“We were defending the underdogs a lot of the time”: Roisin Conaty and Sara Pascoe on Zero Stars

The new travel series, Zero Stars, fronted by comedians Roisin Conaty and Sara Pascoe, takes the pair across the globe where they will stay, eat and experience places with the worst reviews online from previous holidaymakers. The show promises a unique and funny insight into travel, a world away from any five-star beach experience.

The pair discussed their antics in a Q and A hosted by Irish comedian, Amanda Scanlon, at the exclusive launch on The Dixie Queen as it cruised along the Thames under the twinkling lights of Tower Bridge. As the champagne and canapés flowed, Pascoe jokingly said she took on the challenge as an escape from her children, “Anyone who spends time with young children, anytime you’re free, I’m going to grab it with both hands. I don’t care how dirty the water is; it’s not full of nappies.”

The duo were keen to share many stories from their foreign adventures, including their experience at a one-star review gun range, where safety instructions were limited. Conaty said, “That was day one. I could see production having a panic attack because I was like, ‘Give me the gun, get me in there, I want to fire the gun’…then I got in, and I was scared. So they offered me a machine gun afterwards.” Pascoe backed this up by saying they had both led “sheltered lives”, so that sort of escapade was a huge challenge for them.

Conaty was keen to point out that “they didn’t want [the show] to feel like Watchdog, but more of a fun experience for viewers where people have written reviews of bad experiences when they’re angry and doing things like, “blaming the beach for not having WiFi and giving it one star”.

The food aspect was also one of the most challenging on their global trip, with Pascoe pulling out the vegan card to escape some of the local delicacies. Conaty pointed out that “Every country, everyone has a yoghurt dish that they say makes you live to a hundred”, and that one offering in particular stood out as the worst, describing it as “like the most off thing you’ve ever tasted. Imagine blue cheese if it could go way beyond blue…” Pascoe then added, “Even watching her, I felt sick”. The pair recalled one restaurant where horses were waiters and another “beautiful restaurant with traditional music” where Conaty ordered a skull with a brain; the list of exotic delicacies they discussed was never-ending.

As the comedians regaled many tales from their travels, Pascoe pointed out she didn’t want viewers to watch “an entire programme with two women going ‘Oh, I don’t like it here’ as we were defending the underdogs a lot of the time and also were really lucky to be there”. Conaty noted, “It is a challenge to yourself, getting to do strange things, going to things you wouldn’t normally go to. The tone of the show – sometimes this is people’s holiday, so you don’t want to be like ‘urgh’.” As the sun finally set and the boat pulled to shore, the pair reflected on their time together, their friendship and the fun they had filming Zero Stars.