‘I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited and nervous about a show coming out’

Stephen Mangan knows full well that remaking a TV show has its risks.

After all, the London-born actor spent seven years starring in Episodes, about a British husband-and-wife comedy writing team who take their successful British series to Hollywood, with disastrous results.

But that didn’t put him off using the premise of Lisa Kudrow’s 2009 comedy Web Therapy to create new (and heavily improvised) Channel 4 sitcom Hang Ups, which he also stars in.

“This is very far from the show they did in the States – not to diss that, it was very successful,” says Mangan, who turned 50 in May.

“Time has moved on, and we felt that technology now – the fact we all live on our phones and laptops and devices, and there are cameras everywhere – meant things had changed.”

Of the inspiration behind the show, he continues: “Also, this country has only recently got to the point where therapy is a thing that people do.”

Mangan plays Dr Richard Pitt, who, after the collapse of his previous group therapy practice, has switched to doing weekly quick-fire sessions with his patients over webcam.

From neuroses and phobias to anxieties, there are certainly a lot of issues to deal with when it comes to the few clients on his list, leading to some outrageously funny scenes.

And while his loving wife (played by Katherine Parkinson) is supportive, he has the added stress of demanding relatives, errant teenagers and a troublefilled past whilst trying to make his practice a success.

As Mangan puts it: “We wanted to show someone whose job is to be there, to be empathetic and listen and be honest with his clients, but who can’t seem to do that in his private life.”

Creating Hang Ups was a family affair – Mangan co-wrote the six episodes with his brother-in-law Robert Delamere, who also directed. Mangan’s wife Louise Delamere is the show’s producer. The pair, who married in 2007, live in north London with their two sons aged seven and ten.

Mangan has had many memorable roles over the years, including in hit comedies I’m Alan Partridge and Green Wing. But as well as being his first writing venture, Hang Ups was challenging for him as an actor, thanks to so many scenes being improvised.

“Sometimes you get scripts and go, ‘Yeah, I can imagine how I’m going to play that, I’m sure it will be fine’. But [with this]... just before you start rolling you’re thinking, ‘Is this going to work? What is everyone thinking?’ But, it always worked.”

Flashing one of his warm, toothy smiles, he adds: “David Tennant does an impersonation of Jerry Hall during one improvisation... the world has to see it.”

Tennant is just one in a long list of incredible guest stars in Hang Ups – other patients are played by the likes of Jessica Hynes (W1A), Sarah Hadland (Miranda) and Conleth Hill (Game Of Thrones).

Meanwhile, Hollywood star Richard E Grant is Dr Pitt’s own therapist, Charles Dance is his dad, and Celia Imrie his mum.

And it was a joy giving such an acclaimed cast the chance to ad lib – even if it did mean having to cut 19 hours of material into six 23-minute episodes.

“Sometimes, you can feel as an actor that everything’s been decided before you get there – ‘Here are the lines, stand there, this is how you’re going to play it’,” admits Mangan.

“I think it’s a shame, because actors are incredibly creative and can come up with stuff you’d never imagine yourself in a million years. We wanted them to own it and bring whatever they could to it.”

To prepare for his own character, Mangan talked to a real-life humanist psychotherapist. They went through every single client in the show to talk about what their issues were and how she would approach it.

Mangan uses a lot of the jargon he learned from her, along with her techniques of questioning.

“I didn’t want to be glib,” he notes. “We wanted to have depth and be honest and authentic, and to treat all the issues that people come in with with respect. The humour doesn’t come from what’s wrong with people, but from the way we interact with each other.”

So, will he be producing more of his own material from now on?

“It’s absolutely brilliant to have creative control,” he begins earnestly. “I’ve talked about writing for a long time and I’m so pleased that I’ve finally got down to doing it, because it’s also very exposing... there’s nowhere to hide, and that’s exciting as well. You’ve got to take a gamble. I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited and nervous about a show coming out that I’ve been in.”

“We wanted to have depth and be honest and authentic”

● Hang Ups starts on Channel 4 tomorrow night at 10pm.