She's Had A Skins-full

The Londoner entered the world of stand-up as a teenager – she won the BBC New Comedy Award – before attending Oxford, where, rarefied atmosphere aside, she ran comedy nights. “I liked doing comedy there, ‘cause there was no pressure and an in-built audience of students. We put on so many silly experimental shows and got to really muck about.” Long, who stresses her humble middle-class origins, has since protested against prohibitively high university fees (as well as corporate tax avoidance) under the Tories. “I think I used to be slightly more judgemental of people who had a platform and didn’t use it to speak out – especially when the government in my country first changed over to the monstrous idiots we have now. I felt like that was all anyone should be doing artistically.”

Long became involved with Skins by chance, and “loved” it. “[The producers] saw me at a gig in early 2006 and asked if I’d like to be in the writers’ room and be a part of it – it was one of the luckiest things to ever happen to me. I got to meet and be around so many great scriptwriters and they really taught us so much.” Was Skins a challenge for Long, considering that it’s a drama? “Ah, no,” she responds. “There was loads of comedy in it and a lot of what I did was trying to add in jokes. It was brilliant to get scriptwriting and acting experience, though. And they give you food. Loads of food.” Long portrayed a careers advisor.

Lately Long has been plotting a “micro-budget feature film”, following two promising shorts with director Doug King. “The film is set in Glasgow and we are shooting it this summer, all being well. I wrote it and it’s about a kind of slightly more clueless version of myself that lives up there and is trying to get their life in order. They get obsessed with this group of situationist pranksters and want to join them – and it’s kind of about that. It’s been so interesting working on a full-length film. I’ve never written something that long before or worked on something for so long, either – like 18 months, it’s been! Normally with stand-up I’d have written two shows in that space of time.”