Chat Ed : Welcome to this evening's Green Wing chat with Pippa Haywood who plays the sex-crazed Joanna!

Pippa Haywood : Hi everyone, I've managed to get up off my back and straighten my stockings ready for questions ;)

Frenchy : hello
Lisa : Hello, i was just watching the green
TotalControl : hi
john : don’t u feel strange doing scenes like at the end? or do u just have to be professional and very funny? Ha
richard turner : brilliant episode

Pippa Haywood : The hardest thing about that scene at the end was that it was supposed to be a June evening but we ended up shooting it in December - the ground was frozen, and because our breath was freezing I had to smoke throughout intercourse, which I don't usually tend to do. And it was very cold and the ground was MUCH harder than Mark! Playing Joanna I had to get quite used to losing any inhibitions and although there are usually anywhere between 30 and 50 people watching the scene, it's a surprisingly intimate and enclosed cocoon that you work in, so once you are inside that strange world you don't really feel embarrassed, it's only when you watch it with your 11 year old daughter that it becomes embarrassing!

hicks : ok I’m sure a lot of people have thought this, but how clean were you toes....?

Pippa Haywood laughs
Pippa Haywood : Mark made sure that I had them disinfected before every take!

beth : How can you film it without laughing ?
dixwell : So how have you enjoyed making Green Wing?
Lanna and Hayley : did you have fun making green wing?
womble : Just been watching - was it good for you!!

Pippa Haywood : Hi beth, it was extremely difficult, especially as I had so many scenes with Mark who makes me laugh more than anyone else I know. But we did have problems because his character never finishes a sentence and my character never listens, so when you are improvising that can be hard. But watching everyone else's performance was such great fun too. It was fantastic to watch their characters evolving.

qehg : How much is improvised?
nicksoph : how much was improvised?

Pippa Haywood : The hardest part was trying to keep a straight face when, in the first episode, Mark was touching me in really odd places - he ran his hand over my face and down my breast totally unprompted and that was so hard not to laugh at.

take flight : How much was improvised?
Richard : Is there a lot of improvisation, encouraged to do so?

Pippa Haywood : The entire process to begin with was improvised. We worked with a team of eight writers and Victoria Pile - the Producer and creator of the series - in a dungeon at the basement of Talkback Productions, rarely let out for food and water and we improvised ideas for the characters and ideas for themes. The writers would throw around ideas and various characters would get up and improvise around those ideas. Eight writers, the directors, the full cast the crew were present for all those rehearsals. Not very pressurised at all! And once we were filming the writers had written a script based on our improvisation and kept on changing them as we filmed.

JonnyToronto : Mark and you are the stars of the show.....and the mental Scottish guidance councillor lady
nicknoo : the show is worth watching just for your legs alone !!!!
greggo : yea mental Scottish woman is amazing

Pippa Haywood : Oh my giddy aunt, nicknoo! Very kind of you to be complimenting an ageing old tart like me!

bamboo4u : pippa i want to be your toy boy

Pippa Haywood : I kept on walking around the hospital with my stockings hanging round my knees so you may not have been quite so complimentary if you had seen that! I'm glad you enjoy our double act, but it's such an ensemble cast, there are no 'stars' of the show so that lead to a very evenly balanced and non 'starry' atmosphere on set.

Widget : who is the funniest member of the cast to work with?

Pippa Haywood : Widget, Michelle Gomez is just on another planet! I was always amazed at what she came out with! But really everyone has his or her own quirkiness which draws the public into it. Everyone tends towards different characters, which I love about the show. Karl Theobold always makes me laugh too.

ILOVEMARTIN! : How did you go around getting your part in the green wing ?

Pippa Haywood : It was quite a torturous process. I was invited in for a one to one interview and in the middle of it I was asked, 'So, how old are you?' and so rather taken aback answered for myself and they said 'No… Joanna, how old are you?' and I realised the improvisation had already started. Then I went for an improvisation day which was very much like the working process we eventually used to build the show. After that they brought the main cast together, so it was quite a long process.

Jo Boxall : Did it seem obvious to you all that you had a hit show?
Carn : When did the cast know it would be filling a whole hour of C4's highest profile comedy night?

Pippa Haywood : Everyone is quite superstitious about saying that at the early stages, but I think we all had an incredible trust in Vicki Pile and the rest of the writers who were all tried and tested through Smack the Pony. There was definitely a buzz around it.

razors : just to say---possibly the funniest series on right now

Pippa Haywood : The cast and crew were very excited and it was very buoyant throughout, so yes, we hoped it would and thank goodness the audience seems to be loving it as much as we did. It doesn't always work that way. I have been in shows that everyone loved on set but didn’t quite transfer onto screen. But what seems so innovative about Green Wing is the way that it is edited together - stylish use of speeding up and slowing down the film, the use of music - giving it a really funky style.

AndyW : What would you do if someone gave you a spunk-filled pendant?

Pippa Haywood laughs!
Pippa Haywood : I probably wouldn't know what it was! Much as Joanna, I'd be pretty disappointed so I'd throw it back at them I guess: depending on who it was and whether some of it should really be frozen.

hoohah : What was really in the spunk locket?

Pippa Haywood : hoohah, something from the make-up department, but I didn't check who filled it!

Russ : Did you spend any time at a real hospital for the role, and are the doctors really like in the series?
Sazpot : is it filmed in a real hospital?!

Pippa Haywood : Yes we did. We did research at one of the hospitals we filmed at and spent a day there. I've been worried ever since that head of HR there might be horribly offended and I hope that she realises none of it was based on her. The surgeons were almost showing off to Steve and Julian. They seemed to be horribly close to their characters and some of it has been listed word for word (not wanting to worry anyone going into and NHS hospital in the near future).

dannym : What did you think of the video FX when you saw them?
ukp : who's idea was the fast and slow film sequences

Pippa Haywood : That was all very much Vicki Pile - her invention; she has an extraordinary creative vision. It's one of the most exciting things about the show because it gives it such a fresh look.

Kay : Pippa how do you find the role compared to the suffering wife of Mr Brittas?
Tozzy : That's what she’s been in!

Pippa Haywood : Well it's quite a while since I played Helen Brittas, that was seven years ago now, but I still have a real soft spot for her. Both characters have an underlying neurosis, but it's quite liberating to play someone so unrelentingly outspoken, cruel and lewd.

tobermory : How many more programmes are scheduled for this series? Will there be another?
sirappleby : Can we expect some great extras with the Channel 4 DVD?
jen : Is there going to be another series?
ozdixon : we NEED more green wing!

Pippa Haywood : I think that was episode five tonight, so there's four more yet to come and we were told last week that they are re-commissioning for a second series - hooray!

RazorBladeFaerie : *cheers* greenwing greenwng greenwing

Pippa Haywood : So all the cast were delighted.

Jo : Thank goodness
RedFox : Yeaaahhh!

Pippa Haywood : Definitely, sirappleby! We shot a huge amount of material and it was a real struggle to edit it down to the hour format. So I think there should be a good few treats saved up for the DVD.

Johnny : Can we expect more nudity?
Crossfire : we want nudity!

Pippa Haywood : I don't really ever get terribly nude. I always seem to stay fully clothed with thermals. I am naked underneath the coat at one stage and I get quite frisky with a rather unexpected member of the cast in the final episode and it all gets quite dark and surreal. Next series though, who knows!

jen : More ginger guy please!
rach : more oliver chris would be great
petra : Is Oliver Chris as gorgeous in real life?

Pippa Haywood : Aaah - he is such a favourite. He sure is, petra! Just the same. He really is that close to what he is like in the programme. You won't be disappointed.

Chat Ed : Our half hour with PIPPA is almost up, so last few questions now...

Angie-k : I’m really tired and I need my bed. But i wanna stay here with you
Paul Mo : What has been your favourite scene?

Pippa Haywood : Aww! Sweet dreams Angie and I hope you have dream of the Green Wing! I think I enjoyed all the really short visual gags best. It hasn't been shown yet but there is a trailer of me savaging a doughnut, which is funny, and the vibrating bed from episode one, I really enjoyed those.

jodrell bank : is your wardrobe like Joanna's?
jim-jams : I love your new hair!
Petbubble : Are you that bossy in real life?

Pippa Haywood laughs

enigma : do you enjoy being such a dominatrix
Jo : oh come on the hair is horrid

Pippa Haywood : Disappointingly no, which is why it was such fun to dress up as a real old tart! My new hair has disappeared by next week, so be prepared! I used to be bossy as a child and I probably still am with my children. It's just great to play such an extreme character - you can really let rip. The parameters of the show are so broad you really felt like you could just experiment so the character did end up being quite bold.

Lanna and Hayley : Did u train as a gymnast, ive never seen people get their legs that high?
Jag Man : Those legs ......ah those legs!

Pippa Haywood : LOL! No I didn't! But I do a lot of yoga. I always think she looks a bit like a praying mantis and it was quite a strain on the body to stand with such bad deportment all the time.

razors : what a woman :)
Will123 : thanks Pippa!
Dr Mirth : Good luck for the future, Pippa!
Jo Boxall : Thanks Pippa - long my Green Wing reign!!!!!
DanLiz : Cool as - comedy at last :))))))
jim-jams : bye Pippa!
Petbubble : thanx Pippa - Night!
symuun : bye!
simon gilbert : bye pippa!!
ukp : cheers Pippa thanks for making us laugh

Pippa Haywood : Thanks so much everyone for your kind comments and support and I hope you keep enjoying it as much as we have. Cheers!

Sir Cynds : caan i buy you a camel pippa?
tiok33 : night pippa
Crossfire : byeeeeeee !

Pippa Haywood leaves the room