Townies is the single rose (sold from a bucket by a bored Chinese lady) which grew from the seed of Eat In. Set against the same backdrop of a crap Friday night in a crap town but upping the pain and the pathos.

It was Mark’s first writer/director material for some time, and he loved it: “Directing performance and character and my own gags again, with full creative control, it just felt really right. This was me dipping my toe in, in a very low key way, so brace yourselves for my ankle.”

Some of Townies was shot in a live club with the public present, a novel part-documentary approach which involved some hairy encounters with pissed people who wanted to know what the hell was happening but couldn’t quite articulate that, and then wanted to fight us.

Mark admits that the crazy hand held style was ‘probably a mistake’: “I was on this trip to make everything as rough as can be, which I’m kind of over now. I was actually going to film it on a little palmcorder and get my Mom to shoot it, so it could’ve been a fair bit worse.”

Early responses to Townies have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, especially from those who like their comedy on the dry and agonising side, and there’s some reviews here. Please add one yourself if you fancy it. And watch out for the new comedy, which’ll be like Townies but with massive bells on.