(Right: Philip
Glenister, Lesley Sharp, Rosie Day & Brenock O’Connor)
Living
the Dream – ITV Choice’s new six-part series – is a
comedy drama which follows the lives of the Pembertons who are about to leave
rain-soaked England to run a caravan park in sunny Florida. But as soon as they
get there, they being to realise that the American dream is not all it’s
cracked up to be.
The show debuts on ITV Choice (DStv 123) on
Monday, November 25, 2019, at 20h00.
Philip Glenister, who plays the father Mal
Pemberton, is best known for his roles in the award-winning drama series Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes and Outcast. He talks about the appeal of Living the Dream, the fun of doing
lighter material and what he most enjoyed about working with his fellow cast
members including Lesley Sharp, who plays his wife Jen, and Rosie Day and
Brenock O'Connor as their children Tina and Freddie.
The following are extracts from an
interview with Philip Glenister:
What
was the appeal of Living the Dream? Were you intentionally seeking out
something lighter?
I was finishing off shooting the second
season of Outcast, when I was sent a
script about a British family that move to Florida that was going to be filmed
in Savannah. Savannah is amazing; it’s like a giant film set and my family were
able to be with me and we shot for a couple of months in great locations. We
filmed on this pastureland in a wood that was on a real trailer park. During
the day, it got very hot and humid but it was fun.
What
attracted you to this series?
The first thing that appealed to me was the
fact that it shows a couple with a family, in their middle years, but who still
love each other, and still really like each other. You see so many negative
stories of people on television and film who are married and then the kids have
grown up and they suddenly go, “Do you know what? I hate you. I don’t love you.
You’re horrible. And you just think, “Ugh!” So, we thought, “Let’s turn the
tables a bit. Let’s show a couple that still have got a zest for life and want
to go on an adventure, and they go and buy a trailer park in Florida, and see
what happens.” That was the premise that really appealed. It was the
positivity. When there’s so much negativity going on, not just on the telly,
but in the world, it was really just wanting to be a part of something that you
could escape with for an hour. It’s a bit of sunshine, laughter and comedy,
that lets you get away from the real world for an hour, and just be
entertained. It’s quite simple, as a premise, but it’s just quite nice to be
part of a show that’s got positivity written all over it.
(Left: Philip
Glenister)
What
do you think it was about a trailer park that made this guy want to make such a
big leap?
One of the reasons is that, when you look
at somewhere like Florida, there’s something like 1.7 million Brits alone that
visit Florida, and there are more than 700,000 that have actually moved there
and made it their home. There’s this idea that the Brits think of Florida as
the Sunshine State, and as being this Disney theme park. There’s something
built into thinking: “We have to go to Florida. It’s all going to be wonderful
and sunshine and an easy life.” Of course, the world doesn’t work like that,
especially when you go and try to run a business. Mal, my character, tends to
run before he can walk. In many relationships, it’s the woman, Lesley Sharp’s
character, Jen, who’s the one to rein him in and who keeps the whole family going.
I think that’s true in many marriages. Women are far cleverer, much better at
multi-tasking, far better at dealing with tricky situations and thinking about
things before the horse bolts.
Do
you think that, if he really knew what he was getting himself into, Mal
Pemberton would still have taken this adventure anyway?
Yeah, probably. It’s a great premise for
comedy and drama because you can keep moving it on with different characters
who come into the park. You can get new characters coming in and moving out,
and you can get people visiting. You’ve got so many options, in terms of
creating fantastic characters and getting an eclectic mix. I think we’ve got an
amazing mix in season one, in the park and with our neighbour. I love all of
the little quirks and things. There’s great room for characterisation. And as a
family, we’re the backbone and the constant of the piece.
Was
it a very open and collaborative set, in that sense?
It was one of the most enjoyable shoots
that I’ve ever worked on, to be honest. Except for the bugs and the humidity,
it went really smoothly and everybody got on. We just felt like a family.
That’s always such a huge advantage because, when you’re away from home for a
long period, you want the cast and crew to become your family, and we were very
fortunate. I know how hard American crews work. They just get on with it. If
you need a crane shot, they’ll build a crane and do it fast, so that you can
get to filming. It was just very productive, very creative, and a really happy,
good atmosphere on set, which I think is so important because life’s too short.
There’s no room for divas.
The
relationship between Mal and his kids is nice, too.
Yeah. But again, in a funny sort of way,
Brenock and Rosie are fabulous. They became Lesley and my TV family, to the
point now where my daughter, Millie, who is 17, has written a 10-minute short
film that Rosie is going to direct. When we were filming, they all went out
with each other – my real kids and my TV kids – and they hit it off. It was
lovely. It was really nice that they got a good friendship going with them, as
well.
Catch the start of Living the Dream on ITV Choice (DStv 123) on Monday, November 25,
2019, at 20h00.
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