On the Couch (2013 TV series)
| On the Couch | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy Drama |
| Created by |
Barbara Bergin Gary Cooke |
| Written by |
Barbara Bergin Gary Cooke |
| Starring | director = Barbara Bergin |
| Country of origin | Ireland |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Fiona Bergin |
| Editor(s) | Úna Ní Dhongháile |
| Camera setup | PJ Dillon |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Fubar Films |
| Release | |
| Original network | TV3 |
| Picture format | 16:9 HD |
| Original release | 12 February – 9 April 2013 |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
On the Couch is an Irish comedy-drama, produced by Fubar Films and screened on TV3. The series, created and performed by Barbara Bergin and Gary Cooke, premiered on Tuesday 12 February 2013. It follows three different couples embarking on therapy for the first time - Sylvia and Dudley, Carmel and Brendan, Graeme and Moya. The series is produced by Fiona Bergin and directed by Barbara Bergin .
Dudley Gibbons hopes therapy will force his formidable wife Sylvia to "move on" from his mindless affair with an 18-year-old employee. Carmel Curtin hopes to discover why her massive weight loss has failed to reignite husband Brendan’s sex drive and high-flyers Graeme and Moya de Paor-Cullen talk about why their parenting skills have landed them in court. Before the end of the first session everyone has already got more than they bargained for. Sex, parenthood, trust, money, fear, ambition, food, negligence, disappointment and fidelity are just some of the issues that raise their head.
Watch it, laugh, weep and be glad it’s not you.
On the Couch is TV3's first original comedy series. It is made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's Sound and Vision Fund. In an interview with Doug Whelan of TV Now Barbara Bergin talks about the audience taking on the role of the therapist. "You can really put your characters under pressure that way," she says "by keeping the focus on them. They are never off the rack, so to speak. It’s about the awkward situations they’re in and how they deal with them. It’s got a lot of heart, but it can be quite dark. You might call it tragic-comedy." In the same interview Gary Cooke, best known for his role in Après Match adds "The hope in writing for yourself is that you can get to places quicker by kicking ideas around and trying them out as you’re going. When you’re working with loads of departments – writers, directors, producers and so on – it can get diluted very quickly. This way you can create things on the spot and mould them as you go, rather than working through the layers." Bergin agrees "It’s very rare that there aren’t obstacles, but it didn’t feel like a hard road because in the beginning we were just playing around to see if we could bring our ideas to fruition. Our comfort in performing together definitely helped during that phase; the way things are done sometimes, if there had been more people involved the idea would have been pulled apart before it was fully formed but we were able to take our time and bring these couples to life. It’s great to have that dynamic, and be able to gauge what the other person is doing and where they want to go with an idea."
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