Coupling (UK TV series)
Encyclopedia
Coupling is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television sitcom written by Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...

 that aired on BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films
Hartswood Films
Hartswood Films is a British television production company, founded and run by producer Beryl Vertue. The company is noted for its sitcom output, which includes Men Behaving Badly, Is It Legal? and Coupling...

 for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, the show centres on the dating and sexual
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

 adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three men each talking among themselves about the same events, but in entirely different terms.

The series was inspired by Moffat's relationship with producer Sue Vertue
Sue Vertue
Sue Vertue is a British television producer. She has produced many comedy shows, including Mr. Bean and Coupling.Vertue worked for Tiger Aspect, a production company run by Peter Bennett-Jones, where she produced episodes of Mr. Bean, The Vicar of Dibley and Gimme Gimme Gimme.Vertue met writer...

, to the extent that they gave their names to two of the characters. Coupling is an example of the "group-genre", an ensemble show that had proven popular at the time. Critics compared the show to the American sitcoms Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

and Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

.

The critical reaction was largely positive, and the show was named "Best TV Comedy" at the 2003 British Comedy Awards
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...

. The show debuted to unimpressive ratings, but its popularity soon increased and by the end of the third series the show had achieved decent ratings in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The series began airing on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 stations and on BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in late 2002 and quickly gained a devoted fanbase there as well. The show is syndicated around the world. Short-lived American
Coupling (U.S. TV series)
Coupling is a 2003 American remake of the British television sitcom of the same title which aired on NBC.-Reception:It failed to perform in the ratings and was canceled before the November sweeps, with several episodes remaining unaired despite heavy publicity by the network. It was immediately...

 and Greek
Coupling (Greek TV series)
Coupling is a 2007 Greek remake of the British television sitcom of the same title which aired on ANT1.The show was directed by Stephanos Kodomari, and written by Tina Kampitsi.The series started being broadcast on November 15 2007 at 23:00....

 adaptations were briefly produced in 2003 and 2007 respectively.

Inception

Moffat had used the breakdown of his first marriage as inspiration for his 1990s sitcom Joking Apart
Joking Apart
Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky , who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced...

. Retaining this semi-autobiographical trend, Coupling was based on him meeting his wife, Sue Vertue, and on the issues that arise in new relationships.

According to an interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Moffat met Vertue at the Edinburgh International Television Festival
Edinburgh International Television Festival
The Edinburgh International Television Festival, founded in 1976, is held annually over the British August bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre....

 in 1996. Vertue had been working for Tiger Aspect, a production company run by Peter Bennett-Jones
Peter Bennett-Jones
Peter Bennett-Jones is a British TV producer and agent best known as the former owner of Tiger Aspect. He has also represented actors such as Rowan Atkinson and Harry Enfield with his company PBJ Management....

. Bennett-Jones and his friend and former colleague Andre Ptaszynski
Andre Ptaszynski
André Ptaszynski is a British theatre producer. He studied English at Jesus College, Oxford.He was Chief Executive of the Really Useful Group from 2005 to 2011 and Chief Executive of Really Useful Theatres from 2000 to 2005...

, who had worked with Moffat on the sitcoms Joking Apart and Chalk
Chalk (TV series)
Chalk is a British television sitcom set in a comprehensive school named Galfast High. Two series, both written by Steven Moffat, were broadcast on BBC1 in 1997...

, told Moffat and Vertue that each fancied the other. A relationship blossomed and they left their respective production companies to join Hartswood Films
Hartswood Films
Hartswood Films is a British television production company, founded and run by producer Beryl Vertue. The company is noted for its sitcom output, which includes Men Behaving Badly, Is It Legal? and Coupling...

, run by Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue is an English television producer and media executive. She is founder and chairman of the independent television production company Hartswood Films....

, Sue's mother. After production wrapped on Chalk in 1997, Moffat announced to the cast that he was marrying Vertue.

When she eventually asked him to write a sitcom for Hartswood, he decided to base it around the evolution of their own relationship. Drunk one evening, he went into her office, wrote the word "Coupling" on a sheet of paper and told her to ask him about it later.

The couple formed the basis for the main characters Steve and Susan. The four other characters are Steve and Susan's best friends and last ex-relationships (one of each for both Steve and Susan); they represent the extremes of confidence and paranoia between the sexes when it comes to relationships. The two main characters are left to negotiate their own relationship as illuminated by these extremes. The fourth episode, "Inferno", was written shortly after Vertue had found a similar tape in the VCR, although Moffat added the 'spanking
Spanking
Spanking refers to the act of striking the buttocks of another person to cause temporary pain without producing physical injury. It generally involves one person striking the buttocks of another person with an open hand. When an open hand is used, spanking is referred to in some countries as...

' element to the script as he "didn't think the real tape was quite pervy enough.'"

The show used the "group-genre", a type of programme using ensemble casts that was proving popular, with then-recent successes as Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

, This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....

(also starring Davenport) and Cold Feet
Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...

. Moffat, according to the Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
The Birmingham Post newspaper was originally published under the name Daily Post in Birmingham, England, in 1857 by John Frederick Feeney. It was the largest selling broadsheet in the West Midlands, though it faced little if any competition in this category. It changed to tabloid size in 2008...

, "is a huge fan of the group genre and claims its success works because it reflects modern society. He believes that traditional sitcoms fail to reflect the increased freedoms young people now have in society." The newspaper quotes Moffat, "Young people watch because it is the lifestyle which is just ahead of them and older people reminisce. Coupling is about two people who get together and bring with them baggage from their past, friends and ex-partners - people who would never meet under normal circumstances. It deals in the kind of trivia people talk about, important questions like. when should a man take off his socks during foreplay?" Moffat thinks, as the Birmingham Post paraphrase, "the group show is very much a late 20th century invention and would not have been popular with television viewers of previous generations." Moffat comments,

Friends would have run for only half a series if it had been set during my parents' time. I am sure there has always been misbehaving by people before they settle down, but there was this perception that anyone who ever got married before the 60s was a virgin. What has changed is that all important gap between having left mummy and daddy and becoming a parent yourself. This is the time in which you make decisions which will define you. These few years are pivotal and they are getting longer. There are now people running round with disposable incomes who still want to do lots of things before they settle down to one partner.

Writing

According to Vertue, Steven Moffat wrote at the top of their house. Once he finished a script she read it two floors away so that he could not hear her laughing. The producer says that his first drafts were "pretty much ready to shoot". She did not give him many notes; she would tick all of the places where she laughed, and then he revised the script accordingly.

The humour of the show, according to Moffat, is in the context. He says that there are "no jokes per se" and if they did put jokes in, they were normally taken out because they did not work. He found writing the show difficult at first because he was writing his own voice six times over, with none of the characteristics and inflections of the performers to inspire him.

The use of techniques that are unconventional in sitcoms, such as split screen
Split screen (film)
In film and video production, split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye...

 and non-linear narrative
Nonlinear (arts)
Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, hypertext websites and other narratives, wherein events are portrayed out of chronological order...

s were not originally intended. The first series episode "The Girl with Two Breasts", in which half of the episode is in Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

, proved so popular that they tried to do something similar every series. Moffat says that the simplicity of the setting encouraged an "epic, ridiculous way of telling an ordinary story." The opening episode of series three, "Split", uses split screen to simultaneously depict what happens with Steve and Susan after separating. The series four opener, "Nine and a Half Minutes", depicts the same events in the bar from three different perspectives.

Rehearsals

Rehearsals for Coupling took place in a church hall off Kensington High Street
Kensington High Street
Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, west London. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

. British sitcoms, unlike their American counterparts, usually cannot afford to occupy a studio facility for the entire run.

The actors received their scripts on Friday mornings. They had a read-through, the timing of which usually resulted in Moffat cutting minutes worth of material. Director Martin Dennis worked out the camera script on Saturday afternoons. After a day off on Sundays, the sets were erected for a producer's run on Mondays, and then a technical run on Tuesdays. Much of Wednesday was spent camera blocking, a process which regularly over-ran at the expense of a dress-rehearsal.

As the actors became familiar with the material, they would sometimes expand a joke. However, according to Moffat, this could complicate a joke too much for an audience coming to the material for the first time. Martin Dennis, according to Moffat, regularly told the actors, "You know that funny thing you're doing? Don't do that." The director encouraged them to deliver lines as well as in the read-through.

Recording

All of the location sequences for each series were filmed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in the first week of each production block. As Moffat was generally late delivering the final few scripts of each series, those episodes contained no location material. The exterior shots of the bar were filmed in Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

 in the first series. After a nearby Thai restaurant complained that filming was disrupting their business, a street just off Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, United Kingdom, running from St Giles Circus north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile...

 was used from series two. The house in which Moffat and Vertue lived at the time was used as the exterior for Steve's flat, with the surrounding area used for other sequences.
Episodes were mostly filmed in front of a live studio audience at Teddington Studios
Teddington Studios
Teddington Studios is a large British television studio complex located in Teddington, South-West London, providing studio facilities for programmes airing on BBC television, ITV, and Channel 4 along with others...

 in South West London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...

 on Wednesday evenings. Sue Vertue says that the live audience reinvigorated the company because no-one had laughed at the material for a few days as everyone knew it so well. The performers were introduced to the studio audience by the warm-up comedian, who also updated them about any important plot detail, and entertained them while cameras and sets were being repositioned. Rob Rouse
Rob Rouse
Rob Rouse is an English comedian known for his hyperactive brand of humour.-Overview:Before becoming a comedian, Rouse was a geography teacher...

 fulfilled this role for the fourth series.

Material that was technically difficult was filmed the day before the recording with the live studio audience. An example would be a dinner-table sequence, where some characters would be filmed against the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...

, rather than the often-used contrived method of cramming everyone together around the proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...

. Readjusting the set and refilming against the fourth wall would have been too time consuming. However, the absence of the studio audiences made it more difficult for the actors to judge the timing of the laughs. For instance, Moffat says that this prevented Gina Bellman from "milking" a particular laugh in the episode "Dressed", an episode in which most of her scenes were pre-recorded as she was wearing minimal clothing on set to provide the illusion of complete nudity. Any pre-recorded sequences were tightened in the editing process once the scenes had been played to the studio audience.

Despite some critics' comments, all of the laughter in Coupling was from a genuine live studio audience. Although artificial, canned laughter was not used, the laughter sometimes had to be tweaked during the editing process. For instance, the studio audience might laugh for longer than the home audience might be expected to. Also, the audience's laughter decreased if a scene has to go through multiple take
Take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.-Film:In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup"...

s; in these cases the laughter from an early take would be used.

Moffat felt uncomfortable during the studio recording as he felt rather powerless. Sitting in the gallery, he wrote the word 'help' repeatedly on the back of his script. In an interview he says he was aware that their most successful show received the least amount of laughter from the studio audience. Conversely, studio audiences reacted emphatically to his previous studio sitcom, Chalk
Chalk (TV series)
Chalk is a British television sitcom set in a comprehensive school named Galfast High. Two series, both written by Steven Moffat, were broadcast on BBC1 in 1997...

, yet it received a poor critical reception upon transmission. Martin Dennis would start editing from the following Monday afternoon. The episodes were then colour graded
Color grading
Color grading or colour painting, is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. The photo-chemical process is also referred to as color timing and is typically performed at a photographic...

 and dubbed with sound effects and music.

Mari Wilson
Mari Wilson
Mari Wilson is an English singer, best known for her sometimes quirky, early 1960s-influenced pop music songs, and her beehive hairstyle.-Career:...

 performed the song "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" for the title sequence. The title sequence, as Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...

 described, consists of "brightly coloured and suggestive shapes swirl around the screen: circles, curves and angles tumble like limbs locked together in sex. As the names of the actors discreetly sweep across in black lettering, the bright shapes form the title: Coupling." Lawson calls the design, "elegant simplicity, showing how a clever choice of theme tune can evoke an atmosphere and set a pace to which images can be cut." The colour scheme was changed for the fourth series, although the basic design remained.

Characters

Coupling is almost entirely based around the antics of the six main characters. The show was inspired by Moffat's relationship with producer Sue Vertue, to the extent that they gave their names to two of the characters. Coupling features no other recurring characters that last beyond a few episodes. In the series, "the women are mainly confident and sexually quite voracious, whilst the blokes are completely useless, riddled with self doubt and awkwardness."

Steve Taylor (Jack Davenport
Jack Davenport
Jack Davenport is an English actor, best known for his roles in the television series This Life, Coupling and as James Norrington in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He has also appeared in many other Hollywood films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley...

) is in the process of breaking off his relationship with Jane as the series begins. The remainder of the series shows the development of a relationship with Susan, from dating, proposal of marriage, and, as the series concludes, becoming father to her baby. No reference is made to Steve's job during the series, but in a DVD commentary, Moffat mentions that Steve is, like him, a writer.
Moffat had used the surname "Taylor" for Robert Bathurst
Robert Bathurst
Robert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...

's character in his earlier sitcom Joking Apart
Joking Apart
Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky , who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced...

. The name is also that of a Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

 companion played by Peter Purves
Peter Purves
Peter Purves is an English television presenter and actor.Purves was born in New Longton, near Preston, Lancashire, and was educated at the independent Arnold School in Blackpool, he had originally planned to go into teaching, training at Alsager College of Education, but began to act with the...

.

According to the BBC's website, Steve "tries to be the voice of reason while talking to his mates over a pint, but more often than not he stumbles into more complex and ridiculous situations than any of them." Writer Moffat says that Steve

can be just as erratic as Jeff can be, and certainly in the first part of the series, he remonstrates with Jeff for his madness. At the same time he tells Patrick off for being ruthless with women, and yet the evidence shows that Steve himself is a bit of a bastard. For example he asks Susan out on a date while he's having sex with Jane. He is quite typical of having all the same lusts and appetites as Patrick while also having the nervousness of Jeff and the new character Oliver. He forms a compromise of a politically correct weasel, which helps him to believe that he's a decent chap. Actually he's really too frightened of Susan to misbehave!


Susan Walker (Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander is an English actress, known for her roles in various British comedy series such as Armstrong and Miller, Smack the Pony, Coupling, The Worst Week of My Life and Green Wing....

) – Best friend to Sally, girlfriend/fiancée to Steve and ex-girlfriend of Patrick, Susan is one of Jeff's co-workers. Susan is usually very sensible and organised, a fact often resented by her friends Sally and Jane. Susan can be very insecure and often takes this out on Steve. When angry she will generally say "apparently," a habit first noted in the first series episode "Inferno" and shown to be inherited from her mother in "My Dinner in Hell". In the series 1 episode "Size Matters" it is implied that Susan views Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...

 in the same way that Steve views Mariella Frostrup
Mariella Frostrup
Mariella Frostrup is a Norwegian-born journalist and television presenter, well known on British TV and radio, mainly for arts programmes. Her 'gravelly' voice was once voted the sexiest female voice on TV, and research to find 'the perfect voice' has indicated that Frostrup's voice is one of the...

, even keeping two pictures of him hidden in her bedroom. Steve and Susan's various arguments and differences of opinion make up a majority of the comic exchanges between them. Susan is a successful career woman, speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 fluently, and takes her work life very seriously. Whilst Susan's job is never directly referred to, she works alongside Jeff, an accountant, and she reveals she has a degree in Economics. In series 4, she has a baby boy with Steve.

Jeff Murdock (Richard Coyle
Richard Coyle
Richard Coyle is an English actor.-Early life:Coyle was born in Sheffield, England to Irish parents. He began his acting career after a stint working on a ferry entertaining passengers, where he was told by a theatre director that he had a talent and should pursue it further...

) – Best friend to Steve and co-worker to Susan, whom he has dated once. Jeff's constant sexual frustration, ridiculous stories and fantasies about women and sex make up a major part of the comedy. Jeff is terrible at talking to women, often stumbling and unintentionally making up lie upon lie in an attempt to avoid looking stupid. These always backfire on him. He is known for a fondness for the word "breasts", often muttering it during conversations. From tidbits he occasionally lets slip, it appears that his problems can largely be traced back to his eccentric and domineering mother (who appears in 2.8, "Naked", played by Anwen Williams). Jeff works as an accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...

 in an office with Susan, and it is through him that Steve and Susan initially meet. Jeff leaves the series in the 4th series, but returns in a dream sequence in Steve's imagination in the final episode, "Nine and a Half Months"; portrayed by Samantha Spiro
Samantha Spiro
Samantha Spiro is an Olivier Award-winning English actress. She is known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick and the television film Cor, Blimey!, and DI Vivien Friend in M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team.-Background:Born in Mill Hill, Spiro grew up...

, "Jeffina" has undergone sex-reassignment surgery whilst living on the island of Lesbos
Lesbos Island
Lesbos is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with 320 kilometres of coastline, making it the third largest Greek island. It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait....

, in a failed attempt to see another woman naked again.
Richard Coyle
Richard Coyle
Richard Coyle is an English actor.-Early life:Coyle was born in Sheffield, England to Irish parents. He began his acting career after a stint working on a ferry entertaining passengers, where he was told by a theatre director that he had a talent and should pursue it further...

 quit his role as Jeff before the fourth series.

Sally Harper (Kate Isitt
Kate Isitt
Kate Isitt is an English actress who is best known for her role as beauty therapist Sally Harper in the BBC television situation comedy Coupling....

) – Best friend to Susan (and girlfriend to Patrick by series 4), Sally is obsessed with her own appearance and constantly worries about the effects of aging and life in general on her looks. Her worst fear seems to be of dying alone, but she seems totally inept at relationships due to her frequent paranoia which tends to make her out as a very mean spirited woman. Sally runs her own beauty parlour and is a successful businesswoman, but out of the entire group, she is the most insecure and resentful. A Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 supporter, she finds it difficult to reconcile this with her attraction to Patrick, a Tory
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

.

Patrick Maitland (Ben Miles
Ben Miles
Ben Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the British TV comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004.-Life and career:...

) – Ex-boyfriend to Susan (and Sally's boyfriend by series 4), Patrick has a one-track mind: sex. This gives him a very narrow view of women, but he is great at courting them. Frequent references are made to his rather large penis; Susan nicknames him "donkey" and "tripod," sparking much of Sally's initial interest in him despite her other objections. Although intelligent, Patrick has a habit of saying things without thinking that give the impression that he is rather dense. Two explanations for this given in the series are his own claim that he 'doesn't have a subconscious' and thus 'nothing is going on' in his head and Sally's remark that there's not enough blood in his body for 'both ends' (making reference to his abnormally large penis). He is very good at getting women to bed, and cannot comprehend meeting a woman and not having sex with her. It is revealed in the fourth series that he generally leaves in middle of the night. In one episode it is revealed that unbeknownst to him, a woman from his past made a vibrator
Vibrator (sex toy)
Vibrators are devices for the body and skin, to stimulate the nerves for a relaxing and pleasurable feeling. Some vibrators are designed to ergonomically stimulate erogenous zones for erotic stimulation.-History:...

 from a plaster cast of Patrick's erect penis and marketed as the Junior Patrick; the box clearly has a 10-inch measurement on the side when seen later in the episode. Patrick's love of the ladies often backfires, and the series frequently features story lines about his possessive lovers and ex-lovers. Patrick is a successful businessman and is very competitive with others in the same business, but he does have a vague sense of loyalty to his friends. He collects videos of nights with his girlfriends in his rather large "cupboard of love." Patrick proposes to Sally in the last episode when she finds the engagement ring in the cupboard, but her answer is left unknown.

Jane Christie (Gina Bellman
Gina Bellman
Gina Bellman is a New Zealand-born British actress currently starring in the series Leverage as Sophie Devereaux for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in Television.-Personal life:...

) – Ex-long-time partner of Steve, Jane is very possessive, and despite breaking up with Steve in the first episode, she never truly seems to let go. Jane has a problem talking to men, often coming on much too strong and appearing desperate or rude to others in her pursuit of a man. Her character also seems to not be too bright, perhaps even disturbed, and is known to be incredibly self obsessed, as shown in a second series episode when a 'subtext detector' shows that the only thing she ever really means when talking is the word "Me". In the fourth series, everyone starts referring to her as being "mad." Jane claims to be bisexual, although we have never actually seen her date a woman. Susan time and again expresses scepticism, so this claim may be a ploy to entice men. However, Susan (for her own reasons) French kisses Jane in the fourth series and Jane seems to be overwhelmed but enjoys it. However, her claim is also successfully challenged by Oliver Morris in the fourth series, where he points out that she is indeed not bisexual. Jane works in a local radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 as a traffic reporter, and is popular mainly due to her flirtatious nature and sexually explicit reports. She was once briefly fired for telling all the drivers to close their eyes to centre themselves and changing the names of streets for her own amusement, among other things, but was re-hired due to her popularity.

Oliver Morris (Richard Mylan
Richard Mylan
Richard Mylan is a British stage and television actor and former dancer.He was born in Swansea in 1973. There he attended the Birchgrove junior school, where he played rugby and in 1982 won the Swansea heat of the British 'Disco Kids Championships'...

) is introduced in the fourth series and eventually becomes involved with Jane. He runs a local science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 media store called "Hellmouths" and has been out of a relationship for several months. Oliver often has a very cynical outlook, but is prone to accidents, often making a fool of himself in the process. He is sometimes shown gearing himself up to meet women and have sex by thinking to himself, which the audience can hear. The geekiness of his job is also used for comic effect. Oliver also seems to have inherited Jeff's inability to talk to women, however, unlike Jeff he believes himself to be a ladies' man, or in his thoughts' words "a woman-killer, I mean lady-killer...". Oliver has a tendency to use the word 'craziness' frequently in conversations, usually as an attempt to alleviate tension when he starts blabbering. Richard Mylan has said in interview that it took a long time for people to accept his character due to Jeff's popularity.

Other characters

Julia Davis (Lou Gish
Lou Gish
Lou Gish was an English stage, film and television actress. She was born as Louise Curram in 1967, the elder daughter of the actor Roland Curram and the actress Sheila Gish. Her partner at her death was Nicholas Rowe. She acted with her sister Kay Curram in King Lear at the Chichester Festival...

) appears in five episodes spanning over series 2 and 3. She first appears in "Naked", as the new head of department in the office where Jeff and Susan work. Julia and Jeff soon fall for each other due to their shared inability to hold a reasonable conversation with a member of the opposite sex. Despite overcoming the inevitable troubles with each other, their relationship ends when Julia's ex, Joe, a soldier, returns from the front line believing Julia to still be his girlfriend. After finding Julia chained to the bed in her room dressed in bondage
Bondage (BDSM)
Bondage is the use of restraints for the sexual pleasure of the parties involved. It may be used in its own right, as in the case of rope bondage and breast bondage, or as part of sexual activity or BDSM activity.- Private bondage :...

 gear, Joe attacks Jeff. In the final episode of series 3, Jeff explains that Julia and Joe have left together to discover their feelings for each other, in Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

.

Tamsin (Olivia Caffrey) is Oliver's Irish ex-girlfriend, who left him for unknown reasons around six months prior to the beginning of the fourth series, and has since become pregnant by another man, with whom she has now split. She befriends Susan at an antenatal
Obstetrics
Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

 class and is also revealed to be one of Patrick's many ex-girlfriends. Tamsin and Oliver seem to have a sour relationship, as is shown over the three episodes in which she features, but also refers to him as a cross between brother and sister.

James (Lloyd Owen
Lloyd Owen
Lloyd Owen is a British actor of Welsh descent. Trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, he is probably best known for his portrayal of Indiana Jones's father Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr...

) appears in three episodes of series three. He hosts the religious programme at the radio station where Jane works, and Jane pretends to have an interest in religion in order to become his girlfriend. Jane is devastated to find he does not believe in sex before marriage, and even more so to find that he had a fervent sex life before finding God, which included a night with Susan. He leaves on a trip to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 at the end of '"The Freckle, the Key, and the Couple Who Weren't", and returns in "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps", just as Jane is expressing her amazement that the many sexual encounters she has had while he was away have not made her pregnant ("I have shagged and shagged and shagged and all the little bastards missed!"). At this point Jane decides she is better off without him.

Jill (Elizabeth Marmur) appears in an episode of series 1 and once again in series 4. In the first series, Jill is Jane's therapist whom Jane constantly manages to manipulate. She is dragged to a dinner party with Jane in an episode called "Inferno" where everyone assumes she is a lesbian. She witnesses one of Steve's monologues about loving naked bottoms when the subject of one of his videos, Lesbian Spank Inferno, comes up. Jill reappears in the fourth series as a pregnancy specialist; "Moved on from therapy after your friend Jane...".

Episodes

Four series of Coupling were produced for the BBC. The first series of six episodes was broadcast on Friday evenings from 12 May to 16 June 2000. Nine episodes were commissioned for the second series, which was broadcast on Monday evenings in Autumn 2001. The third series, consisting of seven episodes, were broadcast a year later. The first three series first aired on BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

, but the fourth series was first broadcast on BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

 in May and June 2004, although repeated on BBC Two a few months later.

The BBC approached Moffat about writing a fifth series, but other commitments made it impossible to gather the cast. Moffat moved on to write acclaimed episodes for the revived science fiction series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

(becoming the show's executive producer for the fifth series). Moffat provided some short storyline "conclusions" about the eventual fate of the characters on the website Outpost Gallifrey
Outpost Gallifrey
Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...

.

Reception

Critical reception was generally positive. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

s Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...

 applauded Moffat's writing, specifically assessing the episode "The Girl with Two Breasts" as "comic writing of astonishing originality and invention." The
Daily Record called the show "frank and funny." Writing in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

, Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...

, then Director of Television at the BBC, mentioned Moffat's earlier sitcoms
Joking Apart and Chalk to suggest "ambition in television is also about sharing the long road to originality and creative achievement." The Guardian also comments, "Moffat ... has long seemed to me one of the most original TV writers and it's good that ratings-crazed television has persevered with him. His particular talent is for intricately plotted sexual farce." Commenting on the second series, the Mail on Sunday reported "Coupling is still the funniest thing around... Writer Steven Moffat's inventive grasp of comic structure is immense, and these characters make a great ensemble." The Times commented, "Steven Moffat is turning out to be one of the boldest, most inventive, sitcom writers around." Scholar James Monaco comments that Coupling is "witty and elegantly structured ... [taking] the Seinfeld/Friends model to new heights with intricately wrought plots built on the interactions of six young friends. Replete with rich dialogue and bright timing it renewed the British comedy franchise."

Various journalists compared the show to the American sitcoms
Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

and Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

. Melbourne's The Age commented that the show was "as a 'highly original' and 'unrestricted' cross of Friends and Seinfeld", while The Guardians Mark Lawson similarly said, "British commissioners have long dreamed that some local comedy lab would clone Friends or Seinfield. Moffat's managed to cross them while creating a series which feels highly original." Further comparisons were made to Friends when NBC commissioned an American version of the show in 2003, although some newspapers still pointed out that Coupling "owes much to Seinfeld, with laugh-out-loud riffs on 'unflushable' exes, escalating 'giggle loops' during solemn moments of silence and 'porn buddies,' who in the event of your sudden demise will remove all of the naughty pictures and videos from your flat before your parents arrive." New York's Daily News, which quotes Moffat "boozier, smokier, more shag-infested series" than Friends, also thought that "some characters ... have ties closer to Seinfeld ... Jane, who, despite her beauty, is so abrasive she's like a female Newman
Newman (Seinfeld)
Newman is a recurring character on the television show Seinfeld, played by Wayne Knight from 1991 until the show's finale in 1998.-Background:...

. And Richard Coyle's Jeff is very much like Kramer
Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...

: He's uncomfortable in a topless club, he explains, because he equates the women to 'porn that can see you'."

The show was named "Best TV Comedy" at the 2003 British Comedy Awards
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...

.

The programme was thought to have ended when the American network NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 began work on an American adaptation, which NBC was reportedly hoping to position as a replacement for Friends. Unlike most American adaptations, this show was intended to be a word-for-word duplicate of the British version, except that it was shortened to allow for the shorter running time of North American 'half hour' shows. The programme was attacked in the press long before the first episode aired, because it was more sexually explicit than typical American television. The US version was cancelled after airing just four episodes. It starred Rena Sofer
Rena Sofer
Rena Sherel Sofer is an American actress, primarily known for her appearances in daytime television, episodic guest appearances, and made-for-television movies...

 and Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger is an English actress known for her roles in the ABC series Lost as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, and as Olivia Benford on ABC's FlashForward.-Education:...

, among others. Gina Bellman
Gina Bellman
Gina Bellman is a New Zealand-born British actress currently starring in the series Leverage as Sophie Devereaux for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in Television.-Personal life:...

, who plays Jane in the British series, made a cameo appearance in the first episode.

All four series were released in the UK, US, Israel, Canada, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, the Benelux countries
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...

, Kenya, Turkey and Latin America. In India, some episodes were telecast on the BBC and Series 1 is available on VCD. A Greek adaptation
Coupling (Greek TV series)
Coupling is a 2007 Greek remake of the British television sitcom of the same title which aired on ANT1.The show was directed by Stephanos Kodomari, and written by Tina Kampitsi.The series started being broadcast on November 15 2007 at 23:00....

 was broadcast on ANT1
ANT1
Antenna, better known as ANT1, is a television network airing in Greece and Cyprus. The alternate spelling is play on words in Greek; ena is the Greek number 1, thus ANT1 is pronounced the same as Antenna . It launched on 31 December 1989, the same year as rival Mega Channel, and is owned by...

in 2007 and 2008.

External links

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