Stephen Mangan interview
Stephen Mangan plays Andrew in Bliss, a man trying to juggle two families. As he explains, the premise is not as simple as it first sounds.
What appealed to you about this job? Was it working with creator David Cross?
I'm a big fan of David's. I love Arrested Development and his stand-up. He is all over my favourite films. He is a very interesting guy. As an actor, you're always looking for an original voice.
A lot of the most successful things I have been involved with have had a unique voice - whether it's Armando Iannucci or Chris Morris or Victoria Pile or David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik. They all have a very specific world viewpoint and strong direction. I also love scripts that combine drama and comedy, and this does that perfectly.
Did you enjoy working with Heather Graham?
Absolutely. Heather is great. She's a fabulous comedic actress. It's been like having two separate jobs. I'd say goodbye to Heather, have a cry for 10 minutes and then do my scenes with Jo.
And what has it been like collaborating with Jo Hartley?
She's wonderful. She was great in David Brent: Life On The Road and This Is England. She is so warm and funny. It's fabulous that you get the best of both actresses, but they are very different.
How has your character Andrew got himself in such a pickle?
He's made a lot of small decisions which are motivated by a desire not to upset people. It's a kind of cowardly niceness - we're all guilty of that from time to time. 16 years ago, he took the easy route rather than fessing up. He told a series of white lies; now 16 years down the line, he has two partners, two children and a hellishly stressful existence. I'm not trying to condone it, but it must be so exhausting!
It's not a "wey-hey, I've-got-a-harem" thing. Andrew is just someone who got a couple of women pregnant and didn't confess to it at the time. That's what I love about the way David has written this. Andrew absolutely loves both women - he's not lying about that at all. When he leaves each woman, he's heartbroken. He goes around the corner and cries because it's so stressful. He feels that confessing now would hurt them very badly. But of course, the problem is simply getting bigger and bigger. He is just kicking the poo down the road.
What sort of mental condition is he in now?
He is almost in a psychotic state where he is trying to keep things afloat. In his two secret offices, he has backdrops of different cities, so he can take photographs and pretend to his partners he is in Bratislava or Barcelona writing travel books. He never leaves his office - he just Googles everything so he can write his travel books.
What else does Andrew have to do to maintain this double life?
In the middle of the night, he must think, "What am I doing?" But most of the time he's worrying about the details. Which family am I with? What have I said to whom? Who knows where I am supposed to be now? He hasn't got time to go into existential angst about it.
His worst nightmare is that he thinks his son by one woman might have fallen in love with his daughter by the other. He tries to keep them apart and keeps them off social media. Also, Andrew barely goes out. Kim has a fear of interacting with people, which has been a great advantage to him. As he has tried to keep the lie going, he's gently encouraged that.
In Episode 1, he worries that his two partners are going to meet in a restaurant. He constantly lives with that worry. I love the fact that he has an elaborate scheme for changing lives. He drives to the airport, swaps the SIM cards in his mobile, swaps cars, and puts fake luggage tags on his bags. Then he just picks up his other life.
Is it important Andrew's dilemma matters to us?
Yes. What I like about this show is it is as much a drama as a comedy. In any story, you want something to be at stake. He is potentially going to destroy two relationships and two children's lives. You read about it all the time. It must be miserable existence. When do you ever relax? You must even worry about saying things in your sleep.
So is this sort of secret double life actually quite common?
Yes. Talking to friends, I found out how common it is. Everyone knows someone who's done this. I met one cabbie who told me his dad had three women on the go. He had built up lives that the other people didn't know about. We can all relate to that in a way. We all have hobbies or read books our partners don't know about. This is that in extremis.
Would you like to do a second series of Bliss?
Definitely. David has lots of ideas about where it could go next. There are lots of places of desperation to take Andrew. He's inevitably heading towards disaster, but if you could make that car crash nice and slow and tormenting, then so much the better.
What did you think of filming in Bristol?
I love Bristol. We shot Dirk Gently in Bristol, and it is a nice mixture of the gritty and the seedy. It's got a life. Its neighbour, Bath, is slightly too together and too perfect. Bristol's past has given it a liveliness which I really enjoy.
Do you think we will all be able to relate to Andrew's dilemma?
Absolutely. We all make choices in life, and however much we love someone, we all still sometimes wonder, "What if? What if I'd married a different person? What other life could I be living?" That's a very human thought - the idea of another life is enticing. A lot of people feel they haven't got their due or haven't met the right person or are frustrated with their career or their lack of money. They think that there may be a better life out there. That's the funny thing about humans - we don't think, "Oh, there's a worse life out there. I could have a worse house or car."
What Andrew does is just an extreme version of the cheating we all do. We say we are on a diet, and then when we are on our own, we have a sneaky chocolate éclair. We think it's OK because no one has seen us eat it, and so we feel like we have got away with it. But of course, we haven't. It's like the fact we all walk around knowing we're going to die, and yet we don't scream about it. It's denial - and it's blissful. That's why Bliss is such a great title.