Joking Apart

Did You Know?

• A fan of the show, Craig Robins, bought the home video rights from 2Entertain and released both series on his own DVD label, Replay DVD, putting up £30,000 of his own money.
• The show scored highly on the Appreciation Index, meaning viewers thought very highly of the programme.
• Bathurst says that drunks on the London Underground tell him in detail the plot of their favourite episode.

Production

By 1990, Steven Moffat had completed two series of Press Gang, but the show's high budget and shifts at Central Television left its future uncertain. Bob Spiers, the director of Press Gang, encouraged Moffat to meet producer Andre Ptaszynski to talk about creating a sitcom. Moffat first pitched a school-based comedy similar to the later series Chalk, which eventually aired in 1997. During their meeting at the Groucho Club, Ptaszynski noticed Moffat speaking intensely about his upcoming divorce and advised him to write about that instead.

Moffat then developed a show about a sitcom writer whose wife leaves him. He jokes that he must remind himself his wife did not leave him for an estate agent; she was one. In 2003, Moffat told The New York Times his ex-wife was unhappy about her failed marriage being turned into a sitcom on BBC2. Moffat notes that the sitcom lasted longer than his marriage did.

His later sitcom Coupling drew from his relationship with his second wife, producer Sue Vertue. Moffat also reused the surname Taylor, which belongs to Mark in Joking Apart, for Jack Davenport's character Steve in Coupling.

Characters

Mark Taylor, played by Robert Bathurst, is a television sitcom writer. His work is hardly mentioned except in episode one. Mark is quick-witted, and stand-up sequences indicate he thinks in one-liners, which proves the downfall of his marriage. Becky says she didn't sign on to become his lawfully wedded straight man.

In one episode, Mark jokes about worrying if his virginity will heal back; Becky responds, 'What page is that on?' She points out that the thing about someone who uses humour as a weapon is not the sense of humour but the fact they need a weapon. Bathurst, a former Footlights president, was cast as Mark. He was performing on Up Yer News on BSB; a fellow performer also auditioned and claimed he would break Bathurst's legs if Bathurst got the job.

Bathurst speaks highly of Joking Apart, calling it a career highlight, but wishes he had roughened up Mark. Becky Johnson/Taylor, played by Fiona Gillies, meets Mark at a funeral and they marry. Although irritated at being his comic foil, she is capable of quick-witted put-downs. In episode 3, she wins an impromptu one-liner contest.

Becky is shown as independent, meeting Mark on her terms. The first series revolves around her leaving Mark for estate agent Trevor, whom she cheats on in series two. This was Gillies' first major television role; she was aware some of her dialogue was based on what had been said to Moffat during his separation.

Episodes

The first episode shows the couple meeting at a funeral, marrying, and going through the honeymoon phase. The last section features a confrontation where Becky admits she is having an affair before realising her friends are hiding in her living room for a surprise party. Episode two continues directly, with Robert and Tracy returning to check on Mark. They recall how they first met: after their first date, Mark strips to his boxer shorts and handcuffs himself to the bedpost, and is found by Robert and Tracy.

Moffat used a similar scenario for a Coupling episode and reveals it is based on a situation with one of his ex-girlfriends. In episode three, Mark arrives at Robert and Tracy's house on the wrong night for a dinner party; they are expecting Becky and her new boyfriend Trevor. The couple spend the evening trying to keep Mark and Trevor apart. Episode five makes extensive use of 'techno-farce', using telephones to facilitate farcical situations.

Moffat considers this episode the best of the show and felt the story ends after it. The episode begins with Mark returning Robert's mobile phone and ends with Robert threatening to shoot Mark after Mark has slept with Tracy. The series ends with Becky and Trevor, and Robert and Tracy reconciling, and Mark left alone.

Scheduling

The BBC liked the pilot of Joking Apart, which aired on 12 July 1991, and wanted to turn it into a series. But writer Steven Moffat had already committed to writing the third and fourth series of Press Gang as a single block of twelve episodes, so the first series of Joking Apart wasn't made until 1992. It was originally scheduled for autumn but got pushed back, eventually airing on BBC2 on Thursday evenings from 7 January to 11 February 1993. The second series was shot in late 1993.

At the time, BBC2 controller Michael Jackson wasn't confident in the show—he later admitted he was wrong—thinking it was too mainstream for BBC2 and not mainstream enough for BBC1. The second series was meant to start on 11 June 1994, but it kept getting delayed. Actor Robert Bathurst described the frustration: he'd get calls saying it was airing, then calls saying it wasn't, happening six or seven times over about a year. He found it baffling, especially when shows like The Brittas Empire got multiple series while Joking Apart languished.

The BBC repeated the first series to prepare for the second, which finally ran on Tuesday evenings from 3 January to 7 February 1995. Even though the BBC paid to broadcast the second series twice, it only aired once. Moffat believes the long delay hurt the show, making it hard to keep an audience and giving the impression that Mark had been complaining about his divorce for far too long.