Part of the fun

Callum gets a job as a re-enacter as Funboys returns, while comedy icon Steve Coogan joins the show

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Funboys star Ryan Dylan grew up dreaming of working with Steve Coogan — but he never imagined he'd be throttled by his comedy hero.

Steve joins the cast of Funboys in series two, playing Phillip, a sadistic actor who is working at a rural folk museum. Phillip once hit the heady heights of appearing as a background artist in Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ, and his ego never recovered.

The role was written especially for him after Funboys creators and stars Ryan and Rian Lennon heard Steve was a fan of their first series.

“Steve had mentioned us at a BBC comedy festival in Belfast,” says Ryan, who plays anxious over-thinker Callum. “He had said that one show that he was watching was Funboys, and he talked about it for a little bit. So we were just in this position where we were like, ‘Should we just ask? There’s no harm in asking?’ And after some back and forth, it was finally confirmed. And then we were like, ‘Oh, s**t! What will we do now?’ But it went really well.”

Funboys is an offbeat, surreal comedy which follows Callum and his two equally chaotic best friends Jordan (Lennon) and Lorcan (Lee R James) as they navigate the transition to adulthood in the fictional Northern Irish town of Ballymacnoose.

The trio are all longtime pals and Rian also directs the series. They were delighted it was time to film the latest four episodes, but they were nervous to meet their hero for whom they'd created a truly hateful and sadistic character.