Joanne McNally has admitted she still cannot read her Unacceptable co-star Richard Ayoade, despite working closely with him on the new TLC panel show. The Irish comedian, who captains one team against Ayoade's, told Metro: 'I still don't know how to read Richard, and I don't think he knows how to read me, but that's hilarious, and I think that's why it works.'
Unacceptable: A satirical take on cancel culture
The show, hosted by Ed Gamble, features six comedians bringing their most offensive opinions to the table in a bid to win over the studio audience. McNally explained: 'There's cancel culture and all that jazz, so this is a very satirical take on that. It's light-hearted, there's no fascism.'
Controversial statements include Romesh Ranganathan arguing the Royal Family is underpaid, Katherine Ryan suggesting all men should have vasectomies at birth, and Harriet Kemsley claiming single mums are lazy – Kemsley herself is a single mother. McNally and Gamble stressed that no one should be offended: 'I don't think men or women should tune in. Single mums shouldn't tune in,' they said.
Chemistry between hosts and captains
McNally and Gamble have developed a close rapport, often finishing each other's sentences. Gamble noted the unlikely trio: 'The line-up between hosts and team captains is so funny to me, because I don't think you'd see any of us in a room outside of the show.' He added that he might occasionally see Ayoade at the BFI, but McNally and Ayoade would never socialise.
McNally's television career is rapidly rising. She recently finished filming the second series of Celebrity Traitors, set to air this autumn. She recalled advice from Graham Norton: 'You don't do any telly. Is that your own choice, or lack of interest or lack of offers?' She explained that building her own podcast, My Therapist Ghosted Me with Vogue Williams, allowed her to cultivate an audience. 'We used to be chasing the audience that TV had. TV is chasing the audience that comics already have.'
From understudy to front and centre
McNally described her early panel show experiences as a 'baptism of fire'. She was once booked as an understudy for 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown for a whole series, travelling to Manchester with a ceramic child's head prop, only to never appear. 'You're praying illness on the cast, you know? If someone could just get decapitated on the way into it, that's my dream!'
Gamble acknowledged the challenges for newer comics on panel shows: 'A three-hour studio record teaches you that if you throw something out early on and it doesn't get anything, it doesn't matter. Whereas a newer comic might throw something out, not get anything, and then completely climb off.' McNally added: 'The amount of inner dialogue going on, the self-loathing and the self-flagellation when you're new to panel shows.' She recalled a comedian who went mute for 40 minutes during his first panel show. 'They are weirdly pressurised. It's weird to call comedy panel shows serious because, of course, they're not, but for us they can feel very serious, very competitive, like a blood sport.'
Inclusive casting and McNally's gullibility
The show includes rising stars like Vittorio Angeloni, who went viral for humiliating former Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt on The Last Leg, and Fatiha El-Ghorri, a hijab-wearing Muslim comedian. McNally admitted her own gullibility is her greatest weakness: 'My manager moved my hotel once because it was near a Scientology centre, and they knew I'd wander in. I was very much convinced 9/11 was an inside job up until not that long ago.'
Unacceptable launches tonight at 9pm on TLC.
