Friends like these … Charlie (Tom Riley) and Joel (Chris Geere) in Ill Behaviour. Photograph: Jon Hall/BBC/Fudge Park Too Ltd
Picture this: you’re sitting in your kitchen with a good friend who is describing their new partner. Everything they’re saying sounds like your idea of the ultimate relationship nightmare. But they explain how much they love this person, and how they’re going to work everything through.You smile supportively and offer them another cup of tea, but as you fill the kettle, in your head you’re screaming: “Dump them! Dump them! Run away and never look back!” You turn to your friend and open your mouth to speak. The only word that emerges is: “Hobnob?”
If you’re British, the chances are you’ve had a similar experience. The stiff upper lip might have been appropriate for the Blitz, but it’s not so great when it comes to having difficult conversations with the people you love. There are few worse feelings than watching a good friend fall apart while you are trapped helplessly behind a glass partition of social etiquette.My first solo TV series, Ill Behaviour, is intended as a fictional antidote to that feeling. It’s a wish fulfilment fantasy about two friends who break every social and legal boundary to rescue one of their best mates from his ill-advised life choices. With (hopefully) hilarious consequences.
The dilemma I chose to concentrate on wasn’t a bad relationship, but something with much higher stakes – cancer. In the first episode, Charlie (Tom Riley) is diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but refuses to have chemo in order to go down a natural healing route. When his condition fails to improve, Joel (Chris Geere) and Tess (Jessica Regan) take matters into their own hands. They kidnap him and keep him chained up in a cellar while they administer chemotherapy against his will, with the help of a struck-off alcoholic doctor, Nadia (Lizzy Caplan).
Ill Behaviour cast: Nadia (Lizzy Caplan), Charlie (Tom Riley), Joel (Chris Geere), Tess (Jessica Regan)
The question the show raises is: what would happen if you chose the path of radical intervention in a friend’s life? What would be the consequences for them, for you, and for your friendship?
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The decision to put cancer at the centre of the story was inspired by a friend of mine who is an oncologist. She told me about her frustrating experiences with patients who, for whatever reason, refused to take her medical advice. She also “cast” the cancer – Hodgkin’s – which has a high cure rate when treated with chemotherapy.We had medical consultants working on the show who were immensely helpful and informative. All the cast are now proficient in inserting a needle into an arm – as long as the arm is made of rubber. Many serious discussions were had about how long it would take for certain sedatives to take effect, and how much blood would realistically spray out if you yanked a chemo tube out of someone’s arm (answer: a lot).
People have asked me, how can a show about cancer be funny, when cancer itself is so obviously not? The answer is that the show isn’t really about cancer at all – it’s about friendship. You don’t need to have had cancer to enjoy it, but you do need to have had at least one friend. Sorry, hermits – you might want to stick to Love Island.• Ill Behaviour is on BBC iPlayer from 22 July, then on BBC2 in August.