Simon Bird: ‘All my favourite directors specialised in bleak, sad comedy – right up my street’

Simon Bird … ‘If we did a TV version of Days of Bagnold Summer, there would need to be story, action, emotional climaxes – all the things we were keen to avoid.’ Photograph: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

Hey Simon, I saw Days of the Bagnold Summer when it premiered at the Glasgow film festival. I loved it! I’m curious if Wes Anderson was an inspiration? A lot of the film brought him to mind, from the colours to the staging. Theocapa

Well, I’m a huge fan of Rushmore, so I guess he probably was an inspiration on some level. But the directors I spent the most time watching, analysing – and plagiarising – were the film-makers from the 60s and 70s – the generation before Wes Anderson – people such as Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdanovich and Elaine May, who specialised in bleak, sad comedy – right up my street.