Iain Stirling: ‘The Stress Around Being The Love Island Narrator Is Hard’

Picking up the phone to Iain Stirling, it’s surreal to hear the voice that’s narrated near every night of my life for the last month in real time. Especially, since I have the same name as a now-former and fleeting Love Island contestant. Iain notes it immediately, joking ‘I think I’ve said Georgia more to you in the last two seconds than I have on the show.’

We’re sitting down – albeit virtually – to discuss his new sitcom, Buffering, which premieres tomorrow night on ITV2. But like all of us at the start of every phone call, work meeting or catch-up with friends, even Iain can’t help but dive into the Love Island chatter.

We’re talking said Georgia (the Islander, not me) and her hilarious return to social media following being dumped by Hugo Hammond. Iain, however, has somewhat of a separation of church and state when it comes to Islanders and social media.

‘I made this creative decision during series two of Love Island that “Iain the narrator of Love Island” was the sort-of person that is obsessed with the Islanders when they’re on the show, but then if every contestant who had ever been on the show walked in to a room in real-life with him, he wouldn’t recognise any of them,’ he explains.

Essentially, it allows the comedian to be one-step removed from the contestants, so his jokes can be as free and authentic as possible. But of course, he does actually recognise Islanders in real life, so has that ever backfired in the form of an angry interaction?

‘I genuinely don't think I say anything that bad, I have this reputation of like “Iain Stirling is savage” but I’m really not,’ he laughs. ‘The only thing is if I say they’re “quiet” or something, because to get on the show they have to have big personalities and be funny people, so if they end up not featuring much for whatever reason that’s the one thing they might be miffed about. But I’ve never had anyone be like “Oi, you said that thing about me”’

The thing about Iain’s narration is, he always manages to capture the public mood in a way that unifies the audience with him. And that’s important, particularly in those first few slower weeks when his sarcastic quips are all anyone can talk about. It seems like it would be a lot of pressure given the ever-intense build up to each season, so does he feel that way?

‘The first couple of series I did, and then I realised people are going to say [it’s boring] every series until Casa Amor, and then they’re like “it’s brilliant!”,’ Iain says. ‘That’s how we make it, that’s what we plan for. It’s the same as writing a sitcom, in the first week you don’t know them so it’s hard to care about people you don’t know. That’s why it’s so hard to write a sitcom because in the first episode you’ve got to explain all the people, tell everyone what they’re doing and make viewers care about them – and you’ve only got 25 minutes.’

Of course, he’s now had seven series of making us care about cast members on Love Island, so it’s no surprise there’s already a lot of hype around his newest venture: Buffering. The brand-new comedy, co-created by Iain and Steve Bugeja (best known for his work on The Russel Howard Hour and CelebAbility), follows a group of millennial friends all realising that, contrary to what they were raised to believe, it’s okay to fail... repeatedly, in fact.

‘Millennials were brought up with our parents being like “You’re so special! You're so unique! Whatever you want to be you can!”' Iain explains. 'Because they were brought up to just get a job, get married, settle down and they didn’t want that for us. But they hadn’t really given us the language of “You need to work hard at it and it might not work out, and that’s okay”, we weren’t told that.’

‘We were raised to believe we’ve got to get really good and successful at something really quick, that’s what will make us happy and what we’re entitled to,’ he continued. ‘We were never told about this idea of failure. So I thought it would be funny in a sitcom, if you have a load of people in different positions, whether it be relationship or work or whatever, where it’s not worked out and they’re really scared. They see changing a situation as a failing, so they’re learning it’s actually okay to do something you’re not that into, mix it up and then do something else.’

Buffering isn’t the only creative endeavour Iain is diving into post-lockdown, he’s also about to embark on his biggest ever nationwide tour - one show of which will be free for NHS workers, by the way - that will later air on Amazon Prime as a special record. It's a far stretch for the Edinburgh-born comedian who says he was 'never the funny one' as a youngster.

'The Edinburgh Festival meant the whole month of August 500-600 comedians would come to Edinburgh, so I just went to see a lot of comedy when I was a youngster and that's what made me want to do it,' he says. 'A lot of people ask me "Were you the funny guy at school?" and I absolutely wasn't. I was the quiet guy trying not to get his head kicked in, even my university friends, lots of them were funnier than me. But none of them were willing to drive to Newcastle for no money to do a 10-minute gig in a pub, and I was. I just genuinely loved it.'

It's that unwavering commitment and love for the craft that's got him this far then, but with such a busy year ahead, what does that mean for his future as the Love Island narrator? Could he ever, we dread to think, become too busy for the reality show?

‘The stuff around [Love Island] is hard,’ Iain admits. ‘The stress of the media, for my own personal sanity I want to keep personal parts of my life to myself and that becomes tricky, but then the show actually starts and I do love it. It’s quite hard to come up with jokes all the time about the same villa 8-weeks a year, you do sometimes think “How many jokes can I make about these two people going for a walk?” But I do absolutely adore it, especially getting to do it from London at home. I can’t see myself not doing it, put it that way.’

Well thank God, because having to watch two people go for a walk WITHOUT an Iain Stirling narration? We’re not sure even the anticipation of Casa Amor drama could keep us tuned in.

Tune into Buffering on August 5th at 10pm, only on ITV2.

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