Tom Davis reveals the real-life inspiration and ‘heartbreaking’ nostalgia behind new comedy series The Curse

Virgin Radio

3 Feb 2022, 11:52

Writer, actor and comedian Tom Davis joined The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about his new comedy The Curse, and if you’re a child of the 80s, you might feel right at home with this new series.

The six-part comedy crime show is set in 1980s London and centres around a group of, as Tom lovingly put it, ‘lovable wallies’ who attempt a robbery before accidentally landing on an eye-watering amount of gold in a heist gone very wrong, and very right. 

The series stars Allan Mustafa, Hugo Chegwin and Steve Stamp, who shared the screen together in People Just Do Nothing, but The Curse is worlds away from the Hounslow garage station which put them on the map. 

The series was very much a labour of love for Tom and frequent collaborator James De Frond, and it took them four years to develop it before cameras started rolling.

Many of the costumes used to bring the decade to life were real vintage outfits, and the scenes that take place in the traditional East End pubs and cafes were inspired by the cast and crew’s upbringing. 

For Tom, he lived and breathed the 80s nostalgia, sometimes literally. He told Chris: “My character, throughout the bulk of the series, he has basically one costume. It was bought at a vintage shop, and the BO from whoever had it before was so ingrained within the thread, if you wore it for 10 minutes, you'd start humming pretty bad.”

Like all good crime capers, there has to be a place to bring ideas to the table, and from the outset, the local pub almost becomes a character within itself, being the backdrop for where the friends decide to pull off the dangerous, yet hilarious, plan. 

Of the pub backdrop, Tom revealed: “I found filming in that almost the most heartbreaking thing just because I grew up in pubs like that. Early teens, all through my 20s…they're full of the people who made them. 

“It's a real shame they have, through generations, in the pandemic, they've sorted of died off, it's a real shame. Everything I know about life I learnt in a pub like that.”

While Tom admitted the plot of the heist series wasn’t based on any particular crime, instead a plethora of different heists around the world, there was actually one true story that made it into the show (with very mild spoilers ahead).

Within the first episode, Allan’s character Albert gets paid with salmon instead of, you know, actual money, and Tom revealed that really did happen to his own father. 

He explained: “Back a long, long time ago, my dad got paid, he worked in garages as a mechanic, and he got paid at Christmas by a customer, and they paid him in smoked salmon. 

“We had so much and it sounds like a really posh thing but we didn't know what to do with salmon back then. The whole house stunk of fish, it ruined about 3 school years for me.” 

In case you missed it, catch up with our chat with Tom’s The Curse co-star Emer Kenny about the “hilarious chaos” on set and how husband Rick Edwards helped her prepare here.

The Curse begins on Sunday 6th February at 10pm on Channel 4.  

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.