Crashing (UK TV series)

Crashing
Genre	Comedy drama
Written by	Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Directed by	George Kane
Starring	Phoebe Waller-Bridge ; Jonathan Bailey ; Adrian Scarborough ; Damien Molony ; Louise Ford ;
Country of origin	England
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Executive producer(s)	Kenton Allen and Liz Lewin
Producer(s)	Josh Cole
Running time	23 min
Production company(s)	Big Talk Productions
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Picture format	16:9 1080i
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	11 January –; 15 February 2016
External links
	Website

Last updated April 23, 2019

Crashing is a British comedy drama series commissioned by Channel 4 and produced by Big Talk Productions.^[1] The six-part series premiered on 11 January 2016.

Channel 4 is a British public-service free-to-air television network that began transmission on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially-self-funded, it is ultimately publicly-owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital terrestrial broadcasting on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a UK-wide TV channel for the first time.

Big Talk Productions Limited is a British film and television production company founded by Nira Park in 1994. Big Talk was acquired by ITV Studios in 2013.

Premise

Crashing follows the lives of six twenty-somethings living together as property guardians in a disused hospital, keeping the building safe in exchange for cheaper rent and a strict set of rules.^[2]

Property guardianship is an arrangement by which people are granted accommodation within a property in exchange for keeping the property under observation and in good condition, with their continued occupation providing a disincentive for the property to be occupied by squatters. Commercial properties can be covered by this arrangement as well as residential properties.

Cast

Main

Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Louise "Lulu", a childhood friend of Anthony who moves into the hospital.
Louise Ford as Kate, a perfectionist engaged to Anthony who finds herself at odds with Lulu.
Jonathan Bailey as Sam, a sex-obsessed friend of Anthony who finds himself growing closer to Fred.
Damien Molony as Anthony, a cook who is engaged to Kate and childhood friend of Lulu.
Julie Dray as Melody, a French artist who finds interest in Colin.
Amit Shah as Fred Patini, an awkward man who becomes close friends with Sam.
Adrian Scarborough as Colin Carter, a divorced co-worker of Kate's who becomes a 'muse' to Melody.

Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge is an English actress, writer, playwright and director. She is best known for creating and starring in BBC Three comedy-drama Fleabag and for writing and producing the BBC America drama Killing Eve, based on novels by Luke Jennings.

Louise Ford is a British comedian and actress who has performed leading roles in such television comedies as Crashing (2016) and The Windsors. She also appeared in Horrible Histories. She has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in partnership with Yasmine Akram and with Cariad Lloyd.

Jonathan Bailey is a British actor, best known for the ITV drama Broadchurch, the BBC's Doctor Who, W1A and Leonardo, and Channel 4 comedy Campus. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for his portrayal of Jamie in the 2018 West End revival of Company.

Recurring

Lachie Chapman as Will, Fred's self-absorbed Australian boyfriend, who works as a telephone adviser for children and youth.
Susan Wokoma as Jessica, Kate's bisexual co-worker.
Kathy Burke as Aunt Gladys, Lulu's eccentric great aunt.

Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress, comedian, writer, producer, and director. She achieved fame with her appearances on sketch shows such as French and Saunders (1988–99) and her recurring role as Magda on the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–96), as well as her frequent collaborations with fellow comedian Harry Enfield. For her portrayal of Valerie in the 1997 film Nil by Mouth, she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	Episode 1	George Kane	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	11 January 2016 (2016-01-11)	0.72
Lulu (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) travels to London to surprise her childhood friend Anthony (Damien Molony), who lives in a condemned hospital as a property guardian in exchange for cheapened rent. Anthony lives with a number of housemates including his ‘anal’ fiancée Kate (Louise Ford), their overtly sexual friend Sam (Jonathan Bailey), French artist Melody (Julie Dray), and the timid Fred (Amit Shah). Sam convinces Kate to throw him an elaborate scavenger hunt as his birthday party, which is attended by a number of friends and Kate’s colleagues, including the recently divorced Colin (Adrian Scarborough) who fascinates Melody. Anthony is delighted by the arrival of Lulu, although tension immediately arises for Kate due to the attraction between the two friends. While Lulu and Anthony become reacquainted, the housemates are split into partners for the party. Melody and Colin bond, while Sam discovers a surprising friendship with Fred. At the conclusion of the party, Kate invites Lulu to move in to the hospital’s spare room.
2	Episode 2	George Kane	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	18 January 2016 (2016-01-18)	0.65
Lulu moves into the hospital. Following a fit of hysterics regarding their bath blowing up, Kate accidentally gets Lulu a temporary job as a receptionist at her work, where Melody calls demanding to see Colin. Kate deliberately sends Lulu on an impromptu, fake delivery task to a stop her going to lunch with Anthony, which backfires spectacularly when Lulu brings Colin to Anthony’s restaurant to meet Melody. Melody is enraptured by Colin, and requests to make him and his pain the subject of her art, and Colin moves into the hospital. Sam is keen to spend more time with Fred, and gets him to take the day off work to spend it with him, which concludes with Sam attending his father’s funeral. Fred beings to express interest in Sam, however Sam gently rebuffs him, but continues to lead him-on. Anthony confronts Kate about the fake package, where she admits her unease at Anthony and Lulu spending time together.
3	Episode 3	George Kane	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	25 January 2016 (2016-01-25)	0.51
Anthony organises a curry night for the housemates, which is attended by Fred’s new boyfriend, Will (Lockie Chapman). The dinner is tedious, owing to Kate becoming offended by the subject content and her humour not fitting with the group. During a group sing-a-long, she becomes exasperated that she has to sing about orgasms, and she claims that Anthony told Lulu that she has never orgasmed. Kate tells Lulu in confidence that she has orgasmed before, just never with Anthony. The evening continues to get heated, with Sam becoming jealous of Fred’s adoration of Will, causing him to pursue Lulu and irritating Anthony who tells him to stop out of jealousy. Lulu offends Melody and Colin by questioning their relationship, who leave the dinner, and continue to paint. Lulu then accidentally reveals that Kate has never experienced an orgasm with Anthony, with the dinner table then collapsing and ruins the dinner. Anthony and Kate go to bed, and Fred and Will leave, with a drunk Lulu remaining with Sam, who declines her advances. In bed, Kate and Anthony have sex – while Anthony cries, Kate orgasms.
4	Episode 4	George Kane	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	1 February 2016 (2016-02-01)	0.54
Lulu realises she hasn’t paid the sign-up fee to live in the hospital, and as a result visits her eccentric Aunt Gladys (Kathy Burke) with Anthony to borrow money. Gladys, who strings out the visit, eventually gives her the money after telling Anthony that Lulu believed they would be together. Sam takes Will and Fred to look at housing options, where Will privately tells Sam he dislikes his crass language and behaviours towards Fred. Sam defies him and openly begins showing his animosity towards Will. Melody paints Kate’s body, and they begin to bond over their relationships, their femininity and confidence. When Melody asks why Kate likes Anthony, she faulters in her response, before they start having a playful paint fight, which is joined by Will, Sam and Fred, and later Anthony and Lulu. Colin returns from a visit to the dentist, and happily tells Melody he is at home at the hospital now. Becoming sexually frustrated by Will and Fred, Sam asks Lulu to have sex with him, which she does after acknowledging Anthony will not be happy. Still drunk from the paint party, Kate admits to Anthony that she has been pretending to be in love with him before falling asleep.
5	Episode 5	George Kane	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	8 February 2016 (2016-02-08)	0.46
The housemates awake to an eviction notice that the building is being knocked down, and they need to move to a new property. Kate wakes up in the morning not remembering her words from the night before, and Sam muses to Lulu he thinks Will is attracted to him. Fred asks Sam if he wants to move to a new property place together which Sam agrees too, but things become complicated when Will announces he has bought a flat, and asks Fred to move in with him. Anthony tells Lulu of Kate’s drunken confession, but Lulu does not tell him about Sam, although his suspicions are aroused at breakfast when Will says he overheard Sam having sex. Covering up their night before, Sam and Lulu tell Anthony that Kate is pregnant, which causes Anthony to panic. Sam and Colin call up the Samaritan Help Line in order to prank Will at his job. Sam adopting a peculiar voice and calling himself ‘Stephen’, and causing Fred to deduce it is Sam. Later at the hospital, Sam confronts Will, who tells Sam he thinks he is gay because he is obsessive about the men in his life. Sam seduces Will into kissing him and he runs to reveal Will’s betrayal to Fred, at which point Will tells Anthony that Lulu and Sam had sex, and Sam admits that Kate is not pregnant. After a group brawl, Will is voted to move out of the hospital and Fred breaks up with him.
6	Episode 6	George Kane	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	15 February 2016 (2016-02-15)	0.36
Discovering that Kate is gone, Anthony confronts Lulu and asks if she loves him, which she denies. Kate, disappointed by Anthony defending Lulu’s honour, has gone to a boozy lunch with the newly single Fred, and her voluptuous colleague Jessica (Susan Wokoma) who offers insight and perspective on relationships. Anthony and Lulu spend the day together looking for Kate, but see Jessica spontaneously kissing her which causes Anthony to think Kate is a lesbian. They go home and decide to have sex, despite Anthony knowing that Kate has come home to look for him, and Lulu knowing Kate is not a lesbian. Melody is painting Colin for the last time at the hospital, and he accidentally falls out of the window and needs to go to a real hospital. Fred is ignoring dramatic and frantic phone calls from Sam as he vows to not be the one who runs to his side, however Sam has accompanied Melody and leaves a deliberately vague voice mail saying he is at the hospital. Fred rushes there and admonishes Sam for stretching the truth and breaking him and Will up, before collapsing from exhaustion. Sam stays at his bedside, and after apologising, kisses Fred. Under the guise of being a nurse, Melody looks after Colin in hospital before his ex-wife Cara (Janie Dee) visits the hospital, and Colin wakes up to show his support for Melody. In the morning, Anthony tells Lulu that Kate doesn’t want to break up, and asks her what he should do. Lulu tells them to remain together, hiding her disappointment. The group ponder where they will go to next, before Lulu and Anthony kiss again. Kate appears and tells them that she is not stupid, implying she knows what they’ve done.

Background

The story began as two plays, written by Waller-Bridge, which were developed for television by the production company, Big Talk.^[3]

The setting of the show was inspired by Middlesex Hospital, an abandoned hospital located in Fitzrovia near the production company's offices.^[3]

Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites within the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. The Middlesex Hospital Medical School, with a history dating back to 1746, merged with the medical school of University College London in 1987.

Fitzrovia is a district in central London, near London's West End, lying partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden ; north of Oxford Street and Soho between Bloomsbury and Marylebone. It is characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail, education and healthcare, with no single activity dominating. The historically bohemian area was once home to such writers as Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Rimbaud.

Nominations

BAFTA Awards

2016: As breakthrough talent for the script (Phoebe Waller-Bridge)^[4]

Releases

Crashing was released on DVD by Simply Media on 3 September 2018.^{[ citation needed ]}

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References

↑ "Casting announced for Phoebe Waller-Bridge's new comedy Crashing". Channel 4. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
↑ Dowell, Ben (24 December 2015). "Take an exclusive first look at new Channel 4 comedy Crashing". Radio Times . Retrieved 25 January 2016.
1 2 Tate, Gabriel (7 January 2016). "Crashing writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge talks up her new Channel 4 sitcom". London Evening Standard . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
↑ "BAFTA 2016 Nominees". British Academy Film Awards . Retrieved 22 September 2017– via awards.bafta.org.

External links

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[1] "Casting announced for Phoebe Waller-Bridge's new comedy Crashing". Channel 4. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2016.

[2] Dowell, Ben (24 December 2015). "Take an exclusive first look at new Channel 4 comedy Crashing". Radio Times . Retrieved 25 January 2016.

[Standard-Crashing-2016-3] 1 2 Tate, Gabriel (7 January 2016). "Crashing writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge talks up her new Channel 4 sitcom". London Evening Standard . Retrieved 19 January 2016.

[4] "BAFTA 2016 Nominees". British Academy Film Awards . Retrieved 22 September 2017– via awards.bafta.org.