How did it feel watching series 1 go out? Where did you watch it, and who with?
I live in Sheffield, so I was at home, and my sister Claire, who is the inspiration for the character Yoko, also lives there. So I would go over to her house to watch it, she would take my phone off me so I wasn’t tempted to look a Twitter, because that’s never a good idea. I found the whole thing very, very, very surreal. Obviously I’d seen every episode a lot, because I’m on set all the way through shooting, and then in the edit. But when it goes out, it feels like opening night in the theatre. Just seeing something you’ve made on television is the pinnacle. It doesn’t get any better than that. I can die happy, right now.
Does it feel very vulnerable; having something you’ve worked on for so long, and is so personal, suddenly out there for criticism?
I kind of have all my anxiety a while before it goes out, actually, when we’re showing it to a few people and getting their opinions. Once it’s out there in the world, there’s nothing else you can do. Hopefully people will enjoy it. If they don’t, hopefully, they’ll enjoy not liking it. I let it go at that point. That’s why I try not to look at Twitter – there’s not really anything I can do at that stage anyway. Luckily, when I go to the supermarket, I’m alright, no-one knows that I wrote that thing on television that they hated last night. I’m not an actor!
Did writing series 2 feel different from doing the first series?
I really wanted to make sure the quality didn’t dip. And we wanted to get a bit more plot in there – we didn’t have a huge amount of that in the first series. And we knew we wanted to get more Della in; we knew that we wanted to get Grampy more into the family. And we knew the characters a lot better, and the actors, which helped us when we were writing. It felt a bit more pressured, because first time round we didn’t know what we were letting ourselves in for. This time, we knew the process, so we felt like we needed to get it right.
You’ve written for theatre in the past. Does writing for TV feel like a very different process?
Most of what I know about writing for TV is what I’ve learned from theatre. I guess the main thing is, in theatre you can tweak stuff. You can see the audience’s reaction, and then change things for the next night based on that. In TV, obviously you can’t do that. That’s where our executive producers are really helpful, because they’ll be that first audience for us.
When you sat down to write series 2, did you know what you wanted to do? Had you kept some stuff back from series 1?
We put everything into series 1 – we totally emptied the coffers. I think you shouldn’t hold back, you need to get it all in there, because you never know if you’re going to get another series. So every trick and joke went into the first series, and we had literally nothing for the second series. When we started brainstorming ideas, we quite quickly got to the idea of the final episode, and actually I wrote that first, I just did a draft over a weekend for that. Once we had that, we knew where we were going. Ultimately, they end up going on holiday in a caravan, which is based on holidays we went on in caravans as kids. We actually went away on location, it felt pretty epic. There were dunes to play with, and a caravan. And I think that’s my favourite episode as well. That was in Formby, north of Liverpool. They had red squirrels there! And it was so beautiful! We had such a great time. We had to evacuate though, because there was a massive storm, and it looked as though the catering bus would tip over.
How involved do you guys get on set?
Pretty involved. I think I’m probably quite irritating. I go on set – I love that bit of it. I can talk to the actors, and the director’s very good at taking suggestions. And then I’m in the edit, which is super-intense. And before that, there’s the writing period. So since May of last year, I’ve had no life – I’ve basically been doing Raised By Wolves. I’m aware that I’m quite mad
How did it feel getting everyone back together for the second series?
It just felt so right, being back with those guys. I’m actually friends with them all now, and really good friends with Rebekah Staton. She’s not Della, so at the end of every day, there’s a period of time when she winds back into being Rebekah. And Rebekah is very feminine and gentle, but has traits of Della. So you get Della plus this really cool woman as well. She’s just awesome. I’d love to write stuff for her forever.
How does the writing process work with the two of you?
We start off in a room together, and we brainstorm. We do big series-wide ideas, just chuck loads of stuff into the pot, and don’t think about structuring anything. And then we go our separate ways, and we start structuring and drafting. We don’t then write together until the very end, when we go through it and tart up lines and put in extra jokes. Or if there’s a crisis. We spend a lot of time on Skype.
Obviously Germaine and Aretha are based on the two of you, and you’ve mentioned that Yoko is based on another sister. Do any other family members think characters are based on them, and does it cause family ructions?
There are actually eight of us siblings – only six in the show; we thought eight was unmanageable, so we dropped two. So there’s been a bit of debate about who got merged with who? There are actually three boys in our family, and only one in the show – we thought it was funnier to just have one boy among all those women. So the boys gave us grief – “Are we that interchangeable that we’ve just merged into one?” We explained that it was for the purposes of comedy. We’ve spoken to various siblings about various things, and they’ve come up with ideas or music suggestions or Wolverhampton phrases, so they’ve been really supportive of it, and they watch the show whenever it goes out.
One of the great things about the show is the performances. Were you involved in the casting?
Yes, in the early days. Helen, who plays Germaine, just walked up to Caitlin at a book signing and said “If you ever make a TV show, can I be in it?” And that’s how they met. Caitlin would have done exactly the same thing. She used to write letters to Comic Relief, and Lenny Henry once replied to her, I think.
So Caitlin took her number?
Yeah, she did. Which is again incredible, because the number of times I’ve given Caitlin a bit of paper with something written on it and she’s lost it. But this one she kept, she didn’t lose it, and about a year later, when the casting started, we got her in, as well as loads of other people. But there was just something about her from the beginning. And with Aretha, obviously we had a whole load of ginger people in a room, auditioning. Although Alexa, who actually plays her, is blonde! And Molly, who plays Yoko, came in to audition for Germaine, and we just thought there was something about her, and we wanted to see her again. We hadn’t cast Della by that point, but then Rebekah Staton turned up. And Phil Jackson as well – the classiest man in television. He’s a prince.
What can you tell us about the series?
Germaine goes on an exploration to discover what it’s like to have a man in her life. Aretha finds a kindred spirit out in the world, and we realise she has a vulnerable side, actually. Yoko reaches adolescence, and becomes very worried about the environment, and extinction of animals. We explore Della’s work life and romantic life. Grampy is living in the coat cupboard, and he has a romantic liaison. Everyone’s got a bit of business
Today I’m woken by the bin men at seven-thirty. Eyes closed, I’m lying in bed listening to them crashing and banging down the road when, seemingly out of nowhere, an idea begins to form about the next book. I let it drift. I don’t try and pin it down. Gradually it takes a firmer shape and I study it carefully before letting it drift again.
