It’s hard to say goodbye, but I’d be sadder if we ran out of ideas
Sharon Horgan tells MARION McMULLEN it’s weird to think that the characters from comedy hit Catastrophe will cease to exist and fears she might soon be found weeping g in the t e supermarket supe a et
This is apparently the last series of Catastrophe. Is it difficult for you and co-star and co-writer Rob Delaney to say goodbye to your characters?
YEAH, it really is and was. And not just Rob and that relationship. We spent the best part of five years sitting in a room together, writing this stuff – forget about the filming aspects. So yes, it’s really hard.
It’s hard to say goodbye to all of them. I love Fergal and Chris and Fran and Dave, and that they won’t exist anymore is a bit of a weird thing.
But I guess they will exist, because the show’s still there. And I think I’d be sadder, if we did keep going and ran out of ideas for those characters. I’d feel worse seeing them on screen not being at their tip-top best.
What was it like filming the final scene?
IT WAS emotional. I found myself getting a bit maudlin. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s going to hit me until I’m half a year down the road and I suddenly realise there’s a really big thing missing from my life that made me really happy.
So you’ll suddenly be found weeping in the frozen food aisle at Tesco?
I THINK I’ll be lying down. I’ll collapse between feminine hygiene and dairy.
You say you use less stuff from your own life now, but do you mine the experiences of your friends for material?
YEAH. It’s actually more what I observe than people telling me stories. Everyone’s got their own s**t going on, so here and there that happens.
And I think people are aware that I do that as well, so if they are going through something, or they’re telling me something that is quite a vibrant story, they’ll assume that I might have a little bit of it on the show.
Do they realise they’ll see it played out in technicolour on TV?
WELL, they’ll see it playing across my face first, as I’m listening!
Both Catastrophe and your other comedy series Motherland show that being a parent isn’t all baking cakes and tucking in sleeping children. Do you think it’s important that people understand it’s okay to be frazzled by it all?
OH completely. If I get stopped, or if someone wants to say they like the e show, that’s a huge big part of it.
People say ‘That show came into my life when this particular thing had happened’ or ‘I’d just had my second baby, and I wasn’t coping.’ Stuff like that. I think when people see that kind of thing on screen they feel less isolated, and less like they’re a s**tty parent.
That’s a big part of it for me. When we’re writing it, it’s something that we have in our mind a lot, both for Catastrophe and Motherland. I love showing characters like Julia or Sharon at their wits’ end, not being able to cope, but I also like showing them coming out the other side, getting through it.
I think that’s also important – people watching need to see that. It can’t be nihilistic. I don’t want people to dread watching it, I want them to feel that everything will be okay.
There’s a tendency for TV shows to either paint life as glorious and sexy and wonderful or hellish and agonising. Is Catastrophe self-consciously trying to find the reality?
YEAH. That was a big part of it. I would say one of the first conversations with Rob was about showing a real marriage. The real truth of a marriage, and how it affects the romance of it, and when kids come along, and when family interferes, and when your own hang-ups and addictions and illnesses intrude –just the sh*t that everybody has to deal with.
It was a big manifesto that we had for th the series. Also I think that’s just how w we write. I find it harder to write some something that is a bit more heigh heightened, that wouldn’t be my natur natural skill area.
No Not that I don’t like watching com comedy like that, I just find it ha harder to do.
H However bad things get, Catastrophe’s Rob and Sharon have the capacity to make each other laugh. Do y you think that’s one of the ke keys to navigating life’s more pr problematic moments?
YE YEAH, oh my God, completely. So many terrible moments and aw awful arguments or real tragic eve events are cut through with two peo people just laughing together. I think it’s everything.
Ultim Ultimately, do you think that Rob a and Sharon are happy?
YEAH YEAH, I do. I think they’re different characters than they were at the start. They’ve both been boxed about by life a bit, and there’s less idealism there from Rob, and more resignation from Sharon.
And certainly over the course of this series, s**t does happen to them. But I really hope that by the time people get to episode six – which is one of the worst ones in terms of what we do to them – I really hope that when we see them at the end, that’s the big take away – that they love each other, that they came through it all and still love each other.
■ Catastrophe is on Channel 4 at 10pm on Tuesdays