Sitting at the table, watching old sitcoms out of the corner of her eye while having tea with her family, helped Esther Smith develop her comic chops.
‘I was a fan of The Good Life and Dad’s Army when I was growing up,’ the 33-year-old West Midlands-born actress told me. ‘When I got older, it was onto Blackadder and darker comedies like League Of Gentleman.’
Her funny bone was honed further at school. ‘I wore glasses and had braces, and that can leave you with a bit of a complex. So I tried to be funny. Maybe it came from there,’ she mused as we chatted over the telephone recently to discuss her starring role as Nikki, opposite Rafe Spall’s Jason, in Trying, Apple TV+’ s first British-made series.
Slice of life: Esther Smith and Rafe Spall star in Trying, for Apple TV+
Esther Smith and Rafe Spall in ‘Trying,’ premiering May 1
The show, full of laughs one minute, sadness the next, is about a couple living in London’s Camden Town and struggling to start a family. When they decide to go down the adoption route, they find themselves thwarted by class-driven rejection — and their own anxieties.
‘She’s trying to appear as if she knows what she’s doing,’ Smith said of Nikki, who works as an ‘analyst’ at a car rental firm. With Jason teaching at a language school, the couple live in rented accommodation, just about making ends meet.
‘She feels like everyone around her has got it all sorted, but actually you see that every character has their own struggle — with everything.
The show, full of laughs one minute, sadness the next, is about a couple living in London’s Camden Town and struggling to start a family. When they decide to go down the adoption route, they find themselves thwarted by class-driven rejection — and their own anxieties
‘I often feel like that myself,’ she admitted.
Readers may recognise Smith from her appearances on the small screen, including five years playing Rachel in the BBC comedy Cuckoo, which is now in re-runs on Netflix.
Made for Apple TV+ by the BBC, Trying, which has already been renewed for a second season before its air date of May 1 (a sign of just how good it is), is packed with the best of our talent.
Esther Smith and Rafe Spall in ‘Trying,’ premiering May 1 on Apple TV+
Imelda Staunton is priceless as the couple’s adoption social worker, who had me with: ‘I’ll need biscuits!’ Ophelia Lovibond and Oliver Chris play Nikki and Jason’s best friends. Sian Brooks is her sister, Marian McLoughlin plays her mum; and Paula Wilcox (forever knocking back a glass of white wine, or four) and Phil Davis are her in-laws.
Director Jim O’Hanlon (Catastrophe) shot on locations in NW London; and one day Smith found herself filming a scene in a pub where she’d once worked. ‘That was really nice to see. In a different life, I was there trying to make ends meet. And then cut to however many years later, and I’m filming there for Apple and the BBC.’
Trying’s humour and heartache is underpinned by Andy Wolton’s scripts (Wolton himself is adopted). And Smith told me: ‘The battle is to try to convince all these different people — quite rightly, because you’re dealing with a child. But it struck me how hard it must be, having to prove yourself a good candidate to be a parent.’
Nikki’s so earnest that at one point she grabs a bloke’s mobile because she thinks he’s ignoring his children. Turns out they aren’t his. But the phone ends up in a pond on Hampstead Heath.
Intimate portrait of desire and love
Daisy Edgar-Jones was head girl at school so never dreamt of sassing her teachers in the scornful manner displayed by Marianne, the character she totally inhabits in the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-seller Normal People.
It’s a tale of intense love across the social divide in Ireland. Over four years, Marianne and Connell (a fine Paul Mescal), both pictured, break each other’s hearts, first at school in Sligo, and later at Trinity College, Dublin.
Despite being privileged, on some level Marianne ‘doesn’t feel worthy’, Londoner Edgar-Jones, 21 (whose mother is originally from Northern Ireland) told me. ‘She has a terrible view of herself that comes out in defensiveness or rudeness.’ But it’s just a façade — one that only Connell can cut through.
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal in BBC’s Normal People
Mescal said Connell’s just a young man ‘negotiating his own anxieties . . . he’s not a hero and he’s not a villain’
Mescal, 24, from Maynooth in County Kildare, does have something in common with his character — they are both athletic
Mescal, 24, from Maynooth in County Kildare, does have something in common with his character — they are both athletic. In the 12-part series directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald, his mother works as a cleaner at the big white house Marianne shares with her lawyer mother and elder brother.
Mescal said Connell’s just a young man ‘negotiating his own anxieties . . . he’s not a hero and he’s not a villain’.
Marianne challenges his prospects by pointing him towards university. ‘That hadn’t been on his map of his life.’
Normal People will run in full on BBC 3 iPlayer from Sunday, and on BBC1 from Monday
Their romance is superbly captured on screen, which they put down to intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien
Their romance is superbly captured on screen, which they put down to intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien. ‘She made it easy,’ Edgar-Jones said, ‘Which meant Paul and I could concentrate on acting. Those scenes are so integral and we wanted to do them justice. They’re not there for the sake of it!’
Afterwards, they laughed ‘at how bizarre it all was’, Mescal recalled, during our three-way conference call. Edgar-Jones agreed. ‘As soon as they yelled ‘Cut!’ we got the giggles. It was always a closed set. It looks good on screen though, so that was good.’
■ Normal People will run in full on BBC 3 iPlayer from Sunday, on BBC1 from Monday, and on Stan in Australia.
Afterwards, they laughed ‘at how bizarre it all was’, Mescal recalled, during our three-way conference call