The Kickstarter for the third season of the brilliant radio SF comedy, Night Terrace, is entering its final third. In celebration, I’m interviewing a number of people involved with the previous two seasons and the current series!
Today it’s:
Petra Elliott
who is a Night Terrace co-creator and actor (playing Sue Denholm) in Night Terrace Season 1, Season 2 and the current Season 3 Kickstarter.
How did you get involved in Night Terrace?
I met Ben when I first moved to Melbourne, and we’d worked together before on Museum Comedy. He invited me to co-host the very first episode of Splendid Chaps, which is when I met John, David and Lee. It was only supposed to be a one off gig, but I must’ve done okay, coz they asked me back for every future trillion episodes.
By the end of a year of Splendid Chaps, we knew that project had to end but wanted to keep working together, highlighting each of our individual set of creative skills, and … TA DA!! Night Terrace was born.
Why did you get involved?
I’d enjoyed bringing the comedic scripts written by John and Ben to life for each Splendid Chaps episode, and by the end I was comfortable enough to riff along with them – and even insert gags to surprise them! It was a dynamic I loved, and I honestly would’ve signed up to continue doing anything with them.
When John announced the Night Terrace concept to the Splendid Chaps Christmas episode live audience, and they responded with SUCH a big cheer, I knew then and there it was a project worth making.
What do you love about the show?
Our recording days are such a big hoot, so it’s undeniable that I love the process of making the show. How the hell did we convince such amazing humans to share their talent with our little project?
But also, I’ve listened to these episodes A LOT! Not just for dramaturgy and promo purposes, but because I legitimately enjoy them. And I still enjoy them, after all the re-listens. The jokes, concepts and story arc conceived by John, Ben, David and Lee are simply delightful. I can’t believe I not only get to add my 2 cents to these adventures, but also get to speak the lines as Sue. I’m a lucky girl.
What’s your favourite line/quote from NT?
This is from the live episode, written by all of the lads (see how I don’t pick favourites?!). We got together to do a table read of this episode: it’s always fun when the whole cast can get together ahead of recording days to bond, discover our characters, explain the scifi gags to each other and watch the script come to life. Also, I’ve always loved the Schrödinger dilemma.
ANASTASIA: No, that was Schrödinger. And also wasn’t Schrödinger. Long story.
Bloody Ben. Copy cat. Scratch that. My favourite is..
SUE: How much do you know about the Uncertainty Principle?
EDDIE: I’m not sure.
What’s the best feedback you’ve had about the series?
Being broadcast by BBC Radio 4 Extra was amazing, and helped me realise we’d truly made a high quality product worthy of recognition by industry peers we’ve admired for a very long time.
The ultimate feedback, though, is the number of Splendid Chaps fans who not only believed in this project enough to back us the first time, but then jumped straight back in for another season, and another. That tells me we’re getting it right!
I really hope we reach our crowd-funding target as I want to continue sharing the stories of Anastasia, Eddie and Sue for everyone who’s shown us such magnificent support.
What key skill would you bring if you ended up travelling in time and space with the crew?
More ginger.
Would you like to travel in time and space with Anastasia, Eddie and Sue?
I think I would. Being stuck in one time and place means you can lose perspective, so taking a look at things on a different planet or alternate point in history might give me the insight I need to make sense of what’s happening in our own hectic world right now.
Really?
I dunno. Ask me tomorrow.
Would you like to be part of the next season of Night Terrace? Zip over to Kickstarter to listen to the very first episode, and pick your pledge level!