Mark was commissioned to write the screenplay for Crust based on his own treatment by Incubator Productions, going into production a year later. A relatively easy journey from script to screen but the months that followed were anything but…

One of the main problems was the shrimp itself, an animatronic puppet operated by six men. Mark: “On the set of Jaws they called their shark Bruce but we just called ours That Fucking Shrimp. Its eyes would start twitching uncontrollably or stop altogether cos a servo had gone and that would be it for ages. The shell would be off and the guys would be standing around it and I’d think, ‘there goes another scene’. Some of my favourite stuff was dropped or rushed in one take cos there was no extra time. Everyone did their best but it was so tough – we were trying Hollywood effects on a Britcom budget and schedule, and failing.”

Mark got quite large during the making of Crust, dealing with the stress of production by comfort eating. His favourite lunch was a Pret A Manger Full English triple sandwich followed by triple chocolate cake, and his size almost tripled too. From the front, it was hard to see his ears.

Check out a trailer for Crust-inspired Calamari Wrestler here and one for Crab Goalkeeper here. Sweet Jesus. The existence of these films thoroughly depressed Mark at the time, but he’s most entertained by them now.

Apparently there’s also a lot of love for Crust in the world of the illegal download, but we don’t know anything about that cos it’s illegal.