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Carrie & Barry series two
Starts in October on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ONE
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Production notes
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This October Neil Morrissey returns to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ONE in Carrie & Barry, the comedy series written by Simon Nye and from the team behind Men Behaving Badly.
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Simon relished writing the new series: "A second series is a great chance for a writer, particularly, to do what he should have done the first time around.
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"In this series of Carrie & Barry we have toned down some of the show's sexual excesses! In my experience viewers (and writers) love a good dirty joke, but we are making a mainstream sitcom here.
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"I think a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ONE audience needs to feel more comfortable than we allowed them to feel last time, perhaps.
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"Everyone gathered together on the sofa should be able to watch without pretending to need to walk the dog round the block because they're embarrassed by a joke about pubic hair. That said, I thinks it's important to throw in some gratuitous filth every now and again just to keep everyone on their toes.
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"It took a series or two to get Men Behaving Badly right, and I think we've done a lot better this time."
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He laughs: "I haven't felt the need to rummage around much in my own life for material, in fact, because I do feel Carrie and Barry have a life of their own now.
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"That will come as a huge relief to my own partner, Claudia, who doesn't really enjoy having her own life up there on screen – in a searing romance or epic drama perhaps, but not in a half-hour comedy."
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He also enjoyed writing with the actors playing the characters firmly in his mind: "Neil Morrissey and Claire Rushbrook are great to write for because they are so convincingly a couple to me.
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"This time around I've put the characters under more pressure. We love to watch people suffer, if only to make us feel better about our own lives. So Barry manages to get banned from driving, and he loves being a cabbie. Frustration in all its forms is horribly funny, and Neil is very good at conveying it."
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He continues: "Barry is also going through a real crisis over the fact that his daughter Sinead – even he has to admit it – seems to be having sex with men these days. That's all he needs, the danger of becoming a grandfather when he's barely got used to being a dad yet. Especially as he hates his daughter's boyfriend.
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"And Carrie finds out that she is adopted. I know so many people who are adopted (maybe it's just me), and apparently an astonishingly high number of children don't have the biological father they think they have. Also, you don't necessarily get much sympathy – as Carrie's friend Michelle points out: 'Most people would kill to have two mums'.
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"But the essence of the show remains the same: the glories of being a couple, the insane things we do to keep a relationship alive and even fun.
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"And the terrible burden of friends: Barry's best friend Kirk remains everything you want in a friend – loyal, local, likes a drink. And everything you don't want – a little bit too local, needy, or not needy enough, prone to sharing his ridiculous thoughts. And Carrie's best friend Michelle is one of those people who simply shouldn't be allowed out."
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Simon adds: "I hope we touch on some contemporary issues – step-children; our failure to be quite as young and sexy as advertisers and the media think we should be; the problem of people who go up at the end of every sentence…?"
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Executive producer Beryl Vertue comments: "In this series everyone is so relaxed. I find the cast, as a group, very warm together and you can see why they are friends.
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"You can see why Carrie is married to Barry, why Barry and Kirk get on - even though Kirk can be quite annoying at times, you can see why Kirk needs them so much."
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Producer Sue Vertue was equally excited about the new series: "I'm really pleased with how it has worked out and the way the characters interact with each other. It was very important that we got the chemistry between our two lead characters right.
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"Neil and Claire are very funny and also incredibly warm and you just believe that the characters are actually together. Carrie and Barry are also doing a lot more together as a couple, Sinead is happier and in love and it's been fun to explore the effect that has on a dad."
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She adds: "We have a new theme tune - Andy Williams' Happy Heart - and new opening titles, which sets a different tone for the series from the moment you switch on."
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