Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost were all shot to stardom by the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy. It’s not easy for movies to have transnational appeal – especially comedies – but all three Cornetto movies attracted audiences around the world. The trilogy ended eight years ago with The World’s End, but according to The Guardian, Pegg has promised that another trilogy “will happen.”
Hopefully, this new trilogy will see the return of the solid stable of comedy talent that Wright, Pegg, and Frost assembled for their first trilogy. The Cornetto movies featured a roster of recurring actors like Bill Bailey, Jessica Stevenson, and Peter Serafinowicz. Some of the best British sitcoms have starred actors who appeared in the Cornetto movies.
Spaced (Available On IMDbTV)
The most obvious example of a British sitcom starring Cornetto actors is Spaced. Co-created by Simon Pegg, directed by Edgar Wright, and starring Pegg alongside Nick Frost (and co-creator Jessica Stevenson), Spaced was the precursor to the Cornetto trilogy where Wright, Pegg, and Frost honed their working relationship and homage-driven style. In fact, the concept behind Shaun of the Dead grew out of a zombie-infested drug trip sequence in Spaced.
Centered around two platonic friends who pretend to be a couple to get a lucrative flat in London, Spaced is one of the most delightfully surreal TV comedies ever made.
Friday Night Dinner (Available on Prime)
Every episode of Friday Night Dinner begins with the exact same setup: a Jewish couple’s two sons come home to have dinner on Friday night. But each episode does something completely new with that setup, spinning wildly out of control into a hysterical farce.
Tamsin Greig, who played the Dianne of the mirror group of survivors in Shaun of the Dead, stars as the matriarch, Jackie, while Mark Heap, who co-starred in Spaced and played a bartender at one of the pubs in The World’s End, gives a hilarious scene-stealing turn as the Goodmans’ intrusive neighbor, Jim. As a side-note, Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper cameoed at a crime scene in Hot Fuzz.
The Office (Available On Hulu)
Ricky Gervais is undeniably the star of The Office, but his co-stars Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis are the beating heart of the show as will-they-or-won’t-they couple Tim and Dawn. Freeman appeared in all three Cornetto movies, with his most significant role as one of “The Five Musketeers” in The World’s End, while Davis played Dianne in Shaun of the Dead.
Both the British original version of The Office and its American remake were widely praised by critics, but each have their own merits. The British one is much more naturalistic and lifelike than its U.S. counterpart, and as a result, it rings truer as a documentary observing regular office workers’ lives.
I’m Alan Partridge (Not Streaming)
Alan Partridge is easily the most iconic character of Steve Coogan, who cameoed as the Metropolitan Inspector in Hot Fuzz. There are a few great Partridge-centric shows out there, from the fictional talk show Knowing Me Knowing You to the more recent One Show parody This Time with Alan Partridge. But arguably the character’s finest appearance is the acclaimed sitcom I’m Alan Partridge.
Set right after Alan’s very public meltdown on KMKY when he’s living in a travel tavern, going through a divorce, and trying to claw his way back into TV work, I’m Alan Partridge takes the character out of the context of shows-within-shows and instead explores his everyday life. Recurring Cornetto actor Julia Deakin guest-starred in the second episode, “Alan Attraction,” as Alan’s short-lived love interest Jill, and the series features cameos by Simon Pegg and Peter Serafinowicz.
After Life (Available On Netflix)
Over the years, Ricky Gervais has honed an idiosyncratic storytelling style that combines comedy with tragedy. This sensibility has arguably reached its peak with the Netflix hit After Life, in which Gervais plays a widower trying to move on from the untimely passing of his beloved wife. After Life’s cast of supporting characters is filled with familiar faces.
Dame Penelope Wilton, the British screen icon who played Barbara in Shaun of the Dead, appears in a poignant supporting role as a fellow grieving spouse. In After Life, Wilton mourns somebody’s death; in Shaun of the Dead, somebody mourns her death.
Peep Show (Available On Hulu)
There’s no other sitcom quite like Peep Show. It’s shot entirely from the point-of-view of its characters and the thoughts of its two leads, hilariously mismatched flatmates Mark and Jez, can be heard in voiceover throughout the series. The show is a sharp, painful study of humanity’s most awkward, uncomfortable moments. There are certain scenes in Peep Show that are even cringier than David Brent’s charity dance in The Office.
While David Mitchell and Robert Webb are the leads of the series, they have very strong support from Olivia Colman – who played Doris, the world’s biggest fan of the double entendre, in Hot Fuzz – as Mark’s on-and-off love interest Sophie.
Black Books (Available On IMDb TV)
Due to the many shared cast members, Black Books is often considered a sister show to Spaced. All three lead actors appeared in the Cornetto trilogy – Dylan Moran as David in Shaun of the Dead, Bill Bailey as the twin sergeants in Hot Fuzz, and Tamsin Greig as the alternate Dianne in Shaun – and both Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have cameos.
Moran’s Black Books character, a miserable, wine-swilling, chain-smoking bookstore owner named Bernard Black, is even more cynical than David. Bailey and Greig are hilarious foils for Moran as the more optimistic Manny and the equally bitter Fran, respectively. With its pessimistic worldview, hilariously unlikable characters, and absurdist sensibility, Black Books is like a British version of Seinfeld.