This doesn’t usually happen: I’ve turned up to interview two people, and neither of them are here. Ed MacArthur, co-creator of String v Spitta, a hit comedy show about rival kids’ party hosts, has Covid, and is beaming into a Soho theatre meeting room via Zoom. Kiell Smith-Bynoe, his partner in crime, is wrapping up a 10-week shoot on series four of the sitcom Ghosts, and is running late. “I get the sense,” MacArthur says as we wait, “that Kiell was pretty elite.” We’re talking about their work in children’s entertainment. “He had his magic tricks and great costumes. Whereas I was just playing classical music and telling stories to babies.”
That was back in the day, when MacArthur supported his fledgling performance career with “about 27 sidelines,” glorified childcare included. “It was usually just me and loads of au pairs who didn’t speak English. I found myself making jokes to a room of only children and people who didn’t understand what I was saying. Whereas Kiell was doing all the bells and whistles.” As if on cue, the Ghosts actor bustles in and says his hellos. Is it true, Kiell, that you were once the bells-and-whistles king of children’s entertainment? “I was getting kicked a lot,” he replies, flatly. “Let’s not forget that. I got kicked all the time.”
