Flight Of The Conchords are making a comeback 15 years after their HBO series ended – but only for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo.

Alex Horne has revealed that Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement – aka New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-comedy duo, below – will be making the briefest of appearances in the second series of The Horne Section TV show, which starts next week.

Speaking about how the show varies from series one, he said: ‘The main difference is that we've got more comedians this time. 

‘There’s this sort of Extras thing – which I love – of having people playing versions of themselves. We did that a bit in the first series but I just wanted to [move away from that].

‘Although Gareth Malone is still in episode 1, there are fewer people like that, there are more from the wider comedy community this series. Some people like Kiell [Smith-Bynoe]  and Stevie Martin

'And there’s even one episode where we have brief appearances from some very high-profile people like [Tim] Minchin and Flight Of The Conchords, but very, very brief – tiny snippets.

‘Tim Key’s back, but we also got Reggie Watts, who's joined the band. This is a main plot point, that I'm getting pushed out gradually, but it's not a big narrative struggle.’

Horne went on to say that he had a ‘weird relationship’ with Watts as he was the Taskmaster in the short-lived American remake of the hit show, in which Horne remained the sidekick. 

‘But I really loved him – and I loved him before that,’ he added. ‘So yeah, he came over to do it. We didn't have him for that long, but we had to grab him. He's in every episode, he’s the main extra character, but it was touch-and-go for a long time.’

Horne said he managed to secure most guest stars simply by calling them up – but Watts was more difficult as he had to go through layers of US agents.

‘My world is sort of Taskmaster, so I was quite often working with people who I had worked with before,’ he added. ‘But then Ronnie Ancona’s in it, who I just love, and that felt like sitcom royalty. And then Yuriko [Kotani] I hadn't worked before…’

His casual way of securing guest stars ties into the laid-back vibe of the show with Horne admitting they ‘rushed’ the production, if not the process.

'It was all quite fast, he reveals. ‘I think we made each episode in four days.’

Speaking to a small gathering of journalists, including Chortle, Horne told of a similar prolific output when it came to writing songs, saying: ‘I genuinely don't understand why bands don't put an album out every week. I don't think it’s so hard.’

Indeed, this series was made three years ago and has been sitting on Channel 4’s shelf ever since. ‘We made it the same year as the first one went out,’ Horne confirmed.  We made it quickly because we had to fit in with the Taskmaster schedule. We made it faster than they were expecting. 

‘I was worried that the storyline was that Reggie had come straight from James Corden to us, whereas it’s sort of history now. But actually, most people don't really know that Reggie was on James Corden anyway.’

Horne also said he enjoyed the fact his show set out to be nothing but silly. 

‘Something like Sophie Willian’s show [Alma’s Not Normal],  I absolutely love, but it feels like a completely different genre to what we're doing. [The Horne Section’s] not a reaction to those shows, or The Change or Big Boys. They're all brilliant and I love them all, but this, this is something completely different.’

Indeed Horne finds the very premise that he’s the frontman of a band quite ridiculous, even though he confesses to buying into the notion that ‘all comedians have a secret desire to be in a band’ to some extent.

But he said: ‘I'm quite bad at singing. I'm quite shy. I don't like dancing.  So it's genuinely throwing the shackles off a little bit. 

‘I think we always thought it was funny for me to be in charge of the band because I'm not musical and I can't do any of those things. Whereas a normal frontman is  a bit annoying, so precocious and show-offy, I have a different dynamic.

‘I do really enjoy it. It's really fun and it's a gang more than a band, I suppose.’

The comedian does his musical talents a disservice: he achieved Grade 3 French horn and even briefly played with the  Chichester Youth Orchestra, where he met the Horne Section’s trumpeter Joe Auckland and drummer Ben Reynolds.

When the band come to write songs, he explains the words come first, then the music. ‘The really frustrating about the bands is that they they write really good songs but let down by really childish lyrics,’ he said. ‘It's a funny idea first, but they can't help but make nice music.’

Horne also says he’s at his most excited when trying out new songs for the first time at work-in-progress gigs – a much different pre-show reaction than the nerves he used to experience.

‘I stopped being nervous as soon as I had children,’ he confesses. ‘I just thought everything was trivial in comparison. I used to be really nervous. I used to sometimes be sick before going on stage – and that all went.’

So hopefully he’s not too nervously awaiting the reaction to the second series of The Horne Section TV Show, when it starts at 10pm next Thursday (May 22) straight after  Taskmaster....