Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
DIVORCE? IT'S SIDE-SPLITTING
It’s hard to see the funny side when a couple splits up, but somehow a new BBC sitcom starring Ben Miller does just that
Amarriage breaks up, leaving heartbroken spouses, devastated families and friends who are torn in two: it doesn’t seem the obvious recipe for a hit comedy. But that’s what the team behind new BBC1 sitcom I Want My Wife Back are banking on.
‘I really hope people see the comedy in it and don’t find it depressing,’ says actor Ben Miller. The former Death In Paradise star plays bank employee Murray, who’s been working so hard that he hasn’t noticed his marriage imploding. ‘We’ve handled it in a very real way; it raises the stakes. Some of the stories are farcical but the feelings are raw and real.
‘There are moments where I have found it really moving, I’ve had tears in my eye – particularly when there’s been a tug-of-love over the dog Barney. But there are often moments of farce and comedy when there’s a split. A shockwave runs through all the family and everyone starts to behave a little bit weirdly.’
Ben is talking from some degree of experience as he was divorced from his first wife, Inbetweeners actress Belinda Stewart-Wilson, in 2011 after seven years of marriage. ‘There’s an alternate version of this show which is really sad,’ he says. ‘Sometimes when we were making it we were thinking, “Hang on, which version are we doing?” Marriage can be hard; you’re faced with the best and worst of yourself.’
The six-part comedy is the brainchild of writers Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni, who knew a man who desperately wanted to save his marriage. ‘It’s based on a friend who was trying to get his wife, who had left him, to come back and we found it both very amusing and very moving,’ says Justin. ‘We were willing him to get his wife back but also couldn’t help but laugh at some of the things he was doing.
‘We thought it was a heroic journey but also a comic one. He was a suburban Don Quixote; a romantic figure but also absurd.
‘Our friend doesn’t know all the details of our comedy but what we loved is that he didn’t think he could get her back but he did. The interesting thing for us was also the collateral damage for other people, like the father who genuinely loves his son-in-law.’
The show opens on Murray’s wife Bex’s 40th birthday. Once again work has meant he can’t be there for her and she decides to walk out on him. Doc Martin actress Caroline Catz, who plays Bex, says, ‘I suppose they should have talked to each other about things that weren’t right but instead they were terribly British about all of it. They’re so kind to each other that things
have been allowed to fizzle out; they probably needed to have a few arguments.’
Murray tries all sorts of schemes to elevate himself in Bex’s eyes, but they don’t always go to plan – he tries to convince her to go on holiday, turns down a promotion so he can spend more time with her, takes in her dad when her mum goes away and he tries to help with Bex’s charity event.
Added into the mix are Murray’s best friend Grant (Kenneth Collard), male and female friends who fancy the newly-single Bex and Murray, and interfering in-laws.
‘The best comedy has you laughing one moment and crying the next,’ says former Just Good Friends actress Jan Francis, who plays Bex’s mother Paula. ‘I really care about these characters and I think the audience will feel the same.’
Nicole Lampert I Want My Wife Back is on Monday at 9.30pm on BBC1.