00:12He's so old.
00:14He didn't think about my feelings at all.
00:16Who's your best friend?
00:17My best friend doesn't sleep with a friend's daughter.
00:21I'm too old for you.
00:22Yeah, but you don't seem old.
00:23Ah, cool.
00:25Just fisting each other.
00:26I know you're angry.
00:28And you have every right to be.
00:30I'm kind of dreading that I'm going to have to spend every Christmas with you until I die.
00:34Are you okay?
00:35Yeah, great.
00:36Just planning Christmas.
00:39But, say, they dance together so well.
00:42And, I mean, it's interesting because knowing who her grandfather is, he always could thread the needle between heart drama
00:49and comedy.
00:50And Jermaine, having talked to him so much, he could do that, too.
00:54So it's just sort of two souls sort of dancing in the dark.
00:57Oh, that's gorgeous.
00:59That's a totally gorgeous way of putting it.
01:02I totally agree.
01:03I may have to steal what you're saying.
01:06But that's those thematics because it's about time lost, you know, but it's also about time that could be gained.
01:13But also, because there's so much sort of loss in these people, but so much joy, too.
01:20Yeah.
01:20And specifically Alice and Steve.
01:22But can you talk about that, that dance of heart and comedy?
01:25I think shows about best friends, I really like looking at best friendships and how a friend can sometimes know
01:36you better than a partner, you know.
01:38And also, you don't have that same weight of, you know, a sort of daily life with a best friend.
01:47You can pop in and just have this total delight.
01:50And for Alice and Steve, when they're together, they're 20, you know.
01:55They remember each other as 20.
01:58And so they get to still be young when they're together.
02:02Whereas with everyone else, she's 55 or however old she is, you know.
02:09And so I really was excited about looking at how gorgeous friendship is, but how painful it is if you
02:19lose it.
02:21We've known each other for over 30 years.
02:23How old do you think we are?
02:25I don't know, like 60.
02:26They have no idea how cool we are.
02:31I wish I was in love.
02:32You deserve to be loved.
02:33Anybody would be lucky to have you.
02:36You're just right.
02:38Mum, what's happened?
02:39Janice and I broke up.
02:41Would it be okay if I moved back in?
02:42Of course, yay!
02:44I mean, not, you know, not yay.
02:48Hello.
02:49Yeah, your mum said I could stay.
02:51Can't believe you're single.
02:52I hadn't noticed it before, but you are weirdly hot.
02:55I'm not sure about the use of the word weirdly.
02:59Maybe you have a weird smell.
03:04I mean, there's a scene later in the season which doesn't give away at a table, at a dinner table.
03:08And it's basically how you all are jousting in a way, you know.
03:13But talking sometimes a little bit over each other.
03:16Could you talk about finding that cadence?
03:18Because that's a really important part of this as well.
03:21Yeah, that's, I mean, I love that Sophie sets, you know, the dinner party traditionally in dramas is often the
03:31point where something explodes.
03:33And I think Sophie takes that and really ramps it up, you know, she's aware of the convention and really
03:39twists it, twists the knife in with it.
03:43And they are, they're complicated scenes to shoot because you have to, simply, you've got to cover everybody.
03:50They take a lot of time.
03:51And so you get a lot of time to find your place in the scene.
03:56I always like it when, you know, you're not the first, you're not first up and you can see where
04:00the scene sits.
04:01And then our director, Tom, would give us time to come up very high in that scene emotionally and also
04:09settle down to something else.
04:11And, you know, we had time for it to be varied and for them to have choices in the edit.
04:17It's also good to see how everyone else is playing it when you do a big scene like that.
04:21Because you want to find a tone that you all fit in together.
04:25Yeah.
04:25And that specific scene, the dinner scene, was really all about what we don't say, what we all don't say.
04:31So we had to figure that out together to sort of bounce off of each other.
04:36You do realise this is probably a trap.
04:39Or she could be trying to work it out.
04:42Yeah.
04:43Yeah.
04:44No, you're right.
04:45This is definitely a trap.
04:47Yeah.
04:49Do you think Daniel's going to punch me?
04:52Right.
04:53As if Daniel would ever punch anyone.
04:58Maybe we could show her that this is a good thing.
04:59I like her best friend.
05:01And how nice that she already really, really loves the guy I'm dating.
05:05Hmm.
05:07Yeah.
05:09Okay.
05:12You nervous?
05:14Yeah.
05:17Terrified.
05:18Okay.
05:20But she also did something wonderfully practical.
05:23All the choices they make, make sense.
05:26Like when they're at the bar and she's going over to do that.
05:30I've had people do that, you know.
05:32But the thing is, is that at the situation at like the dinner party where, you know, you have the
05:36older people and younger people playing Trivial Pursuit.
05:39But it's very specific details in terms of the writing.
05:42Could you talk about that and figuring out how you wanted to build those?
05:47Because those came from your imagination, of course.
05:50Yeah.
05:51I don't really know.
05:52So, like, I'm not sure I know how to answer that because it's just sort of like what I, you
05:58know, when I write, I try to imagine being each of the characters.
06:01And so, I, you know, I knew that Alice could choose to play Trivial Pursuit because she knows it's a
06:10weapon to use against Steve who doesn't have a good recall of facts.
06:14So, she's like, I can expose him and embarrass him.
06:17And she felt confident about her Trivial Pursuit abilities.
06:23And, you know, I've gone out with friends, male friends, and been like, I am going to get you someone
06:28to love.
06:29Like, so a lot of it, a lot of it is based on what I would do.
06:34And then, and then when I write, I kind of will do the Alice draft and then I'll do a
06:40Steve draft so that you don't have a favorite.
06:43So, you try and see the story from each of their points of view.
06:47There is no villain in this story.
06:49There's everyone is a good person, but they're just making questionable choices.
06:55Hmm.
06:59Emily.
07:00What?
07:00Emily.
07:01Yeah.
07:01Oh, good.
07:02Who else did you think I was talking about?
07:09God, he is so old.
07:11He looks like my dad.
07:17Hiya.
07:18Darling!
07:19Does that mean that I'm in with a chance, too?
07:22You could do all three generations.
07:25A wonderfully French of you.
07:30Lovely to see you again, Val.
07:32Oh, off to the room.
07:44I'm so, so sorry.
07:50So thoughtful.
07:55Well, because it's a tricky dynamic with the tone, just, you know, just because of what's going on internally.
08:00And it's as much as I think what you were saying, Jermaine, it's about what's not said as what is
08:05said.
08:05And yet there's so much love between all these people, you know, no matter what.
08:10I mean, they may not get along, but can you talk about that?
08:14Because playing love right beside a sense of anger or distrust or whatever is a really interesting thing to play.
08:21Yeah.
08:23It sort of goes together.
08:25Yeah, I think the intensity of, or the strength of Alice's love for Steve spurs the intensity of her anger
08:36towards her.
08:37Because someone she loves shouldn't have done what he's done.
08:42Yeah, she's really hurt.
08:43She's really, really hurt.
08:44There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal, is there?
08:46And she's really wounded.
08:49But also our brilliant writers' stage directions are some of the finest stage directions I've ever read.
08:56And I know some actors, when I first started, they would say, cross the stage directions out, you know, in
09:02a script.
09:03And as a writer, because I started as a writer, the actors would often tell me, don't describe the emotions.
09:11Leave that to us.
09:12But I enjoyed in this that sometimes she told us.
09:15Yeah, her descriptions are incredible.
09:17And they really help, really, really help.
09:19What's an example, Nicole, of a stage direction?
09:23There's a great one in that dinner party scene.
09:25There's a great one where it's set.
09:26I think it's her personality as well.
09:29They're very human, the stage directions.
09:30You can hear Sophie in them all the time.
09:33And if you find her tone, you get the tone of the scene.
09:37And there's a bit where she says in that dinner party scene, she writes, Steve makes a joke.
09:45Usually, ordinarily, Alice would really laugh at this.
09:49She can't help herself.
09:50She laughs.
09:52Steve is pleased that she laughs.
09:54Alice can't look at him.
09:56And in that, there's a world, you know, there's a whole world of characterisation that you go, I'll have that.
10:02She doesn't tell you what to feel.
10:04No.
10:05But she gives you space to explore.
10:09She illustrates their relationship.
10:09But it's still, she just guides you.
10:11Yeah.
10:12So good.
10:13So anyone who's watching you now would be a fool.
10:16Fool.
10:18What are you doing here?
10:20I slept with Steve.
10:24That's really funny.
10:26I know this must hurt, Mum.
10:27I see that.
10:28But I want to keep seeing him.
10:34Hi, Al.
10:35I hope you fall out of your window and get pierced in the heart by your railing.
10:40And that no one comes to your funeral.
10:42Which one of these says, sorry I had sex with your daughter?
10:45I hope you fall out of your way.
10:50I hope you fall out of your way.
10:51I hope you fall out of your way.
10:52I hope you fall out of your way.
10:54I hope you fall out of your way.
10:55I hope you fall out of your way.
10:57You
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