It's been a quiet few weeks of working on scripts I can't tell anyone about yet, but the third season of Wooden Overcoats, my sitcom about rival funeral directors, has been ticking along - and finishes next week! Here's an update on the last few episodes.
 | Antigone in the Spotlight When lonely mortician Antigone (Beth Eyre) gets rather too involved in the local theatre scene, she comes into curious conflict with the melodramatic circus ringmistress, Marlene Magdalena (Emily Stride). With guest appearances from Paul Putner (Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle), Sarah Thom (Clare in the Community), and Julia Deakin (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). |
It was a lot of fun to return to my roots in amateur (student) theatre for this one, and to bring back one of my favourite guest characters from WO Season 2. The "love triangle" between Antigone, Marlene and Georgie (Ciara Baxendale) was one of the most rewarding things to write in this new season and it seems from online feedback that our listeners really went with it!
| Tinker Tailor Undertaker Shock! Horror! A whole fiver has been purloined from the council's cookie jar! Fortunately detective Agatha Doyle (Alison Skilbeck) and the irascible Rudyard (Felix Trench) are on the case, aided by the resourceful housekeeper Miss Scruple (Ellie Dickens). Over a series of relentless interrogations, they'll sweat out their suspects. There are three of them... and Chapman. |  |
I'd planned to give my best John le Carre treatment to Piffling Vale when sketching out Season 2 in 2016 but owing to casting complications I'd had to drop the idea. That wasn't a problem this time round, so I was finally able to write the "Agatha Doyle Investigates..." script I'd always wanted! Mayor Desmond Desmond (Sean Baker), Reverend Wavering (Andy Secombe) and Lady Templar (Catriona Knox) are amongst the suspects in my latest attempt at penning a mystery story - can you guess whodunnit?
 | The Sunshine Treatment When the eternally exhausted Dr. Edgware (er, me) needs a holiday, Eric Chapman (Tom Crowley) willingly takes on some of his patients. Eric's patented grief counselling programme, The Sunshine Treatment, looks like a sure winner - after all, if anybody knows how to make people happy, it's Eric! But as the clients roll in, Eric discovers that when it comes to the human mind, things aren't that simple... |
Written by Molly Beth Morossa (who gave us The Ghost of Piffling Vale in Season 2), this episode features one of my favourite ideas of the season: what if the eternally confident Eric Chapman got in way over his head? It's also the first time we've really tackled the subject of grief in a show nominally about funerals. A special shout out goes to Pip Gladwin and Holly Campbell who've played the vox populi Bill & Tanya since the first season, usually popping up for a few lines per episode. It's been a pleasure to bring them to the foreground this year, with The Sunshine Treatment giving them their most prominent scenes so far. Narrator of countless audiobooks David Thorpe gives a splendid performance as the stricken Mr Wimbledon, and I'm in this one too, if you like that kind of thing.
As ever you can find Wooden Overcoats on iTunes and AudioBoom and if you're not subscribed to the show already, do make sure to "tune in" next week for our season finale Putting the Funn in Funerals!
As ever you can find Wooden Overcoats on iTunes and AudioBoom and if you're not subscribed to the show already, do make sure to "tune in" next week for our season finale Putting the Funn in Funerals!
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