Movie comedy partners Nick Frost and Simon Pegg enjoyed huge success with box office hits Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Now the duo are teaming up again for supernatural comedy series, Truth Seekers, which follows a team of part-time paranormal investigators.
Nick Frost plays widower Gus, an internet installation engineer who is bored with his dull day job and whose real passion is hunting ghosts, while Simon Pegg stars as Dave, Gus’s boss.
Gus’s life changes forever when he gets a new assistant, Elton (played by Samson Kayo). The pair strike up an instant friendship when they’re sent to a spooky country house for work and before long they are staking out haunted churches, underground bunkers and abandoned hospitals with their array of homemade ghost-detecting gizmos. But as the series progresses the pair begin to uncover a conspiracy that could bring about Armageddon for the entire human race!
The supernatural series also stars Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Julian Barratt (Flowers), Susie Wokoma (Enola Holmes) and Emma D’Arcy (Wanderlust).
Here, Truth Seekers star Nick Frost reveals more about his unusual comedy-horror series.
Nick Frost on his 'Truth Seekers' character Gus
"Gus lost his wife 10 years ago," Frost reveals during our recent Zoom chat. "She was a massive paranormal nut and he took over her work with the aim of potentially reuniting them, but as the years passed, he realized that was never going to happen. Gus is stuck in a rut until he meets a guy called Elton and then paranormal fireworks start to ignite!"
Nick Frost reveals his inspiration for 'Truth Seekers'
"Our influences were things like The X-Files, Arthur C. Clarke’s World of the Strange Powers and cult British drama Sapphire and Steel," says Frost, talking about the series which is a mix of horror and comedy, which he co-created with Simon Pegg, Nat Saunders and James Serafinowicz. "We also watched a lot of You Tube featuring ghosts, doors closing, things moving across tables and Italian women being exorcised in villages in Pisa. The film An American Werewolf In London, that was a classic mix of horror and comedy, too."
Nick Frost reveals how he used to go ghost-hunting in real life with Simon Pegg
Elements of Truth Seekers are based on Nick Frost and Simon Pegg’s own ghostly experiences.
“We used to ghost hunt 20 years ago when we were just doing it for the laughs and neither of us could find any girls who wanted to kiss us!" laughs Nick. "I think if there had been women in our lives at that point we would have done a lot less ghost-hunting but it’s a Saturday, you’ve got nothing else to do, so you drive into the country, find an old cemetery and see if you can summon up the ghost of a long dead relative!"
Nick Frost on why 'Truth Seekers' feels quintessentially British
"The gadgets are a bit lo-fi, the places they visit aren’t fantastical and it’s not 'Hollywood' in its scale," says Nick. "It’s really pared back and simple. It’s about two men who meet and who shouldn’t necessarily get on with one another but they do; there’s an Odd Couple to it. There’s that journey which is quite British but it gets bigger and feels more global as the season moves on."
Nick Frost on working with legendary A Clockwork Orange actor Malcolm McDowell, who also stars in 'Truth Seekers'
Malcolm McDowell, who starred in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 cult classic A Clockwork Orange, plays Gus’ father, Richard.
"If I ever got as old as Malcolm, I’d really like to be like Malcolm," says Nick. "He’s just cool. He’s funny. He knows his shit. He lives on a ranch and he’s great to work with!"
When and where can you watch 'Truth Seekers' with Nick Frost?
The eight-part comedy-drama Truth Seekers launches on Amazon Prime on Friday, Oct. 30.
