Ghosts and Taskmaster star Kiell Smith-Bynoe is one of the newer generation of comedians joining David Mitchell and Robert Webb for their new Channel 4 sketch show, Mitchell And Webb Are Not Helping, alongside Stevie Martin,   Lara Ricote, Stevie Martin and Krystal Evans. Here he talks about the writers' room process, the tentative return of sketch comedy and his all-time favourite Mitchell And Webb skecthes,

How did you come to be a part of Mitchell And Webb Are Not Helping?

I was invited to join and of course I wanted to do it. I've been a fan of sketch comedy since I was young; I remember always loving it without really knowing what it was. I grew up on shows like Goodness Gracious Me and Smack The Pony… There were loads of them at the time!

To be a part of that now is massive, with two great comedy legends who are an amazing double act. It was also an amazing experience to be part of the writers’ room as well as being in the sketches; seeing where their ideas came from right from inception and being able to pitch in your own ideas as well.

How did you enjoy working with the others: Lara Ricote, Krystal Evans and Stevie Martin?

I’ve worked with Stevie before quite a bit, and I've worked with Lara a little bit too. As soon as we got into the writers’ room I knew they were funny people: great storytellers with great ideas. 

To be in the writers’ room and hear their ideas and for us all to bounce off each other, and to realise what works and what doesn’t, what your different sense of humours are, is an experience you don’t really get while writing in the UK. Writers’ rooms are more of an American thing.

Can you talk a bit more about that process?

It was very much that someone would bring something into the room, and everyone would build on it until you work out what it really is. 

There were always quite a lot of people in the room in addition to the six of us, and there would be lots of ideas bouncing around until David and Rob went off and worked on them, so you’d then turn up on set or to the read-through and go, ‘Oh, this is that one we talked about’ or ‘I remember where this idea started.’

If you had a vague idea and thought, ‘Maybe this thing could be funny’, but not knowing exactly what it is, then everyone would help turn it into something.

I found a Post-It note the other day from one of the writers’ rooms and all it said on it was, ‘Woman lives on a roundabout’. 

That’s how it worked: you’d have a random thought, write it down and go, ‘Is that something?’, and you’d all work out if it was funny at all or absolutely useless. 

To be honest, a woman living on a roundabout doesn't seem like a sketch I'm going to see on any channel any time soon, but something in it made me laugh. 

Can you talk about the behind-the-scenes sketches set in the writers’  room?

I remember those being really fun in the in the read-throughs because we did them towards the end of the shoot and so, having played loads of different characters in the lead-up, it was nice to then be playing ourselves.

Even down to being in wardrobe and working out what we would wear as ourselves, or being able to change our lines because we’d written them for each other but on the day you’d be able to say, ‘Oh, actually, I think I’d probably say

something more like this.’ It was a massively collaborative part of it. 

It was fun to film because it was obviously made to look completely real, but you’d look around and try to work out what was real and what was a prop. You’d be surrounded by snacks and you’d really want to eat them but you’d have to remember, ‘Oh, no, I’m not supposed to because that’s a prop and we’re actually filming this.’

Those scenes focus a lot on the generational differences between David and Rob, and the four of you. Did that ring true to you?

Yeah, I think so. I'm in that sort of middle area between young people that are coming up with strategies and social media and all of those sort of things that we portray in the sketches, and Rob and David, who are very far from that. 

Those sketches really take the mickey out of David and Rob. Were they up for you making jokes about their age?

Yeah. I'm glad that that came from them first, but it showed us what the boundaries were, and there weren't any, really! I remember them going, ‘Well, you could probably push a bit more here and you could go a bit further there’, so that was pretty fun.

How would you describe the tone of the show overall?

It does what a sketch show should do, which is to be funny, but also touch on topics and have you think a little bit, but in a funny way. You’re not watching it like the news, but some of it is quite current without being overly topical. The most important thing is that it makes you laugh.

In the past few years, a lot of comedy has tipped into comedy drama and I think to make an outstanding comedy, where the aim is just laughter, is great, and I think it's what we need. 

Subjects can be touched upon without them becoming the main focus or the only point. 

How do you feel about the fact sketch shows have been so out of fashion for such a long time?

It’s probably difficult to make TV in general, but it's really difficult to get comedies across the line. I'm a huge fan of every kind of comedy so I do enjoy comedy-drama, and I enjoy comedies with a theme or a message or something slightly more serious behind them, but my main preference is pure comedy. 

I grew up watching shows like Phone Shop and Fonejacker – just funny comedies. That’s what I love, and that's what I miss.

I think pure comedy has started to come back a bit. I've seen a few of those recently, like Things You Should Have Done, which I absolutely loved. Sure, it's a story about a girl losing both of her parents, but it’s just funny, and I think those are the kind of shows that we need more of.

It shouldn't be so difficult to make those. I don't know what the answer is, I don’t know who's in charge, but it needs to be considered. It sounds so simple to say, but I just think comedies should be funny. 

It’s not that there shouldn't be comedy-dramas, but I think we should make more comedies in addition.

What were some of your favourite sketches or highlights from making this show?

We did so many sketches, sometimes we were shooting three a day. It was only when I went into ADR [additional dialogue recording] that I got to see them all, and remember it all. And what I remember from ADR was the ‘hot seat’ sketch which was so, so funny.

When we recorded it, it was a long day because there were maybe 20 comedians in that sketch and it was difficult because there was so much choreography. But seeing it in ADR I realised how well it works.

I've never worked with Krystal before, and that was really fun. We got to work together on the Sweary Aussie Drama where we were playing husband and wife so that was brilliant.

What were David and Rob like to work with?

David is known for his pedantry but being able to watch someone who's all about what’s on the script down to the commas and the full stops is actually amazing.

And Rob is very much the same, really knowing exactly what every word is and why it's there, and making all those words count. It’s a very different technique to mine but it’s very good and it’s tried, tested and proven. I really enjoyed watching that.

David and I did a sketch about – without any spoilers, I would say it's a porn sketch – which is incredible. Getting to do that with David was amazing – we flew through that sketch because David just knew exactly what he wanted.

I'm someone who works it out in the moment – there might be a prop that's right in front of me where I'm like, ‘Oh, I could use that’, so it’s two very different processes, but it was a meeting of those processes rather than a clash.

What’s your favourite sketch from the original Mitchell and Webb series?

I love the one about the brain surgeon and the rocket scientist. 

It’s a real talent to be able to create a sketch where you know what the punchline is but you're still anticipating it and ready for it and you'll still laugh just as much as if it came as a surprise to you. It’s like a magic trick, so that's definitely my top one. 

But I also love the football skit which still pops up every time there's some kind of tournament. That’s really my sense of humour – it's just so stupid.

• Mitchell And Webb Are Not Helping comes to Channel 4 from September 5.