How did the idea originate?

I first got interested in the idea when I was working in TV. I would find myself watching all these reality TV shows and was fascinated by them, both as a TV producer and as a documentary filmmaker. They seemed like documentaries only they were really exaggerated and broke all the rules. They were very exploitative and titillating and horrifying and yet I couldn't stop watching. The story itself is a popular theme, the idea of killing for sport. I watched a lot of the movies that I loved growing up and that really excited me as a kid. Films such as Rollerball, Westworld and all these other dystopian Sci-Fi cautionary tales. I also see the film as something of a descendant from Cronenberg's Videodrome.

Because of the style of the film, did you go back to your TV background?

At first I tried to hire a TV cameraman I had worked with but it was impossible because they earn top dollar and I couldn't lure him to work on this independent film. I also had to keep the story going using only TV storytelling devices, assuming the character of a badass TV producer.

Was it difficult to cast?

It was hard because I had to find actors who could give this kind of performance that is very different from traditional film or theatre performance because these are supposed to be people who are real. It was important that they were either complete unknowns or people that could really disappear into their roles.

The eighties video gives the film a humanism.

Very much, especially as Jeff and Dawn were teenagers when they made this little retro film. The fact they made something so jerky made them instantly likeable.

I also believe that perhaps the day when game shows of this nature appear on national TV is not too far away.

Oh come on! Nobody is going to condone murder?

Well maybe like Videodrome it will begin as a cult, underground show.

I suppose also in popular culture it has happened before. I was in Rome and I saw the colosseum. It's an age-old tradition and I guess part of human nature.

Read our review of "Series 7: The Contenders" and visit the official "Series 7" website.