Trying returning for Series 5
- Apple TV+ has ordered a fifth series of its family comedy Trying
- Starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith, the streamer's first British scripted original resumes filming in London this summer
- Smith and Spall, a couple in real life, have had their own child since the fourth series aired last year
Trying is returning for a fifth series on Apple TV+, with filming set to resume in London this summer, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
Starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith as a couple who adopt after it emerges that they cannot conceive, Trying's recommission is a show of faith from the streamer for it's first British scripted original show, which began in 2020 and has run to 32 episodes so far.
Created by lead writer Andy Wolton, himself an adoptee, the relationship comedy co-stars Darren Boyd, Siân Brooke, Phil Davis and Oliver Chris, with Imelda Staunton, Ophelia Lovibond and Paula Wilcox.
Streaming last year, Series 4 jumped forward six years in the lives of Nikki (Smith) and Jason (Spall) and their kids Tyler (Cooper Turner) and Princess (Scarlett Rayner), finishing with dramatic developments in the latter's quest to find her birth mother, alongside a cliffhanger about the fate of another main character.
Reviews for Trying have generally been strong, with the Observer remarking of the fourth series that it "meanders too often into the saccharine zone, but it also has heart, charm and a cracking ensemble", while the Daily Mail called the BBC Studios production "the best comedy-drama currently on TV that you've never seen".
Smith and Spall, a couple in real life, had their own baby last year.
Before the birth, when asked by Lorraine Kelly on her daytime ITV show if the pregnancy could be woven into future storylines, Smith revealed that they were "hoping" for a Series 5.
"We'll have a baby, and then we'll carry on, perhaps, with that [Trying]," she added.
As reported by BCG yesterday, Apple TV+ has also just announced another London-set comedy drama, The Husbands, starring Juno Temple as a woman who discovers an infinite number of husbands coming out of her attic.