that people don’t need those kind of catchy hooks.
Earliest TV memory?
Get Your Own Back with Dave Benson Phillips. Any show with gunge, basically. The sight of someone being covered in this disgusting stuff – it’s kind of a worst nightmare but in a less sadistic way than throwing someone into a fire or something. Those shows were so hyperactive. The Saturday morning kids’ TV shows made you feel like you’d eaten 25 fizzy sweets. You felt like you were there.
TV turn-off?
The X Factor and Take Me Out. I find that real-life pain just too cringeworthy to watch. Those loser acts who they pick. They don’t get very far and they pan to people holding their hands over their eyes with embarrassment.
Guilty pleasure?
I love shit, shit reality TV. Geordie Shore, The Real Housewives Of Miami, Pageant Moms. They’re so bad, they’re brilliant. They’re not at all cerebral; you can sit down and let them wash over you. But they’re very entertaining if you can get over how bad they are.
Pitch us a TV show…
Celebrity Stand-Up, with celebrities having to work on the open-mic circuit, and come up with their own routines, and really humiliate themselves. I’d like to see politicians doing it. Nigel Farage. Or some up-themselves actor. Maybe Patrick Stewart, as it always seems like he thinks of himself as a stand-up. Whenever he does talkshows, he’s always very wannabe-funny.
Ellie performs on the comedy stage at Latitude festival, 16-19 Jun
