Bad Move
JACK DEE finds the good life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in a new ITV sitcom
COMEDY ITV HD, 8PM/ITV+1, 9pm Jack Dee and Kerry Godliman star as a couple who leave the hustle and bustle of the city for a new life in the country only to discover it is not a rural idyll after all.
new comedy
Bad move
wednesday, ITV Hd, 8pm
FOR ANYONE LIVING in a cramped city flat, the dream of upping sticks and upsizing to a spacious country abode surrounded by leaping lambs and lungfuls of fresh air, might be all too familiar.
But in ITV’S new six-part comedy series Bad Move, married couple Steve (Jack Dee) and Nicky
(Kerry Godliman) find the grass is most certainly not greener when they decide to escape the rat race in Leeds and relocate to rural Yorkshire.
Stuck in a rundown house with no internet connection and smug neighbours who have homemade jam coming out of their ears, the couple quickly find themselves questioning their decision.
Here, co-writer and star Dee reveals more about his character’s countryside catastrophe and how he’s become obsessed with TV relocation shows…
TELL US MORE ABOUT STEVE AND
NICKY… Steve is a web designer and Nicky is a landscape gardener, and they were living quite a metropolitan lifestyle in Leeds. But this is their second marriage, so they wanted to clear the cobwebs and make a fresh start.
WHY DOES IT TURN OUT TO BE A
‘BAD MOVE’? They quickly run out of money and find they can’t afford to renovate their new house the way they wanted, so they’re trapped in this place that they can’t afford to sell or do up. They’ve also got grown-up kids who don’t want to visit because there’s no internet. WHAT ARE THEIR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF COUNTRY LIFE? Steve and Nicky are like square pegs in a round hole. They thought the grass would be greener on the other side of the fence – until they jumped over the fence and realised it’s an algae-covered, stagnant pond of sludge.
WHAT KIND OF CHARACTERS DO THEY ENCOUNTER? Nicky’s dad Ken [Philip Jackson] lives nearby, but he’s brilliantly disapproving of Steve and prefers Nicky’s first husband. They’ve also got annoyingly perfect neighbours Matt [Miles Jupp] and Meena [Manjinder Virk], who have made a similar move but they’re living the good life, making bread, jams, honey and god knows what. They’re the worst people to be constantly confronted with.
WHAT’S THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE SHOW? I wrote it with Pete Sinclair, who I’ve worked with for years, but the idea came from endlessly watching episodes of Escape to the Country. I became a bit obsessed with it. They never show anything other than a happy ending, though, and I don’t believe that. I also noticed that the movers are often on their second marriage and I thought it was interesting how people think they can change themselves by changing where they are.
DID YOU ENJOY FILMING IN RURAL YORKSHIRE? We stayed in Guisborough and Harrogate, which are lovely places to be, and my wife Susan came to visit and we drove around exploring. The locations were stunning and provided great dramatic backdrops for the show.
WOULD YOU CONSIDER ESCAPING TO THE COUNTRY YOURSELF? My wife and I talk about it, and our kids are at university now. However, the house we were filming at was so remote, and we had real trouble getting trucks and equipment up there. The owners said they don’t even go up there in the winter because the weather is horizontal. It sounds hopeless.