Fresh Meat's Zawe Ashton, AKA Vod, is the coolest thing on TV right now | Culture

Fresh Meat’s Zawe Ashton, AKA Vod, is the coolest thing on TV right now | Culture | The Guardian

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Fresh Meat’s Zawe Ashton, AKA Vod, is the coolest thing on TV right now | Culture | The Guardian.

Zawe Ashton. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Television’s coolest characters often come with a signature “thing”. The Fonz from Happy Days had his leather jacket and his thumbs. Master William from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air had his hi-top fade and loud trousers. In the Channel 4 comedy Fresh Meat, Vod has her off-the-wall clothes and that withering gaze that cuts down foolishness at 20 paces. She’s easily the coolest character on television at the moment, but when I tell that to the woman who plays her, the response is charmingly modest. “I would really like to keep anyone who says that in my pocket, as I go about my daily life,” says Zawe Ashton (the Zawe is pronounced like “Bowie“). “When I hit a low point, I’d just ask, ‘What’s that you’re saying in there? I’m the coolest person on TV? OK, I’ll take that!'”