Created, written and executive produced by Nick Mohammed, the workplace comedy Intelligence (now streaming at Peacock) is set in the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, where they handle issues of international and domestic cyber terrorism. None of that seems like the ideal world for comedy, on its surface, until you throw in arrogant NSA agent Jerry Bernstein (David Schwimmer) and clueless computer analyst Joseph (Mohammed, who also stars in the series), as an unlikely pair who develop something of an unbalanced friendship that will be interesting to see develop into the second season that’s already been ordered.

During this phone interview with Collider, co-stars David Schwimmer and Nick Mohammed talked about ending things on a slight cliffhanger since they knew that they would be coming back, the challenges of making a workplace comedy set in such a serious world funny, how often they would have to make joke adjustments on set, the fun of playing such an arrogant and narcissistic character as Jerry, and a tease of Season 2, which has not yet been able to start filming due to coronavirus. Schwimmer also talked about why this Friends reunion was the right project to bring the cast back together, and when they might actually be able to do it.

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Image via Peacock

Collider: First of all, congratulations on already having a second season, which is always an accomplishment. Anytime you embark on a new TV project, you have to wonder how long you’ll be able to tell the story, so how nice was it to know that you’ll be returning, before the show even debuted?

NICK MOHAMMED: It was great. It’s a nice little vote of confidence, in some ways, but from a purely creative point of view and a writing point of view, it just meant that we knew roughly where we were gonna be heading in Season 2 whilst finishing off writing Season 1. So, we knew that we could end things on a slight cliffhanger, knowing that we were coming back. We didn’t have to give away too much in Season 1, knowing that we’d be able to answer some of those questions in Season 1.

Nick, what are you most excited about, in regard to American audiences now seeing and reacting to your work? What’s it been like for you, now that people are watching the show in the States?

MOHAMMED: It’s been completely surreal. It’s been wonderful. I’ve been on holiday this week, but I’ve been checking in on Twitter, every so often, and it’s just been very, very nice, getting lots of lovely feedback. It’s quite strange, in some respects, because it came out in the UK in February, so it was weird for it to be relaunched and have that be, again, such a big deal. Coming out in the States, there’s a far bigger audience for it there, than over here, even. So, it’s been wonderful and exciting. I’m very excited ‘cause it has been my first foray into American television. It’s been brilliant. I’ve loved it. It’s really nice.

David, what was it about this project for you? What got you reeled back into comedy on TV?

DAVID SCHWIMMER: It was a combination of the opportunity to work with Nick, who I knew before and is a friend, and I just really wanted to act opposite him ‘cause I think he’s brilliant, and the idea also made me chuckle. I thought the idea of setting a workplace ensemble comedy in the high stakes world of cyber terrorism and national security was what’s interesting and original. Because the backdrop is so serious and so grave, I just thought there was gonna be an opportunity for the silliness and the mundane, petty behaviors to stand out in relief from that, in a way that I was excited about.

Is it challenging to make a workplace comedy that’s set in such a serious world funny?

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Image via Peacock

MOHAMMED: There are two things to say about that. One of the things that makes having national security as a backdrop is that those institutions, GCHQ and the NSA, naturally because of what they do, there’s a limit to what the general public knows about those institutions. You can imagine what might go on behind closed doors, but as a writer, you can slightly exploit that because you can have slightly fabricated versions of the truth. That was one avenue that has always appealed to me, in making it fun. You can take some ideas and extrapolate them and you might think, as a viewer, “Oh, maybe that does happen,” or “Maybe that doesn’t happen.” And then, because of the nature of what they do, one of the challenges was making sure that, when we’re dealing with sensitive subject areas, because we’re dealing with real institutions and events, and want to make sure that we tread a very fine line, in terms of not wanting to offend and making sure that we’re not making any kind of political statements. We just want to make sure that we’re always finding an original way of balancing comedy with them working in an area that’s naturally gonna deal with quite sensitive subjects. That’s a challenge, in itself, but hopefully we’ve achieved that.

How did that work, from script to set? Were there ever times when you got on set and realized that something that was meant to be a joke just wasn’t working and you had to fix it?

MOHAMMED: It was so collaborative, throughout. David and I talked about backstory and subject matter, so throughout scripting, we had a very clean, and a lot of people would have a very keen eye on anything that was categorized as slightly dodgy territory, to make sure that we handled it correctly. There were definitely times when, on sat, we would have an alternative to the jokes, so that we could maybe make that about decision in the edit. We would offer variations, just to have those options, but on the whole, we would deal with that in the script stage, and if we still felt that was something, then we’d make that call on the set. But a lot of it was handled in the writing, as much as possible. So much of it has to do with tone.

SCHWIMMER: As we were a new show and we were really trying to find the tone of the show, through performance, direction and edit, we just decided, to shoot options and alternates, so that, in the editing room, we could make the call later, when we’d see the episodes cut together. There’s a big group of us that form a consensus of what’s gonna be the funniest and, in some cases, the most successful version or joke to use. That was the greatest thing about this process and one of the most fun things. There was so much true collaboration and just a spirit of humility about it. There was no ego. It was simply that the best joke will win, in the end, and let’s just try a bunch of stuff. And Nick has such a great background in improvisation, as well, and we had the luxury of being able to improvise together, which is fun.

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Image via Peacock

David, what aspects of this character have you most enjoyed and really had fun with, and how do you deal with some of the more problematic aspects of who this guy is?

SCHWIMMER: I was excited about playing a guy this insensitive, this ignorant and, at the same time, this pompous and arrogant and narcissistic. In my mind, it’s a guy who’s of the moment that we’re living in right now, with a lot of people in power. To be able to play someone like that, and to have the joke always be at his expense, and to show him for what he really is, which is ignorant and kind of a buffoon, was really cathartic and really, really fun.

What can you guys tease for Season 2 and how the dynamic between your characters will continue to evolve?

MOHAMMED: Oh gosh, what can I say? I’ve just, more or less, finished writing. I’m still dealing with a few notes. We were meant to be shooting it now, that’s been postponed until September, so it’s not too long to wait. What can we say? Hopefully, it’s better. As a writer, because we didn’t have a pilot, I felt that we were still establishing tone and establishing who these characters are. Obviously, a lot of that, we had to find through casting, as well. What’s been really nice and fun about writing Season 2 is that everything and everyone is already established, and we even know who those actors are, so we know what dynamics work well between certain characters and stuff that we’ve not seen before, and everyone is really playing to their strengths. And so, from a writing point of view, it’s been so fun to write because I can imagine it being on screen a lot quicker, with so many things already in place. In terms of storylines, there are some fun areas. I don’t know what we’re allowed to say. I can tell you that there’s possibly a Valentine’s Day episode.

SCHWIMMER: There’s a great episode about sexual harassment and harassment, in general, in the workplace. And as far as Nick and I, and our characters, the first season was really exploring the bromance between them. The question that we enjoyed teasing out was a will they or won’t they between the two of them, meaning will they complete each other with their friendship. I think that gets to be solidified and answered, in a way in the second season, that hopefully will be really satisfying.

MOHAMMED: And that will ultimately be tested again.

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David, along with being drawn back into comedy TV, you were also finally convinced, along with the entire cast of Friends, to do a reunion in the form of a special. What finally convinced you to do that? Was it just finally finding the right way to do it?

SCHWIMMER: Well, to clarify, what the cast was not really into doing was playing our characters again and having a scripted episode or reunion show. What this is, is that this is an unscripted interview format with a couple of fun surprise bits. So, I think all of us became excited about doing that and revisiting each other, seeing each other, being on the stage again, having the original sets built, and revisiting the show, in celebration of the anniversary, really. It’s been 20 years since we shot the pilot. I think that was the incentive, really, to reflect and celebrate, and give something back to the fans of the show, 20 years later.

Is that a situation where you’re going to wait to do it, until you can do it the way that you planned to do it, or will you maybe have to change the original plan, in order to make it happen now?

SCHWIMMER: That’s a good question. It’s still being discussed. In fact, we have a big Zoom call, later today (on July 22nd), or this evening, my time, with everyone. We’re still determining, first of all, if it’s gonna be safe to do. If it’s not, then we’ll just wait. We all wanna do it. It’s not a question of whether we’re gonna do it. It’s just a question of when it’s appropriate and safe.

Intelligence is available to stream at Peacock.

Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter of Film, TV, and Theme Parks for Collider. You can follow her on Twitter @ChristinaRadish