Sally Lindsay and Daniel Ryan interview
Sally Lindsay and Daniel Ryan, who play Lisa and Dan, talk about the third series of Mount Pleasant...
Hi Sally and Daniel. Have you enjoyed filming as much this time around?
Sally: I constantly enjoy this show. I love it. It's fun, light and clever. The people are brilliant.
Dan: We really look forward to it.
Sally: Everybody does. We're all lucky enough to do other projects but Mount Pleasant is very close to our hearts. Those two nutters, Nigel Harman and Samantha Womack, aren't bad company either.
Why is Mount Pleasant so popular?
Sally: It's us two, ain't it?
Dan: We're the magic.
Sally: Just joking!
Dan: People do relate to Dan and Lisa a lot.
Sally: It's Sarah Hooper's writing. It's a study of a modern marriage. Sometimes things in life collide, like when you meet the person you fall in love with. All of a sudden, it's not a compromise to be in love, nothing's hard. When you meet that person, it just clicks. It's just like that on this show because everything fits into place. We've all fallen in love with each other. Every cog in the Mount Pleasant machine works. It's really special, this show.
What's happened to Dan and Lisa since we last saw them?
Sally: In the first episode, all of a sudden, [the business] Reconnect is gone. Shelley has done a runner and Lisa's lost her best mate and job all in one day. She's destitute. Dan's biological clock is ticking and he wants to have a baby.
Dan: He thinks it's the right time and this is the push they need. They do all right; they have a couple of quid in the bank. As Dan does, he looks on the positive side, but things get in the way. A new business enterprise comes up and Dan isn't very happy about it.
Sally: There are also some sexy new neighbours.
It's all change in the first episode. It sounds like the cast all get along famously. Are there any anecdotes you'd care to share - or are allowed to share?
Sally: How many do you want? With or without alcohol? Dan and Nigel have a bromance going on. Samantha and I were going to do an I Know Him So Well duet for the wrap party, but during a night out in a karaoke bar, Dan and Nigel did it instead. They pulled out all the stops and brought the house down.
Dan: It was completely unrehearsed. I do know the song, though. We went in different directions on the harmonies and by the end we shared a little look to recognise that it was actually pretty good.
Sally: We laugh a lot on set.
Dan: It's great. We have people from so many backgrounds. Bobby Ball has the best showbiz stories.
Sally: There are only so many anecdotes you can hear about Cilla Black, but I do love them. It's the joy of sharing and wanting to pass it on to the younger ones. They share so much that I have to leave the room because my ears start bleeding.
Who is the most mischievous on set?
Sally: This year, it's been Nigel Harman.
Dan: He's a naughty one.
Sally: I'd get text messages on set and it'd be a video of him putting on a little show. It wasn't rude or anything.
Dan: The messages I got were. He did selfies of the wrong bits. During a dance scene he walks past me and no one will ever know the dodgy way he touched me!
Sally: He's always performing off camera while you're doing a scene, but you have to try to keep a straight face.
Would you say Series 3 is the best yet?
Sally: I've loved them all but the characters are the most developed they've ever been. Confidence comes with that and it translates on screen.
Dan: I think it is the best. This new series easily welcomes viewers who have never seen it before, but if you've been with it since the beginning the pay-offs are the biggest. The journey for an audience is huge.