Sean’s the same – he’s incredibly gentle and thoughtful. He’s much more likely to make you a cup of tea than sell you heroin. Peter is more like Michael in Mum than the guy in Ozark. Screen time … Sean Bean as Ian and Chantelle Alle as Jessica. Is turning hardmen into cutie pies something the writer relishes? Alongside Peter Mullan – whose heart-meltingly tender performance as Michael in Mum belies his ability to play a terrifying monster in Ozark – he’s the latest actor to show a softer side in a Golaszewski-penned BBC show. He weeps, he’s needy, he’s desperate for a cuddle from his wife after a tough day, and uses the time she’s not there to track down “revitalising shower gel” because he “needs that little boost”. He’s a big, comfy jumper of a man, stretched out of shape over many years. That focus on creating TV that’s as human as possible makes for thrilling performances – particularly from Bean. I want to celebrate the human experience for the messy, tricky, glorious thing it is.” My shows are full of story but I deprioritise plot – in plot-driven shows, humanity, character, speech, emotion and behaviour only have value in terms of their usefulness to the plot. “I’ve said from the beginning that this isn’t about the plot, but I do hope it has a similar grip or compulsion to one of those very plotty shows. “Oh yeah! It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but I hope people understand all the silences as a reflection of life,” says Golaszewski. They stretch out until, at one point, one of them bursts into tears – followed by more silence. At other points we watch Walker and Bean’s characters go about their lives in almost mundane wordlessness: decluttering a bedroom or clearing up a dinner party. Sometimes we see the cosy wordlessness of sprawling on a sofa with a bag of prawn crackers. Despite Bean having said that “there are really few words in this”, it’s still surprising quite how many scenes are dialogue-free. One of the most remarkable things about Marriage’s script is how little there is of it. But I am running out of road – I need to write about something other than relationships!” I think there’s more hope and joy in a lot of marriages than is often seen. “I was just interested in the beauty of marriage, which is so often considered mundane – or depicted as less exciting than having an affair. “God, I wouldn’t be self-important enough to evoke a trilogy!” says Golaszewski. When you write a comedy, the dialogue is sherbert: it fizzes in the moment and then it’s gone It could be the final part of a trilogy chronicling the lifespan of a couple. Him & Her showed a fledgling twentysomething romance, Mum charted how you move past the end of a lifelong bond and into widowhood, while Golaszewski’s latest project is a paean to midlife. Writing a drama might be a stylistic departure for someone more familiar with twitching the nation’s lips with cringe-comedy, but there’s one thing that’s undeniably unchanged in Marriage – a love of relationships. “My wife can’t believe how soon I farted in front of her when we got together. “Fart gags are probably the bedrock of a successful relationship, because it’s an honesty,” says Golaszewski. When you write a comedy, there’s a ceiling on your ability to be truthful – and for me, being truthful is the key.” But I was interested in using dialogue to seek a deeper truth. The point of the words is to make people laugh. “When you write a comedy,” he says, “the dialogue is sherbet: it fizzes in the moment and then it’s gone. “So after Mum, I took time out to reteach myself how to write.” His realisation? There’s a fundamental lack of honesty in making people chuckle. “There was something about my writing I wasn’t happy about – something stopping me achieving what I wanted,” says Golaszewski. But as he sat down to write Marriage, he couldn’t help feeling he was getting it wrong. True, he created Him & Her’s four hilariously toilet humour-packed seasons about a slacker couple, played by Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani. Yes, Golaszewski wrought three series of phenomenally wry television from Lesley Manville in Mum. “They’re very nice to have, but not central to what I do.” The multi-award-winning sitcom writer is speaking ahead of the launch of his new series, Marriage, which proved more of a challenge to write than he was prepared for. ‘B aftas are essentially baubles,” says Stefan Golaszewski.
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