Comedian David Morgan is probably best known for his role as team captain in ITV2's Safeword, where he stars alongside fellow team captain and comedian Katherine Ryan and host Rick Edwards.
As the show returns for a second series with more celebrities being ripped apart by the opposing panel until they can’t take it anymore and have to deploy their safeword, I caught up with David Morgan to find out more about the new series.
He told me why he’d love to roast Rick Edwards and who his dream celebrity would be to have on the show. Here's what the brilliant comedian had to say...
First of all, second series of Safeword, congratulations!
Yes, thank you. Very excited. A complete surprise but really happy.
Did you enjoy making the first series?
Yes! The first series was really really fun. It was the first TV I'd ever really done so it was nice to be a part of something so ridiculous and Katherine (Ryan) and Rick (Edwards) were amazing.
They made it all very easy, it was really really good fun to do. I was very nervous, this series less so.
As you say, you're still fairly new to TV, so how are you finding it?
It's brilliant! I'm loving it, I'm really enjoying it and it's what I've always wanted to do so I'm really happy that I'm getting to do it. Especially that I'm getting to do shows that I really like doing.
Just in case the first series of Safeword passed anyone by, what is it?
We mercilessly mock celebrities until they tell us to stop.
Now celebrities know what to expect when they come on to Safeword, are you surprised anyone said yes?
I was surprised that they managed to rebook it, but equally I think it's such an honour to have a career that's big enough that people are able to make jokes about.
In order to find things funny, you have to know why it's funny. So to get people on who are willing to let you take the mick in the nicest possible way it's a little bit of an honour.
On it this year, yes they know what they're in for, but also I was not expecting them to be as competitive as they were. All of the celebrities were super competitive. They wanted to win.
So that made it harder for us, especially during the 'Hacked' round, because they made it really hard for us to hack them to the point of them saying their safeword.
Having watched the first episode of the new series I know exactly what you mean. Stacey Solomon just seemed to be fine with anything!
(Laughs) Yes! We're insinuating that Stacey Solomon is going to become a drug dealer, and she's fine with us tweeting that. It's hilarious, and she would have gone on forever as well I think.
Do you do a bit of research before each guest comes on?
Yes. 'Hacked' works best when it's believable. When you go "That's sort of a thing I'd imagine happening" - so you always take a bit of their lives to extrapolate.
So my thing with Stacey is, she's only 26 - but when you look at her, because she's a mum and because she's been on telly for so long you just assume she's like a lot older, and a lot more mums than she is in real life.
She's fun and really lovely in real life, but on telly that's her persona. So I found it really funny trying to completely subvert this idea of Stacey Solomon and it turns out I maybe wasn't that far off!
Do you ever hold back? Are there any areas you'll never go to?
Well it's only funny if we don't ruin their life. When it becomes real, and too cruel it's not funny anymore.
There is a level, we don't really go into family members, kids, illnesses, all that sort of stuff because it's not funny. Those are difficult things. They're not decisions that they've made, whereas if it's a silly programme they've worked on, or something ridiculous they once did with their hair, that's a decision that they've made which we'd quite happy mock!
Do you have any favourites out of the celebrities you've roasted so far?
I loved roasting Gary from Geordie Shore in the new series, because I love Charlotte from Geordie Shore so it was quite fun to have a license to rip into Gary. I'm mad at him for being so mean to lovely lovely Charlotte.
The first episode is Stacey Solomon and Brian McFadden, and then you've also got Gaz Beadle later on. Who else is in the new series?
Loads of people, it's a really good line-up this year. We've also got Tom from The Wanted, Tyger Drew-Honey who was lovely, James Haskall the rugby player who was properly hilarious. Like properly funny and again, very very competitive. Jamie Laing, that was fun. That was like kicking a puppy. Carol Vorderman who is incredible...
Yes! I saw her tweet go out as you were recording the show. I totally believed it! Only recently have I found out that it was for Safeword.
(Laughs) That was a really good one wasn't it? Because you sort of believe it don't you? That's the problem. She was getting texts on set from all her friends saying "Carol, is this true? What's happening?" (Laughs). It was brilliant.
So the guests are competitive, are you very competitive on the show?
Erm... Yes. Katherine is obviously the queen of roasting so to get one over on her for me is like a personal achievement. I definitely get competitive with being as funny as I can be, because I need to own my place. That's really is important. Also, Katherine won last year and I wanted to win this year! (Laughs)
Would you ever go on Safeword as a guest?
Oh my god... I don't think I could do it. I get roasted quite a bit on set. I seem to be the butt of all the jokes. So if Rick makes a joke, it's usually about me, so I kind of get roasted already.
They don't hold back on me at all!
But it comes from a good place right? What are Katherine and Rick like to work with?
Oh absolutely! They've been really lovely to me. Katherine is utterly lovely, like properly one of the nicest people in the world, she's so loving, she's so hilarious and she's so clever. She's brilliant to work with and makes you step your game up.
Rick, I'm still trying to find something he's bad at. Apparently he's not very good at dancing. That's his only flaw. He's beautiful, he writes his own jokes, he's properly funny and very very clever and that's really irritating.
There's got to be a chink in his armour. There's got to be something. But no, he's just a giant brilliant man.
If you could roast one of them on the show, who would it be?
I want to roast Rick Edwards. I would love to roast Rick because Katherine self roasts. She does it herself so she's very difficult to get, because she already does it. Whereas Rick, Rick would not take it very well and I would very much like to see how that played out!
That sounds like a Christmas special!
(Laughs) Roast Rick Edwards. Amazing! Imagine if they gave us a Christmas special, that would be ridiculous. If you dress him up as Santa then I'm definitely an elf and I would just look terrible!
Is there anyone you haven't had on the show yet but would love to?
Oh so many! My ultimate dream is a Spice Girl face-off. That's what I want. I want Mel B versus Mel C. That would be unbelievable!
And someone who keeps getting booked but then has to pull out is Danny Dyer. I think he would be incredible on the show. He was really up for it, and at the LGBT Awards the other day he was on our table and he was like "I really want to come on Safeword, I'm so annoyed that I keep not being able to do it".
So it's EastEnders unfortunately, but I'm desperate for Danny Dyer. He wouldn't ever say his safeword, but then I think I'd be happy for that to happen.