5 MINUTES WITH...

TOM BASDEN

Spending the better part of two years locked down and locked up with our nearest and dearest made many people take a deeper look at what they love, value, think is funny, or find infuriating about their family members. For comedy writer and actor Tom Basden (Plebs,

Fresh Meat, After Life), this close proximity and subsequent re-evaluation of family life inspired a brand new comedy, Here We Go. It’s an inspired twist on the classic family sitcom, with plenty of familiar faces and outrageous plot lines to boot. But what more can Basden tell us about his comedic creation?

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO DO A FAMILY COMEDY?

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I had wanted to do a family comedy before. I think it’s getting older, having kids myself and beginning to find your parents and grandparents funny, rather than just annoying.

“There’s a change that happens – you just have a slightly different perspective on family when you realise that you’re turning into an embarrassing dad.

“The other thing is hitting on the idea of Sam filming everything – it convinced me there was a way of doing this show without just copying other things, without making something that felt too familiar, that we’ve seen before. Once I’d seen it from that perspective, and seen all the things you could do with the youngest son filming everything, I got really excited about it and felt like we could do something that feels very different.”

YOU’VE ASSEMBLED A BRILLIANT CAST OF COMEDY ACTING LEGENDS.

“I did! I certainly had Katherine [Parkinson] in mind, and with Jim [Howick] and Alison [Steadman] I was hoping they would do it. When they agreed, they were both so fantastic, and so right for the roles – that it was a delight. Having made the pilot, I could write the series for their voices, and that made my life a lot easier.

“With the other roles, like [Robin’s girlfriend] Cherry and [Rachel and Paul’s daughter] Amy, when we were casting the pilot, I didn’t know exactly how the characters sounded or what they were like. When Tori [Allen-Martin] and Freya [Parks] auditioned, I instantly got it. In some ways, I owe them quite a lot in terms of what the character became – they’ve definitely put their mark on it and brought out something really funny and distinctive.”

WHERE DOES YOUR PERSONALITY COME INTO THE CHARACTERS?

“There are bits of me in all the characters: there’s bits of Paul that I’ve said or recognise myself in, and there are definitely bits of Rachel in me when it comes to constantly trying to get my family out of the door and trying to take charge, but being quite inept at doing so. I think when you’re writing stuff, you tend to carve up bits of your personality and to divide them among your characters a little bit.

“I’d say I have some similarities with Robin, but luckily not many! He’s quite sensitive, he’s very needy, he’s the opposite of stoic: I think everything affects him quite a lot. He’s a very loving boyfriend, but probably a bit of a nightmare to go out with. He’s a bit ‘in your face’ as a character.”

Here We Go, BBC1, Friday, 8.30pm