Dennis Kelly's cruelest creations

‘In the first draft, I probably enjoyed Miss Trunchbull too much. Roald Dahl’s widow was really supportive, but she said “You must remember Miss Trunchbull is a murderer.” She was right – you’ve got to keep a bit of darkness there. I wasn’t sure about having a man play Miss Trunchbull in case she wouldn’t feel genuinely scary. But when I saw a bloke playing her in workshops, I was converted: it was fucking brilliant!’

‘Arby kills people and even carries out a school massacre, but by the end of the first series he is a very sympathetic character. It was amazing that the actor who played him, Neil Maskell, managed to pull that off.’

‘In the entire first scene you don’t really notice the Clerk, who works in a provincial bank, until a glamorous Italian woman happens to touch his hand. He then goes completely crazy, nicks all the money and runs off to find an experience worth paying for. The ending is darker than anything I’ve ever written.’

‘Gorge is a total dick who becomes a brutal person. Up to a point, he chooses the moral path, until someone offers him the world and he decides, “Yeah, fuck it.” I wondered whether he should get away with it, but I was brought up a Catholic, so I can’t resist punishing characters who have done bad things.’