Dylan Moran’s new sitcom Stuck is a must

After creating the award-winning Black Books, you might think that comedian Dylan Moran would have actors queuing up to star in his new sitcom, Stuck.

However, he admits that the first person he approached turned him down.

He jokes: “I talked to an actor initially and offered her this sketch and script, and she said no. Nobody has heard from that woman since, nobody knows where she is or whatever happened to her career.”

Perhaps the turned out for the best though, as the Navan-born stand-up’s second choice, actress, impressionist and one-time Taskmaster champion Morgana Robinson, said yes to joining him in the series about Dan and Carla, a couple whose relationship has reached a crossroads.

The process of creating the show, which consists of five 15-minute episodes, began with a sketch. Moran explains: “I just saw a couple in my head who were stuck one way or another. Morgana came over right at the beginning and we did a sketch about a couple who were about to go out, a very traditional, old-fashioned kind of sketch, and he got his hair caught in the zip of her dress and they were just arguing. That was it – it’s just these two guys who are stuck, you know? They are just stuck in these circular conversations.”

He quickly realised that impressionist, actress and former Taskmaster champion, who he describes as a “one-woman army of comic power” was the right person for the job.

Moran says: “From the first day of doing that sketch, I just knew ‘this is great, I can do this, I can write this conversation I want to write, properly vaudevillian conversation’, and that’s the trunk of the tree of what this programme became, it holds everything together.”

But while Robinson and Moran may have a great working relationship, their characters, Dan and Carla, aren’t quite so in tune. Dan has been made redundant – which as viewers of BBC One’s recent drama Marriage will know can be something of a flashpoint in a relationship – while Carla is starting to question if a life in their poky little flat is really what she wants.

Moran says: “He’s definitely on this moany, downwards trajectory and Carla is blossoming out and stepping into her career and her life, and being recognised for what she’s doing. She’s getting comfortable with saying what she wants and he’s trying to catch up with that.”

But will it be the presence of Carla’s ex-girlfriend that really shakes up the couple’s relationship? Whether or not they relate to the particulars of the Carla and Dan’s life, many viewers can probably empathise with the feeling of being trapped, especially following the events of the past couple of years.

So does Moran think viewers will be able to gain an insight into their own relationship dynamics from Stuck? It seems that’s not his priority right now. “I’m not really looking for a legacy yet, I’m just hoping some people watch it.”