Just because you’re at your lowest
ebb, it doesn’t mean you lose your
sense of humour. That’s according
to Aisling Bea, whose brand-new
sitcom centres on a woman clawing
her way back from depression.
This Way Up stars the 35-year-
old comedian as troubled Aine,
with Catastrophe star Sharon
Horgan as her sister Shona,
who’s consumed with worry
about her younger sibling.
The two stars first met
on the set of short-lived
BBC3 comedy Dead Boss
in 2012 and stayed close,
working on scripts together,
but never finding the right
project until This Way Up,
which is written by Bea andAisling Bea and
Sharon Horgan
as Aine and ShonaOnly
made by Horgan’s production
company, Merman.
Here, Bea explains what to
expect in the series...What can you tell us about This
Way Up? Aine has been through
a bad time when we meet her. She
starts at a low point and the show
is about the messiness of getting
better. Loneliness has such an
impact on your immune system
and mental health. It’s the disease
nobody wants to admit to, but it’sNEW COMEDY
This Way Up
Thursday, C4 HD, 10pm
becoming more prevalent in our
society. So I wanted to write a
comedy about it. My favourite shows
are series like Transparent, Girls
and Atlanta, where you can deal
with something serious, but it’s
still seen as a comedy.How would you describe Shona
and Aine’s relationship? They’re
loving but codependent. Shona
doesn’t know how to exist outside
of caring for Aine.Is their relationship
based on your
friendship with
Sharon? Yes, Sharon
and I have less of a
friendship and more
of a big sister/little
sister dynamic.
In Catastrophe, her
character’s very
selfish but Shona’sW
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HIS NEW SHOW
The 52-year-old appears in the
first episode of brand-new series
Born Famous, in which the teenage
children of four famous faces spend
a week in their parents’ old haunts
to experience what life could have
been like if their folks had never
become celebrities. Ramsay’s
19-year-old student son, Jack,
visits his dad’s roots, including an
Oxfordshire council estate where he
lived. The other teens in the series
are the offspring of Spice Girl Mel B,
entrepreneur Michelle Mone and
former England footballer Paul Ince.A familiar face
appearing in a new
show this week
Look
Who’s
Back...
Born Famous:
Gordon Ramsay
Monday, C4 HD, 10pm
Gordon Ramsay
2004
the
Michelin-starred chef
Gordon Ramsay
acquired household-
name status in
2004 with his C
series Ramsay’s
Kitchen Nightmares,
which ran for five
series. He’s also hosted
US show Hell’s Kitchen, in which
pro chefs went head-to-head, and
five series of The F Word between
2005 and 2010, which saw him
cook for celebrity guests. Currently
a judge on MasterChef Junior and the
US MasterChef, in 2018 he teamed
up with fellow chef Gino D’Acampo
and maitre d’ Fred Sirieix in Gordon,
Gino & Fred’s Road Trip on ITV.Jack Ramsay with
his father GordonThis week on TV
Aisling Bea finds laughter in
sadness in her new comedy This Way Up