How ‘Spaced’ acted as a blueprint for the ‘Cornetto’ trilogy
Towards the beginning of Edgar Wright‘s Shaun of the Dead, we watch Simon Pegg stroll into the newsagents, oblivious to the undead who stalk the streets of his neighbourhood to pick up a Diet Coke and a strawberry Cornetto. It’s a fairly standard corner shop haul and a mundane suburban experience, but it also marks the beginning of one of the most iconic British comedy trilogies of all time.
The trio who made the Cornetto trilogy are almost as well-known and well-loved as the series they spawned. Since the release of Shaun of the Dead two decades ago, Wright, Pegg, and Nick Frost have become cult comedic figures, endlessly lauded for their ability to blend the mundanities of small-town British life with zombies, cults and blue-eyed aliens.
But before Gary King embarked upon his doomed pub crawl, before Nicholas Angel was relegated to the cult-ridden countryside, and before Shaun and the gang battled the undead with pool cues, Wright, Pegg, and Frost first honed their creative and comedic stylings with Channel 4 sitcom, Spaced.
Airing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Spaced was fronted by Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who you may well recognise from her short appearance in Shaun of the Dead. After stumbling upon one another in a café, the two decide to join forces against the impossibilities of the London rent market and pretend to be a couple in order to secure a flat.
As Daisy and Tim dodge the suspicions of their landlady and mediate strange friendships with one another and others (including Frost’s character Mike), Pegg and Wright trial genre-blending, surrealism, and quick-paced editing. The result is a sitcom that remains entertaining over two decades later, particularly for those who are familiar with the trio’s later work.
Spaced is an obvious precursor to the Cornetto trilogy in everything from the editing to the writing. It’s masterfully paced, darting between surrealism and sarcasm with ease, and the editing somehow manages to keep up. It sets into motion, too, the bromance between Frost and Pegg that would extend far beyond the series and into three feature films.
The pair already seem comfortable together on-screen. It feels like a privilege to watch them honing their craft, knowing what’s to come. There are also direct parallels to the Cornetto trilogy, including an episode in which Pegg has to fight off zombies with household items. It’s clear that Pegg, Frost and Wright were using this sitcom as a way to test out their style.
But Spaced never feels underdeveloped or lost. The trio’s comedic and aesthetic stylings were merely more well-honed by the time they set to work on feature filmmaking, and they made sure to sprinkle in odes to Spaced along the way, including a brief cameo from a zombified Michael Smiley.
When Shaun runs into Stevenson’s character, their interaction seems like a subtle homage to their Spaced days, as Yvonne notes that she’s just managed to buy a house. “Bit grown up, hey?” she remarks, in an interaction that seems to note just how far they’ve come since Spaced.
Watching Spaced feels like intruding on Pegg, Frost and Wright in an early writers’ room as they test out ideas for the Cornetto trilogy. Acting as a playground for future comedic greats, it honed what would become their signature style of genre-bending, fast-paced comedy, a style that would endear them to millions. It’s essential watching for Cornetto trilogy fans, and remains one of the most interesting sitcoms to grace British television screens.
Watch the first episode of Spaced below.
