Aussie romantic comedy treads where few have gone before

For their new comedy series Colin from Accounts, creators and stars Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall were determined to tackle a genre that Australian television rarely attempts: the romantic comedy.

Whilst Australian film has a good strike rate, television has laregely steered clear of the genre. Offspring? Please Like Me? Spirited? The Wrong Girl perhaps….?

“Australia didn’t really have any sort of romantic comedy or relationship comedy. I guess Offspring was close but that was also a bit of a workplace comedy,” Dyer tells TV Tonight.

“The romantic comedy TV show is probably more of an American thing, even back as far as I Love Lucy or getting into Mad About You, Dharma and Greg, and all those kinds of things.”

Even their own recent episode of Summer Love had elements of the genre, which the real-life couple both wrote and performed in.

They work together again as two singles whose lives collide following a car accident and an injured dog.

The series was born when Dyer was based in LA, while Brammall was busy with the US adaptation of No Activity.

“I was going a bit nuts before I got my foot in the door there. So Patrick said, ‘Why don’t you try write something? I think you’ve got a good head for it,” she explains.

“We thought out a few beats and a way that two people could meet and decided on some big key scenes. Then I gave it to him to read five days later, and he was like, ‘This is good!'”

“I’d describe it as ‘annoyingly good'”

Dyer developed the project at the Australian in Films LA workspace for Aussies, Charlie’s.

“It was the first thing she’s ever written and it was extremely good. I’d describe it as ‘annoyingly good,'” says Brammall.

“What’s so great about Harriet as a writer is she has this incredible bullshit meter. It’s really rare that she writes a line of dialogue that doesn’t ring true in some way. So often with shows you’re not interested in, you can follow the plot but it doesn’t feel like something someone would actually say. It doesn’t resemble actual human behaviour.

“But our number one thing was make people laugh.”

Dyer adds, “And to create two people that you want to see get together. You want to see them continually get in their own way … we create characters we care about and then throw obstacles at them.”

The accident involving a dog brings both characters together where they discover a connection, if also trying to resist the notion.

“They’re two people who otherwise would have no business being together, but they are glued together because this dog,” Brammall explains.

“Even though there’s so much stuff they don’t have in common, they are on the same frequency. They do make each other laugh in the same way that we make each other laugh.”

“It’s not set up / set up / gag. It feels very real to us.”

Brammall’s US manager refers to the comic style as “subtle.”

“It’s not set up / set up / gag. It feels very real to us. It feels very Australian and not in all the Australian tropes and cliches, but the Australia that we grew up in. I grew up in Canberra, Harriet grew up in Townsville. It feels like the people that we know and we’ve stolen a lot. We really bowerbirded a lot of stuff from our own lives.”

The cast also includes Helen Thomson, Emma Harvie, Genevieve Hegney, Darren Gilshenan, Michael Logo and Tai Hara.

“Tai Hara plays Harry’s ex. He’s a dream boat, so yeah, it works!” Brammall laughs.

“Michael Logo is a Melbourne boy but audiences wouldn’t be that familiar with him. I think he did some stuff in Love Me. He’s fantastic, he plays my offsider in the brewery. (My character) co-owns a brewery in Sydney with Genevieve Hegney… Gen and I have known each other forever.”

Annie Maynamrd also plays Yvette, who just happens to be ‘a vet’ and the ex of Brammall’s character.

The project drew early interest from Aussie producer Rob Gibson who produces with Ian Collie from Easy Tiger with CBS Studios. It is directed by Directors are Trent O’Donnell (No Activity, The Letdown), Matt Moore (The Great, Diary of an Uber Driver) and Madeleine Dyer.

US interest from CBS Studios was so supportive the two were even encouraged to film it stateside, but both resisted.

“It has an Australian vernacular, an Australian point of view. That’s the thing that makes us laugh. Australians are the most authentic characters we can make,” says Brammall.

“We could have a go at writing a family from Chicago, but we wouldn’t have any local knowledge,” Dyer suggests.

“It wouldn’t have that ring of truth, which the thing that we want it to have. So it was a no brainer,” Brammall agreses.

“CBS Studios said, ‘You can make this here if you want,” Dyer recalls.

“You could shoot it here with Australian accents.”

“We’re like, ‘No!’ Then they said, ‘You could shoot it here with Australian accents.’ But we wanted Sydney on screen.”

While both Brammall and Dyer have other US projects on the go, they are hoping the series finds an audience to enable them to film a second season back in Australia.

“Hopefully people want to see them together. It’s fun just throwing challenges at them and keeping them from getting together.”

Colin from Accounts premieres Thursday 1 December on Binge, and (double episode) 8:30pm on FOX Showcase.