Exclusive:Katherine Parkinson and Youssef Kerkour on Significant Other and television’s changing comedy landscape

This piece contains references to suicide throughout. 

“I think ‘dark comedy’ is how it was described in the beginning”, says Youssef Kerkour, talking about what first drew him to his new comedy Significant Other. “And sure, there are some dark elements to it.”

“It doesn’t actually feel [like a comedy],” suggests Katherine Parkinson. “It just feels like it’s surprising and truthful, and then that makes it comic because you recognise it. That’s how it feels.”

Kerkour and Parkinson are speaking to NationalWorld ahead of the ITVX debut of their new comedy Significant Other, one of several comedies launching on the streaming service this month. Significant Other begins with a suicide attempt and a heart attack; the very first scene sees Sam (Kerkour) swallow a bottle of pills, only to be interrupted by his neighbour Anna (Parkinson) asking him to wait for an ambulance with her. What follows, according to Kerkour, is something of “an unromantic romantic comedy”.

“I think that is a really fun description – it kind of describes it perfectly,” says Kerkour. “It's a very unconventional story, you know – I mean, not to be too [tooey] about it, but there's a lot about this sort of so-called romance between the two of them that is completely different from what people are used to seeing. It's not the norm at all.”

“And yet it is the norm in reality,” counters Parkinson. “Real life falls short of what we've been… groomed? I don’t think that's the right word.”

“Brainwashed?” suggests Kerkour.

“What we’ve been brainwashed to believe is what you can expect in a romantic situation,” says Parkinson. “I love that even when we do have a good coming together, then you start crying, and then accidentally whack me in the face. I feel like the obstacles keep appearing in their relationship. And I find that funny.”

“So, it's not necessarily a comedy sometimes,” she continues. “We had a screening of the first episode, and Youssef and I really appreciated the sort-of-laughs that were engendered, because it was more laughs of surprise? It was very pleasing, when people laughed but they’re not sure they should be laughing. That's quite an enjoyable [reaction].”

It feels like Significant Other arrives as the latest in a wave of comedies that have, one way or another, tackled “heavier” themes and ideas in a genre not necessarily known for that – the likes of Fleabag, This Way Up, Single Drunk Female, Feel Good, Pure and so on. Why do Kerkour and Parkinson think that style of comedy has become so popular?

“I think it's because comedy can go to place at the drama can’t: you can actually get a bit deeper, and tackle issues on more of a fundamental level, because you're giving it a lightness of touch,” argues Kerkour. 

“I think people choose to investigate the difficult issues of our time, and I think they've always done this. By wrapping [that] up in the world of comedy, you can engage a deeper part of the human experience without preaching about it – [and] without actually necessarily providing a solution, which is why I think comedies is used in that way so often.”

“I think there's definitely become more appetite for television shows that explore both,” says Parkinson. “But – you know, not to compare our show to Chekov, but – when I did The Seagull years ago on stage, that's described as a comedy, and my character talks about being in mourning for her life and is a depressive alcoholic! I think that the laughs that that style of comedy engenders, that is a laugh of recognition and sympathy and empathy – the sort of laughs I think that we're going for [with Significant Other].”

“I'm not sure that it's the new thing, I just think that television has had this huge explosion of creativity in recent years, and it's getting so there's just so much being made,” she continues. “The studio sitcoms used to obviously demand a more front footed, just 100% comedy approach, and you know, you wouldn't [do something like this there], but I would love to see a show that was a studio sitcom that did both. Wouldn’t that be great?

“That’s what I’d call a “haha comedy”. There’s not many “haha comedies” anymore,” says Kerkour, picking up on Parkinson’s point about the changing television landscape. “I fear – and this is just my opinion – that the explosion of content at the moment, and the seemingly infinite choice that's out there, has meant that genres are starting to merge.”

“Like, is Succession a comedy? You could actually say it is, even though it's meant to be a drama. It becomes a budgetary issue in the end: do you have a comedy budget, or do you have the drama budget?”

“I wonder if we need some new words as well,” says Parkinson. “I mean, certainly with theatre stuff, when you're trying to sell a show and they sell it as a comedy, you can feel the audience primed for something that you're not about to deliver sometimes. So, I think we need to get some new words out there. Domedy? Dromedy…?”

She pauses, laughs, and gives up. “Drama.”

Significant Other begins on ITVX on Thursday 8 June, with every episode available to stream at once as part of a boxset. Don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly television newsletter, listen to our Screen Babble podcast, and follow us on twitter @NationalWorldTV.

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