When parenthood doesn’t come easily

Actor Rafe Spall says he’s happy ‘‘to be putting a show out there which is about goodness and kindness’’.

What do you do when you desperately want to have a child but can’t? That’s the situation London couple Nikki and Jason find themselves in after a round of IVF fails and they learn their chances of conceiving are slim.

The pair are the main characters in Trying, a comedy drama about customer service representative Nikki (Esther Smith) and her English-asa-second-language teacher partner Jason (Rafe Spall).

‘‘He’s in a long-term relationship with Nikki and they have got to a point where they feel like something’s missing,’’ says Spall of his character.

‘‘In their case, it’s children, but they’re not able to conceive naturally. So they go down the route of adoption. And that’s the central conceit of the show.

‘‘Even if you have no experience of adoption, or even conceiving, that feeling of getting to a point in life where you feel like, ‘Is this it? What else do I need?’is very identifiable and pretty universal.’’

Nikki and Jason are under scrutiny as they seek to prove to the authorities they will make good parents. ‘‘The story is about the process, the fact that it is incredibly intrusive into your own life,’’ says Spall, who is married with three children aged 4, 7 and 9.

‘‘The adoption panel looks into your medical history, your relationship history, your ex-partners, your family. Your career is put in the spotlight.

‘‘You know, these are kind of normal people. They’re not fancy, they don’t have great jobs. They’re not rich. But they are good people.

‘‘That’s one of the things that I’m happy about. It’s about people being good to one another.

‘‘A lot of the content we consume is about people being deviant and mean and manipulative and violent. That’s all enjoyable too. But I’m pleased to be putting a show out there which is about goodness and kindness.

‘‘We’re in a time and in an age where

I think we will be defined by acts of altruism and kindness.’’

Trying, an eight-part series, also stars Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter, Flesh And Blood), Paula Wilcox (Emmerdale, Man About The House) and Oliver Chris (Bluestone42, Breathless).

Esther Smith, Spall’s on-screen partner, may be familiar from Cuckoo and Black Mirror.

Spall is the son of actor Timothy Spall, whose career includes Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Mr Turner and the Harry Potter films.

So is his father a help or a burden when in comes to auditioning for roles? ‘‘It would be wrong of me and daft to say that I didn’t have an advantage, because I did,’’ he says.

‘‘My dad’s famous and there was nepotism involved, of course. Someone will audition you because your dad is famous – but they won’t give you the job because your dad is famous. There’s the difference.’’

He says it’s talent rather than connections that secures an actor work. ‘‘If you make a film or a play or any work of art, it is a deep labour of love,’’ says Spall.

‘‘If you’re the person who has put that together, it’s taken years of your life to get to that point where they are casting.

‘‘So why would they want to jeopardise the beauty and the integrity and the quality of their finished product by putting a famous person’s kid in it?

‘‘And if some idiot did that, the next person would see that the kid of a famous actor was crap and they would never put them in their thing.

‘‘So it’s an advantage to a certain point, but then I feel like after that it’s pretty meritocratic.’’

Spall, who starred alongside Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark) in the sci-fi drama The War Of The Worlds and Kiwi actress Keisha Castle-Hughes in the US drama Roadies, says he prefers comedy to drama.

‘‘I love it only because I love to laugh in my real life and, in my experience, I think there is room for comedy in everything. And there should be comedy in everything, even in the most adverse situations.’’

– Sarah Nealon, TV Guide