interview

Giant phones,

big feelings

Ahead of his Hornchurch gig Dom Joly reflects on how Trigger Happy TV

captured the millennial moment - before YouTube even existed

WORDS: Katy Pearson

If ever there was a TV show that captured the zeitgeist, it was Dom Joly’s Trigger Happy TV. The post-Britpop hidden camera show brilliantly paired sketches with exceptional music, becoming essential viewing and catapulting Dom to fame.

Unlike many sketch shows, it wasn’t built around elaborate setups or punchlines – it relied on seeing absurd behaviour dropped into ordinary public spaces and capturing real reactions.

The soundtrack carried the emotional tone of a scene, turning a simple gag into something oddly cinematic. So, Britpop, electronica, and alternative tracks underscored such crazy scenes as a human-sized snail crawling across a zebra crossing in a busy London street, or over-sized dogs beating each up with truncheons.

Against the backdrop of Faithless and Elastica, Pulp and Portishead, The Beatband, Gene, and A Flock of Seagulls, Dom trusted viewers with minimal dialogue, no laugh track, and no host constantly telling you what was funny. The audience got to discover the joke on their own – treating them like grown-ups.

And for a generation who grew up loving Dom’s work, his new book and tour are a celebration of Trigger Happy TV’s 25th anniversary.

Dom is stunned that time has gone by so quickly. ‘Trigger Happy TV happened in this curious moment in time. It was the beginning of the Millennium when so many things were changing. We had the internet, but it was still dial-up. We had mobile phones, but they were still very basic. You could call, text and play snake. That was about it. Television was about to explode into pieces. YouTube and TikTok were years away. Making a show like Trigger Happy TV felt like being in The Wild West.

‘There were no rules and we were making something that felt fresh and almost revolutionary.’

Revolutionary indeed. The show had a mischievous energy without the cruelty that can make hidden-camera comedy uncomfortable. The target was usually social norms themselves rather than individual victims. Looking back, a lot of modern viral videos and public-prank content borrow elements that Trigger Happy TV was doing two decades earlier. The difference is that it often felt more creative, surreal, and playful than the attention-seeking prank culture that followed.

Dom says: ‘We were definitely on a fulcrum point. Between old school, mainstream hidden camera shows and the anything-goes free-form of YouTube. Between everybody watching the same channels and the digital grazing that constitutes modern viewing habits. Between the aftermath of Tory Britain and Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia honeymoon.

‘We were young, and green, kept our teeth nice and clean, in the words of Supergrass. It was an exciting time to be creative. Music was incredible. The economy was booming. Nobody believes you when you tell them nowadays but people were, on the

whole, happy.

‘The idea of Trigger Happy TV was to spread a little surrealism into people’s lives. We always saw ourselves as this weird thing existing just below the surface of reality and occasionally bursting through to put a bit of oddness and wonder into somebody’s normal day. We never wanted to anger anybody. We never wanted to make anybody unhappy. We were absurdists doing absurd things in an absurd time… with a cracking soundtrack. God it was fun.’

Dom took the show on the road at the end of 2025, with four gigs in large theatres. Predictably, they sold out. They also prompted a flood of requests for him to visit more theatre across the UK. Dom duly obliged – and, in a style that only he can muster, fulfilled the brief and then some, booking a gargantuan 100-date tour that visits all corners of the UK.

‘I love being on the road and people seem to love me being on the road, so, you know, go figure.

‘People still ask me questions about the show to this day – which is partially why I’m writing this book and doing this 25th anniversary tour. One of the most common questions I get asked is, why did you call the show Trigger Happy TV? The real answer is, I can’t remember. Names are very important and we wanted something that suggested we were rebels but a bit rubbish.’

The intention for its creator and star mirrors the one he had when he created the original TV show – to have fun.

‘We laughed and laughed so hard making this show. Some of the best laughs were had privately, in the van, while filming. But something of the joy we had making it clearly showed up on the screen and I think that’s why it became such a massive hit.’

It really was massive. Trigger Happy TV was sold to 80 countries, sold a million DVDs, garnered multiple hit soundtrack CDs and won lots of awards.

‘It was a crazy showbiz fairy tale that, like everything in life, probably didn’t end as perfectly as I’d have liked…but might just have a happy ending coming up 25 years on. Whatever, it was quite the ride and I’m a very lucky man to have met Sam, my co-creator, and lived this adventure.’ .

Trigger Happy TV’s 25th anniversary tour will be at Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch on September 12.

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