TRANSFORMING MEDIA.CHANGING PERCEPTIONS.

< Produced by Quay Street Productions, Significant Other is written by Dana Fainaru and Hamish Wright, who first met when they worked on British medical drama Casualty . Wright started as a script editor in 2008, and the first script he edited was one written by Fainaru.

They had tried to develop projects together over a number of years, without success, until they secured a deal with executive producer Nicola Shindler ( Nolly , It’s A Sin ) when she was still at Red Production Company. That meeting, however, came the day before the UK went into lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fast-forward two years and Fainaru had watched Significant Other in its original Hebrew. She loved it, but thought it could never work in the UK. Then when Wright got hold of a subtitled episode and he too fell for it, they went back to Shindler – who was by now at the helm of her own company in Quay Street – with a pitch to remake it.

“I did that and I swear Nicola got back the next day and said, ‘Love it. Let me talk to the production company and get the rights.’ And it’s moved so fast,” Wright says. “Quay Street has a first-look deal with ITV, so it just landed with [head of scripted comedy] Nana Hughes at ITV. She really responded to the pitch document, they commissioned a script, we did the script, then we got the cast attached and got the green light.”

Rather than a meet-cute, Wright describes that opening meeting between Sam and Anna as a “meet-horrible.”

“Dana and I are mainly drama writers. This is the closest director Sant, with whom they worked on Hitmen and Home , respectively. And on set, Parkinson says filming was quite intense due to the fact that a number of scenes are very long.

“There hasn’t been a lot of sitting around chatting, but we’ve done quite a lot of it in these flats so it’s been quite focused and a lot of laughs,” she says. “But I’m looking forward to finishing and not having to learn another line for about six months.”

Producer Debbie Pisani says the ambition behind the shoot was to create a thoughtful comedy, complete with long pauses and scenic shots that dispel with the usual rhythm of a television sitcom. “It is very funny in parts but not in the traditional sense,” she says. “As soon as I read the first script, I was hooked. I was like, ‘This is really good.’ Just the opening scene grabbed me.

“It’s a story about an unlikely couple of neighbours who get together – or don’t, but who form a friendship in their mid-40s. So it’s not your usual young 20-somethings, it’s people who’ve been around, are a bit more life-savvy and have baggage and have been hurt. So they are more cautious. Anna is someone who needs to open up and Sam is someone who needs to grow up.”

Pisani likens Significant Other to a show she previously produced, Daisy Haggard’s Back to Life , which was “similar in that it was funny but it also had a lot of emotion, and we didn’t shy away from the sadness or the pain,” she explains. “This show is also about loneliness, and both Anna and Sam see something in each other but don’t immediately connect. I love the fact that it was about the middle passage, about people who have been out there, done it, had kids and they’re on their second go.” we’ve come to comedy. The Israeli original was absolutely brilliant, but very austere, almost dry and deadpan. We’ve warmed it up a bit, which feels appropriate to not only the UK audience, but the time we’re in as well.”

One way they have localised the series is with Bryan’s character Shelley, who Wright says is “very hard-edged” in the original but is now a more sympathetic figure.

“It’s interesting that the American version of The Office , when they’re most faithful [to the original UK series] in those early seasons, they’re not all that effective,” he continues. “Their first episode was very much beat-for-beat, and our episode one is quite faithful too. But as we go on, it’s diverge, diverge, diverge.

“Hopefully it is truthful. I hope that it’s funny and it’s sad and has got heart and emotion. That’s what we set out to do,” he adds. “That’s what we absolutely put on the page. And with Katherine and Youssef, it’s a real showcase for two people at the top of their game.”

Significant Other reunites Parkinson and Kerkour with

One scene called for Kerkour to stand on a ledge in the rain before having to fall backwards onto crash mats several metres below. “It was absolutely freezing, so I want people to know that I suffered,” he jokes. “But that was a fun day. Likewise, eating a vegan egg-and-bacon sandwich. I ate 12 sandwiches. On Home , I ate 27 sandwiches for one scene, so I’m very adept at eating sandwiches. I got to do a lot – there’s a pack of jelly babies in one scene. They all went. So it’s been quite a rich eating experience for me on this show, which I’m happy to repeat any time. Anytime, anywhere, I’m available.”

When the show launches on ITVX, Kerkour says viewers should expect the word ‘real’ to come up a lot.

“Real life is like this. The person that’s for you might be standing right in front of you and you wouldn’t even notice it because your problems and issues dominate,” he notes. “But nothing ever tips over into sentimentality or anything like that. It’s never violin strings and drama and all the rest of it. It’s a very unflinching look at relationships. People will be laughing at the comedy and crying at the truth.”

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