New comedy series took Baz six years to write
Baz Ashmawy
TV STAR Baz Ashmawy has revealed he was glad it took him almost six years to write his first comedy series Faithless.
The Emmy award winner said despite his show 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy being a hit with audiences, it took him a long time to have his new Virgin Media show commissioned.
Baz, 48, admitted: “I’m a no-name writer. Like you’re constantly pitching and it is going through different hands and you’re looking for someone to take a punt on you and that takes time sometimes.”
Faithless tells the story of three young sisters and their Irish/ Egyptian dad, Sam, who, following a tragic incident, is left to raise the girls alone.
With some support from his Egyptian father, his Irish motherin-law, his narcissistic half-brother and his irresponsible younger brother, who moves in to “help” and never leaves, Sam goes through the motions of being both mum and dad.
Taking a comedic, tantalisingly honest and insightful look at an emerging Ireland, the series shines a light on some uncomfortable truths about gender roles, grief, identity, acceptance, faith and happiness.
Dad-of-two Baz said winning an Emmy got him meetings with commissioning editors. “Yeah. But not quickly, you know, it gets you in the room, and then you’ve got to do the work, you’ve got to write,” he added.
“And probably, five years ago if I had got commissioned, I don’t think I would have been able to write it.
“Like it takes 5,000 hours. You literally just rewrite and rewrite and rewrite, and then something clicks and then you kind of understand the format of writing a show.”