'Only Human' Is Here!

...and its exclusive, never-before-seen material is a treat!

Today is the day, people! *jumps up and down* Today is the day for Only Human!

Of course you’re dying to know where to find all the new/old material. And I get it. I really, really do. But before I get to it, I think it only fair to share a bit more about the pilot from its creator, Jim McClellan.

After all, none of this would even be happening without him!

Back in June, I advertised on Twitter, Tumblr and Reddit that Jim was willing to answer questions from people who had questions about Only Human, and a few people sent some in. While I realize it’s been a long time coming to get those answered, I think now’s a great time to share those answers since everyone will be seeing all the new Only Human material.

So, here they are!

—

1) Were all the clothes provided by wardrobe, or did some of them come from the personal wardrobes of cast members?

We didn’t have much of a budget and most of it went on the technology. The cast all wore their own clothes - David in particular. I think for the first pilot we just said to him to wear something a private investigator might wear, so he went with a leather jacket he already owned. He wore the same basic outfit for the second shoot. For the new scene, again, he wore his own stuff - a long-sleeved T-shirt. 

2) Would there ever have been anything in the series which would have addressed a plot line about “humans didn't trust Ada”?

Definitely! Tyler doesn’t trust Ada at first, because he doesn’t trust “technology in general”. He warms to her as she helps him out in various ways. But the plan was to have certain things happen in the plot that kept undermining the relationship they’ve built in small and large ways, such that he’s never completely sure if he can “trust” her, or if she’s even something you can talk about trusting. 

Related to this, there was one plot line that was going to develop around Sally, who initially becomes a little jealous of Ada, though all the while she keeps thinking how ludicrous it is to be jealous of a computer program. But as Sally learned more about what her boss at the marketing agency was up to (gathering lots of personal data about everyone to be able to sell things better to them) the plan was for her to start to wonder whether Ada was a part of this individualised surveillance and there to gather information on Tyler. So Sally ends up - well, perhaps “not trusting” Ada is the wrong way to put it - it’s more that she’s suspicious of her, and who might have created her and be behind her. 

3) This isn’t really a question about the show because I think you have it covered. But I always wondered: everyone always says how great David is to work with. I mean we know David's rule for himself – “know your lines, show up on time, and be kind” - but is there anything else he could add?

I think one of the key things David brought to the project, and why he was so nice to work with (beyond the professionalism and lack of ego you’ve mentioned above) was his enthusiasm. He just seemed genuinely interested in the idea. He was interested in different directions to take the story, and even interested in the music I was playing around with on set when I was trying to work out what to do in the edit. 

He was also very patient, as was Ruth [Millar]. There was a lot of waiting around for the tech to be set up or rebooted, and he just stayed positive and happy. He was also willing to goof around and try things out - both with Ada but also on set - for cutaway material, which we didn’t always end up using. He never got fed up if the tech fell over or lost his temper if things crashed mid-take. 

He also brought a lot of energy to the set. Not just in the specifics of his performance, but also helping us work out how best to do things. He didn’t sit back and expect everything to be sorted out for him. He was required to dash around lots of different places (especially on the first shoot, in particular the day we shot the chase sequence in Docklands). I think we were trying to work out how to shoot certain sequences in quite an improvised way - especially on the Docklands day - and David was happy to be part of that.

5) I found the interactions between actor and machine/tech very interesting. I know David spent a lot of time trying to get that down pat, but was he given any instructions by director/etc., to perform as Tyler? Pace, marks, tone, etc.? Or was all of this up to him to figure out for himself?

I think David had a fair amount of direction from me and Andy around the idea that Tyler was irritated by Ada, suspicious of technology and a bit short-tempered. So, in terms of Tyler’s character, he had what he got from the script and those notes from us. One of the things David is good at is losing his temper or getting irritated in a slightly comic way (which is ironic because, as I said above, he never got irritated or lost his temper on set). But we wanted to get a kind of comedy from Tyler’s irritation with Ada and with himself for being drawn into conversation with a computer program.

David was very good at understanding what we wanted, and good at doing it. My memory is we worked a bit of that out in one of the script reads too, and that was something David and Ruth developed as they went through the script. Then we had to try to hold on to that once we were on set, and try to make sure the tech (especially when it crashed) didn’t get in the way. 

In terms of interacting with Ada, we talked about things like the Muppets and actors working with puppets, in general, as a way of thinking about working with a digital character. I think David liked that idea and went with it with regards to his reaction shots to Ada, and how he did conversations with her. 

As for things like marks, etc. - you’ll see in the “making of” documentaries, there’s footage of Andy, Quentin (who organised the motion capture) and David working out how to shoot things like the nightclub scene where Ada moves across different screens. For that, David has to hit certain marks in time with the image of Ada moving across the TV screens. 

More generally, Andy spent quite a while with David working out eye-lines. I think one of the reasons you feel Ada is a presence is that David is very good at looking at her and engaging with her, and I think he worked on that with Andy on the set.

—

In addition to his answers to fans of David’s interested in the nuts and bolts of the show, Jim was happy to answer the questions I had myself after I received the two DVDs and watched all the new material (both documentaries and all three additional scenes).

These follow:

1) In watching the new copy of Only Human, things are a bit clearer now, and I've noticed there are figurines all around Tyler's computer. At the beginning of the pilot Rex, the dinosaur from Toy Story, sits on top of Tyler’s computer…and in the new scene with Sally, there's a Buzz Lightyear! Was that intentional?

I think the first time around we didn’t have much of a budget or much time to sort things out, and the brief re: the set for Tyler’s flat was that it was an office space and a mess. We thought it should signal that he didn’t take much care of himself or his surroundings, and that he also had some growing up to do. I think Rex the dinosaur got added in at random for the first shoot because someone had it lying around. Then for the second shoot, where we had more people involved, they picked up on it and added Buzz Lightyear more deliberately. But there’s no deep meaning, beyond signaling Tyler’s a bit of a man child!

2) Following up from that, was there any rhyme or reason to the things on Tyler's walls? And in the additional scene with Sally, there sure were a lot of McDonalds and Starbucks cups lying about in Tyler's flat. Were these meant to point out he wasn't the domestic sort and had to eat out?

As with the things on the walls in Tyler’s flat, there’s no hidden meaning. I think the overall idea was that he really was living in an old office space, and that was supposed to signal a kind of blurring of boundaries between work and home in a low-key way. Later on, the whole story would be about boundaries being blurred or crossed. The coffee cups and takeout rubbish are all part of the thing mentioned above; Tyler really doesn’t take care of himself or his surroundings, and he’s kind of living hand to mouth a bit when Ada arrives in his life. 

3) In the first pilot, Tyler’s friend Sally is called Sally Soames, but I noticed in the second pilot’s extra scene with Sally, Tyler introduces her as Sally Smith. Was this change on purpose, did David accidentally slip up when he introduced her to Ada, or was it something that just wasn't caught by anyone on set?

The name change was me. I think I just decided I didn’t like the name Soames, so I changed it to Smith for the second pilot. I wanted Sally’s initials to be SS, though I’m not sure why beyond the repetition was appealing. So, David didn’t make a mistake. For the long pilot script, which is where the basis for the new scene with Sally comes from, her name is Smith throughout.

And there you have it.

—

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for!

While I hope all of you have read all five parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5) of my series on Only Human and have seen the original copy of the pilot that’s been online forever, I also know many of you might not have had the chance. So I’ve linked all those things here, but I’m also going to help you all out and give you the little bit of context you’ll need to go into watching all the new material.

Only Human was originally shot in January 2002. David had just finished up a role in a play called Comedians where he’d shaved his head, so when he filmed his role in the original Only Human pilot, his hair was quite short and rather dark…like so:

So, when you watch the new material and see David’s hair look like this, you’ll know the footage was from the first shoot in January 2002 and the Making Of…Only Human documentary filmed at the same time (and oh yes…my copy of the pilot is of much better quality than the one that’s been out there for the last decade).

Got that? Okay.

The second shoot of Only Human was filmed in October 2002. By then, David’s hair had plenty of time to grow out. Most of the original pilot remained untouched, but the team decided to re-shoot two scenes (the club scene and the car park scene) and film one entirely new scene, as well as film another documentary. All of this material was part of Making Of…More Only Human.

If David’s hair looks like this, you’ll know it’s part of the second shoot in October:

Got that? Okay!

Oh, and one other thing. On the original shoot, only one actor played Ada - Ruth Millar. On the second shoot, the team decided to use three different actors (one per each day of filming) to play Ada. In the club scene, Ivana Horvat played Ada. In the car park scene, Ada was played by Sarah Ozeke, and in the new scene with Sally and Tyler, she was played by Claire Buckfield.

Now that I’ve laid out everything you need to know, it’s time to start the show!

So without further ado - here are the links!

Only Human” (updated, 2002)”

Making Of...'Only Human'...” (2002)”

Club Scene - from “More Only Human” (2002)

Car Park Scene - from “More Only Human” (2002)

Tyler and Sally Scene - from 'More Only Human” (2002)

NOTE: This link - Making Of...More 'Only Human'... (2002) - is to my own cloud storage. I must insist you DOWNLOAD instead of stream, as I don’t want my cloud account blacklisted for bandwidth issues (since that will help no one!)

—

I hope you enjoy all the goodies. Leave me what you think in the comments, or talk to me at @atennantcytoact.bsky.social!