Jocelyn Jee Esien and Gareth Edwards 3

How do you judge when you're near the edge and when you've gone over the edge?

Jocelyn: I never censor myself until it's been workshopped in front of the audience. You just don't know how it's going to go down or if it's going to work. So performing it in front of the audience, that's when I know.

Obviously once you go from theatre to TV things get a bit more precious. The things that people have enjoyed live, when it goes on TV they suddenly say no, you can't do this.

Gareth: Your comments about not censoring yourself made me think of writers' meetings. On the Mitchell and Webb shows, one of the important parts of the writing process is writers' meetings where David and Robert and five or six of the main writing team and I would just chuck ideas around. For example somebody would say "I had an idea for how you know, when you've lost some keys or you're trying to find something on some shelves you tend to pat your pocket. I've noticed that and I thought it would be good to write a sketch about it." And we all went "Yeah, I suppose it might be." But we gradually got into the idea that that might be funny.

And he went away and wrote up a sketch about the first man who ever did that, and how he worked out a training course teaching the flank pats to everybody. And for whatever reason everyone decided that this was actually a funny idea and started throwing in suggestions for other things that it could help you to find. And the reason I mentioned this is in a writer's room especially everyone needs to be able to say whatever comes into their head that they think is funny. You have to turn off your inner editor at the door.

And if you're writing with a group of friends you have to do that. Just put aside your inhibitions and if you have an idea say it out loud. While we were saying "What could you be looking for?" I to my shame – I still don't know if this is in good taste or not – said "Earthquake survivors." And we actually shot the sketch and there is part of the sketch where there are some people in safety gear with helmets walking around a wrecked building patting their thighs and that's going in series three and then I'll have to resign.

But it felt very funny in the room. I've regretted ever since saying it because then everyone said "You have to put that in the show" and eventually we did. Have a look and decide for yourselves.

But the important thing is just to have that culture if you're working together as writers - I think it does help with the writing process if you have some people who share your sense of humour and you can bounce ideas off. There needs to be a stage in the process where the ideas just come out. And then you can rein them in later.

Jocelyn: Because I write alone I have to just write down what I would like to do. And then as it goes on you can start stripping things away and changing things. If you start censoring yourself in the beginning you've got nowhere to go. It's like telling yourself you can't do it before you've even done it. So it's always better to just be as open and as expressive as possible, and then along the process things will change.

There was one character, a preaching character that I had, a woman who hated women and didn't agree with women having caesareans and having kids. She was really quite non-PC. Then from working with producers and directors, as we started working with it more, I realised I don't want to play this character.

So I tried it and then I thought mmm, actually no. It worked sometimes in workshops, in front of live audiences but then there was a little voice in me just said, actually no, I don't want to.

Gareth: And quite often you'll come up with something which has come from that instinctive bit of your brain that has ideas, and there it is on the page, and you try it out... and you know that a lot of the skill is deciding not to do it.

Jocelyn: You kind of know in yourself as well. You know when you've crossed your line. Cos we've all got our own line.

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