Q and A

It’s the story of Sam and his family and friends. It’s a comedy based on real life. Sam’s trying to set up a business from home with his friend Al, but life keeps getting in the way.

Well, it’s based on my life with a chunk of Julia Sutherland and Sanjeev Kohli’s life in there too.

I used to be a medical sales rep, before I set up Dabster Productions.

I work from home now, which is great, but it does throw up some challenges – mostly the TV, the fridge, my really comfy bed and a stream of children, family and other assorted visitors.

I wanted to tell the story because I think it’s funny, I find my life quite funny and when I turned some of my experiences into stand up comedy – the audience found them funny too. This seemed like the next natural stage. We’ve got loads more stories to tell too.

Not a bit, a lot. Everything in this sitcom is based on real life events. Almost nothing is made up.

We both do. Our kids are quite young (primary 2 and primary 4) and I’m morally opposed to homework at this stage in life! So we whip through it and concentrate on creating our own adventures, stories and mysteries.

Mostly my wife Emma, but sometimes I cook – I’m good at the “event” cooking – you know, the show off stuff.

I’m the best tidier, Emma’s the best at cleaning. We’re a team!

I’ve wanted to work with Sanjeev Kohli for a long time, I’m a huge fan of his writing, he’s got funny bones. He really brought my ideas to life with the script and was the natural choice to play the lead role. I’ve worked with Miles Jupp a lot over the years and I think he’s someone that can make breathing sound funny. I am always looking for opportunities to work with him. He’s a total natural. Julia Sutherland is getting better every day and is very much part of my team. We’ve got a new show on Radio 4 together and she’s presented a few other series for Dabster Productions. I think she’s going to be a very big star soon. She wrote some nice words here about her experiences of working on the show.