TWENTY-four-year-old Gemma is pregnant. She’s not sure who the dad is and is nervous about going through this massive life change on her own.
Enter her dad, Malcolm – a hapless man-child who, recently divorced from Gemma’s mother, is living in a grubby shared flat for divorced men and is unable to load a washing machine, use the microwave without its contents exploding, or perform any other basic life tasks.
When Gemma’s flatmate decides to move out, she asks her dad to move in with her – after all, it must be better than financial ruin and crippling loneliness while raising a baby – and it’ll get him away from the creepy Derek he currently lives with.
Hilarity ensues as Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood and Sherwood’s David Morrissey come together in this affectionate story about a father and daughter facing up to parenthood, albeit at very different stages.
Ahead of the comedy series landing on BBC Three and iPlayer, let’s hear from the stars themselves.
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TELL US ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS
Aimee: Gemma is a very honest, independent, true-to-herself woman who finds it hard to let people in fully and to accept help. Over the course of the series, she learns how to be vulnerable and open up to people, and not always be so hyper-independent.
David: Malcolm is someone who has been infantilised all his life, and he’s a man who doesn’t know the basics of how to look after himself in the world. At best he’s naive, at worst he’s ignorant. He doesn’t know how to look after himself and he sees the world in a very innocent way. But he’s in crisis, we meet him in a crisis, but he’s unable to look after himself.
He loves his daughter and she loves him, but whether they are good for each other is debatable. They are both in desperate need and they find themselves at a point in life where they need to lean on each other but they aren’t sure whether the other is capable of holding that weight. There’s some heightened emotions between the two of them, particularly as she’s at a point in her life where she is in desperate need.
Aimee: At the beginning of the series Gemma and Malcolm feel like strangers to one another. Even though they are father and daughter, they don’t really know each other that well, but she’s pregnant and needs someone, and he’s going through a divorce, so they need each other.
As the show goes on they start to really see each other as humans, and we see how Gemma and Malcolm – through all their weird choices and crazy ways – just choose to love each other through it all.
AIMEE, WHAT WAS IT ABOUT DADDY ISSUES THAT DREW YOU IN?
Aimee: I genuinely laughed my head off at the scripts when I read them, I was like: ‘I’m sold!’ It just kept getting better and better. I found out David Morrissey would be playing Malcolm, and I was like: ‘I have to do it, I have to play David Morrissey’s daughter’, because I’ve loved him since I was a kid in everything he’s done.
Also, I wanted to see David Morrissey playing this part, because it’s so silly and he’s this incredible actor, known for his dramatic roles. I wanted to see what he was going to do with this part and he went above and beyond anything I could have ever expected.
DAVID, WHY DID YOU WANT TO TAKE ON THIS COMEDY GIG?
David: I just loved Malcolm. I love Aimee Lou Wood, I think she’s amazing, such a great talent and I’ve admired her for a while now.
When Daddy Issues came along I was looking for something a bit different as I do quite a lot of heavy dramas, so I was looking for something that was a bit more comedic. This came along and it was perfect for me.
I really wanted to do this, and I jumped in as I thought the first two episodes were so great and the standard of writing has maintained that quality. I love every episode and it has been such a learning curve for me. It’s been a challenge to do but I’ve been really loving it!
For me, I’m always looking to change things. What I want to do is usually the thing I’ve not just done. I have done comedy in the past: Blackpool, which I really loved, and Inside No 9, and I’ve done some comedy in the theatre. I was looking for something that was going to exercise that part of my craft, looking for something that was going to hit my funny bone a bit more than the past.
I’ve just done The Long Shadow and Sherwood and they were both really brilliant, but quite dramatic, so this came at the right time.
THE SHOW IS FILMED IN YOUR HOMETOWN OF STOCKPORT, AIMEE – HOW WAS THAT?
Aimee: I didn’t think it was important to me until I got there and started filming it, I didn’t think it was going to move me as much as it did. But when I was in Stockport I was like: ‘This is really lovely’ – it brought back really fond memories of growing up there.
