The teenage Addams girl is back, and this time, she's more Wednesday than ever. It's a new season of Wednesday, the popular spoof horror TV show featuring the macabre teenage daughter of the proudly grotesque Addams family, and a new term at Nevermore Academy, the elite New England boarding school for children with, let us say, a particular variety of complex needs.
In part one of the second series, which began streaming, fittingly, on Wednesday this week, our eponymous star - played once more by 22-year-old Jenna Ortega - is returning to the school a heroine, having saved the school from a monster and thwarted a plot that would have resulted in the destruction of the entire student body.
Being Wednesday, she does not take well to the adulation. "I only sign my name in blood," she snarls to a group of autograph-seekers, adding pointedly, "... I never said it was my own blood."
Besides, she soon discovers she has other matters than irritating fans to attract her attention. There is, for instance, a mysterious stalker who follows her everywhere. Then there's the grisly murders executed by the flock of murderous crows who have suddenly appeared on and around the school grounds.
She also has alarming visions of the death of her perky werewolf roommate Enid. But most disturbing of all, her parents, Morticia and Gomez Addams, have moved into a cottage on the school grounds while Morticia is acting as Chair for the upcoming Nevermore Gala ... and along the way keeping a maternal eye on Wednesday, who she thinks is working too hard on her magic to the detriment of her health.
A recipe for conflict? Absolutely. But that, says Morticia - better known off the screen as Swansea's own Catherine Zeta-Jones - is often what families are all about.
"The thing about the Addams family," she says, "is that when you think about it, we're a very modern family in many ways. We're a family that embraces idiosyncrasies and strange traits, we don't try to box them away, we encourage each other to be who we are."
As for the tensions between Morticia and Wednesday, she says she can see both sides of the argument. "I think it's the old adage that you shouldn't try to put an old head on young shoulders. Morticia can see that if Wednesday thinks she knows too much about her own power, or can try to twist it to her own liking, then that can lead to trouble.
"She knows that Wednesday has fantastic power and ability, but she's worried what will happen if she tests it to its core, and she expects her to understand why she should stand back. That's exactly the thing of trying to put old heads onto young shoulders that a lot of parents do. I do it myself with my own kids!"
It's Catherine's second appearance as the black-clad, slinkily seductive Addams matriarch, and she says she is having the time of her life in the role. "It's all in the writing, of course," she adds quickly, nodding in homage to the show's creators, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. "Obviously, Morticia is a character from a comic. But the beauty of the way we play her is to keep her absolutely real nevertheless. She's rooted in emotion and she cares very deeply about her family. Of course, she has the love affair of the century with Gomez. And with Wednesday ... well, there's this deep sense of love but there are also two personalities that are so different. Morticia is all about being positive: as the script says, Morticia is a dove, but Wednesday is a raven. It was wonderful to have time to play with those two character arcs."
The second series introduces a third character to the Morticia-Wednesday dynamic, in the person of Morticia's overbearing mother. Step forward Hester Frump, owner of Frump Mortuaries and the richest alumna Nevermore Academy has ever produced ... and by the way, possibly the one character in the entire series who is even scarier than her granddaughter Wednesday.
"She's ghastly!" beams Joanna Lumley, who plays her. "Really ghastly. She's grand, she's vain, she's greedy, and the only person she really likes during the whole show is Wednesday. She's fond of Wednesday because she can see in her the kind of spirit and streak of bad in her that she has in herself - danger, daring, everything she doesn't see in Morticia. She's really awful, and this, of course, falls very naturally to me, which is why Tim (director Tim Burton, with whom she has previously worked on Corpse Bride) called me on the telephone and said, "You are Hester Frump!"'
As a character, Hester is formidable from her first appearance, a regal figure who sports an imposing tower of white and silver hair, impeccable clothes and make-up ... and, incongruously, a pair of serviceable Doc Marten boots to finish off the look.
"She has got the most extraordinary hairstyle," says Joanna. "I had to wear a white wig, followed by a black wig, and then the white wig somehow weirdly went up over the black wig, and as soon as I had that on, I turned into something from hell. And then underneath that, I wanted to wear the same kind of shoes that Wednesday wears, so Hester's wearing Doc Marten boots underneath her quite soigné clothing. That was all very important to me because, you see, we obviously aren't playing real people - these are figments of the imagination, so we have to make them up from nothing, almost out of candy floss. And so, in making up my own candy floss character, I grabbed at the hair, I grabbed at the feet ... I grabbed at Tim!"
"They're larger than life characters," agrees Tim, smiling, of the Addams clan. "But then, I don't know one family that's not weird when you get to know them. It's what families are about."
Another new addition to the cast is Steve Buscemi as Nevermore's gung-ho new Principal, Principal Dort. How did Steve fare on joining the cast?
"Well," begins Steve, thoughtfully. "I was a little intimidated when I first came in, because whenever you're the new person, you wonder, am I going to fit into this world? But luckily I had worked with Tim on [2003 film] Big Fish, and funnily enough, Jenna and I had worked together too right before this, and everyone was so wonderful and so nice that we had a blast. And ..."
"Can I just say something," interrupts Joanna. "Sorry, Steve. I always take precedence over Steve, you see, because I'm very loud and much, much older than him. But I'm going to ask Steve to turn sideways for a moment so you can see his nose, because he has the finest nose of any known actor, living or dead. Turn around, Steve."
Rolling his eyes - the two are clearly excellent friends - Steve obliges. "Look at that nose!" exults Joanna. "I want to see him in profile whenever I'm around him!"
"I'll just stay like this, then," agrees Steve with a sigh.
More seriously, Joanna agrees that, just like Steve, she, too, was subject at first to new girl nerves. "It's heaven going into something new, but it's really scary that you're going to let them down or, worst of all, somehow act in a way they're not used to. What was a challenge for me is that I'm very shouty and everybody else in the cast is as quiet as a mouse."
She laughs and turns affectionately towards soft-spoken Jenna, sitting quietly smiling beside her. "This one," she adds fondly, "I sometimes have to lip read because she's so subtle!"
Low-key Jenna says she loved working with her new co-star. "It's always good to have fresh blood to work with," she says. 'And as for Joanna, well, every time she's on screen, you fall more and more in love with her."
Joanna beams again. "I made her say that!" she announces proudly.
Although the new season of Wednesday is somewhat darker than the last, there have been many moments of lightness along the way. For Catherine, a high point was when the Nevermore students, along with Morticia and Gomez, take off on a camping trip - but not just any camping trip. This one takes place in a luxury campground, complete with amenities, brightly lit tower, and, for the Addams couple, a custom-built tent that could double as a luxury apartment.
"Let me tell you something," says the famously luxury-loving Catherine, swooning just a little at the memory. "In real life, my kids and my husband are always saying, 'Come on, let's get a trailer, let's go camping,' and I'm always saying, 'Forget it.' As Morticia Addams, I would go camping every day of the week!"
The first series ended on something of a cliffhanger but we know this one ends well - not least because we have the much-anticipated Nevermore Gala to look forward to. At or around which, there is more than a hint that Catherine - who started her career as a West End hoofer and in 2002 won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Chicago - will get the opportunity to show off some of her song and dance moves.
"But it's organic to the story," adds Catherine quickly. "It's not like the producers thought, "Oh, she was in Chicago, let's give her a song to sing, and she should dance too." Morticia has a humble quality to her, which I love. At one point somebody compliments her on her singing and she's, like, 'Oh, I usually only sing at funerals.' And then later on, it's, like, 'Oh, darling, just put the record on ...' and then Boom! Boom! She's off!"
In other words... stay tuned.
