Pilot episode of The Peculiar Pair sitcom is launched

The Peculiar Pair is a comedy about friendship and losing your way in life – touching on subjects like isolation, loneliness and mental health - and stars Emma Turner and her creative partner Anna Jaskolka.

The pilot episode is currently on the film festival circuit and if there is enough interest and support from the industry it could become a full series.

Emma spoke to us when the episode was being filmed late last year.

She said: “It’s in a similar style to The Royle Family. That was the initial idea for the pilot – where it’s set within a home because my character has agoraphobia.

“That was the starting point and I’m sure a lot of people will be able to relate to that at the moment because of Covid.

“Anxiety for going into social places has obviously increased but for my character that is the way she has lived her whole life.”

Emma met Anna through a friend and they found they had a natural chemistry together when they were asked to do a read through of a scene from The Odd Couple – a Jack Lemmon comedy film – at an acting class.

She added: “It is based on two people who are completely mismatched but live together. This script was given to us and we went through it and the rest of the people in the class loved it and said it was well suited to us.”

Anna then had Emma in mind when she started working on her own play.

They also brought onboard writer Helen Tunnicliff, who has worked on the likes of Emmerdale.

That play became the early basis for The Peculiar Pair.

Emma said: “We signed it up for Manchester Fringe Festival, got our venue, sold the tickets and there was some excitement building around it and then Covid hit.”

Thinking on their feet, they immediately started adapting the script for TV instead and teamed up with First House Cinema.

Emma added: “We had toyed with the idea of making it a sitcom and we thought it had every chance of doing well because of Helen’s background with TV.

“Luckily, she was all for it and she has a lot of connections in the industry she put us in touch with.

“We all worked together on it because we already had the characters in mind and how we wanted it to play out.”

So that is why Emma’s neighbours started seeing her dressed in a unicorn onesie.

Some of the scenes were filmed outside Emma’s Ridgway Gardens home where her character Waynetta, an agoraphobic, finds Joanie (played by Anna) living in her skip.

Emma said: “I had to explain to my neighbours what was going on but they were great about it.

“It was really surreal because my character wears this unicorn onesie and has bright pink slippers on.”

Waynetta and Joanie strike up an unusual friendship with sitcom exploring the importance of having someone to confide in when your idea of having a conventional life goes completely off the rails.

Emma added: “Even though the characters are funny, we’re not laughing at the terrible circumstances they find themselves in – we’re laughing at their humour around that.

“It’s not about making fun of homelessness, agoraphobia, or women over 40 who come out of terrible marriages – they are all poignant subjects we are trying to relate to the audience with.

“But also Helen said she often writes about real things that happen to people because, as Brits, we cope by laughing at ourselves and things that happen to us. It’s a coping mechanism.”

Emma got into acting after training at Actor Tribe – led by Lee Boardman, from HBO’s Rome, and Jennifer James, from Coronation Street and Dalziel and Pascoe – for six years.