Meet the Richardsons returns

Fans of Meet The Richardsons will be pleased to hear the latest series is funnier than its predecessors. And that's saying something.

According to its stars, Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont, the domestic mockumentary - which offers a fictional window into their hilarious and frustrated marriage - has bloomed in its third season, thanks to less tension and restrictions previously brought about by the pandemic.

"It's very difficult to relax and be funny when you're thinking, 'How many people are we allowed in this room?' 'What ventilation are we legally required to have?' It's not conducive to comedy!" quips Richardson, 39, of filming its second run.

"I think you could see that we're more relaxed in this series. And I think it has stepped up, hasn't it?" adds the Cats Does Countdown comic, turning to his wife. "I think it's funnier than the last one. And that was funnier than the first!"

"There were still restrictions, it just felt different," agrees Beaumont, 38, who writes the show with Car Share's Tim Reid.

Giving viewers a glimpse into their life in Yorkshire, the Dave hit sees the duo play exaggerated versions of themselves, surrounded by their celebrity friends and neighbours.

This time, Lucy's career takes off and Jon struggles to cope with life after his beloved garden pub. But while Lucy is desperate to make the right impression with the new neighbours, Jon would much rather keep a low profile. That is, until they discover that their show is under threat by a celebrity comedy couple who are planning a copycat format.

Expect returnee guests Bernie Clifton, Johnny Vegas, Matt Forde and Jessica Knappett, plus newbies including David and Georgia Tennant, Russell Kane, Joel Dommett, Jed Mercurio, Kerry Katona, Gabby Logan and Sally Lindsay.

What else do we want to know? We catch up with the affable pair ahead of launch.

CONGRATULATIONS ON ANOTHER SERIES. WHY DO YOU THINK THE SHOW HAS PROVED SO POPULAR?

L: We really try to just go for laughs. We never wanted to go serious or start talking about our marriage. We've kept it silly. When we first did publicity for it, we said it's a documentary. We can be honest now, it's a sitcom. It's written but so much is real in it.

J: There's a movement towards overt discussions of problems, and then there's the very traditional British view that that's all just beneath the surface. You can see what all our issues are, but we carry on as if nothing's happening. I think people like that sense of pent-up misery and fear that we have. It's edited so the couch scenes go on for days. It's staggering how long we can sit on a couch and argue. But there are no lengthy scenes or playing the awkward silence - it's just a set-up and a gag, and then we move on.

JUST HOW MUCH OF IT IS SCRIPTED?

L: I usually write notes of real things that have happened whether in the house or at work, then Tim (Reid) and I look at how we can make them into storylines. So half is real and half engineered. Our producer was worried there wasn't enough mileage in us but now he thinks we're alright. It could run and run. Luckily Jon's personality is so fitted to a sitcom because he's deeply flawed and has no awareness that he is.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHANGES THIS TIME AROUND?

L: We've moved, which I was really worried about because people really liked Hebden Bridge. Plus we've moved to a big shiny vulgar modern, like a WAG footballer's house, so it's not as endearing. But luckily, it's lifted it.

J: It's put us on the back foot. We've gone from being the powerful ones in the valley to somewhere where the neighbours are taller and richer than us, and don't know who we are.

YOU'VE GOT SOME AMAZING GUESTS - TELL US HOW DAVID AND GEORGIA TENNANT CAME ON BOARD...

L: Georgia got in touch to say she really liked the show and that they watched it together, and I was like, 'Oh my God'. The producer and director didn't think they would come on, but they (did). They're such lovely people, it was amazing.

J: I'm in awe of people who can sort of switch a character on and off, because I'm just me all the time. There's an alchemy to it. David Tennant had it, where you're chatting away, just as people, and then the scene is he's got to get really angry at me and start shouting - and he's able to do it so quickly and so convincingly, it feels like magic.

YOU ALSO GO TO HOLLYWOOD IN THIS SERIES, LUCY. HAS THIS SHOW CHANGED YOUR CAREER?

L: Definitely. It's really opened the door. Stand-up, I love, and I'll go back to, but I always wanted to write sitcoms, at a time when they weren't commissioning female sitcom writers. I couldn't even get a meeting. It's taken this to be able to get a foot in the door at other channels.

J: I don't think people realise how well written and acted it is because it looks so natural. Lucy doesn't get the credit she deserves for her craft because people think they're watching two stand-ups messing about.

HOW DO YOU HANDLE LUCY'S ASPIRATIONS, JON?

J: I'm going downhill the other side so it won't be long before I'm recording 3,000 episodes of a quiz a week in an airport hangar somewhere. I'm quite happy for Lucy to take on the world. And it will happen. We'll move to America at some point because that's what Lucy wants to do. She's done everything else she's set her eyes on.

L: I do want to work there and see how they do things. There's so much misogyny in comedy in the UK and they don't treat women like that in America.

WILL THERE BE MORE MEET THE RICHARDSONS, TOO?

L: If it wasn't for the team of people behind it, we may have only done one because we film it in the summer, it's about our lives, and as much as we have a laugh, we are arguing. For it to be authentic, we have to share quite a lot. Even though a lot of things are made up, we are letting people see our private life.

J: It still feels a big deal to me, to make and film something in the North, to have a TV sitcom that is written and performed entirely up North, with local crew. The minute people stop stopping us in the street to say how much it makes them laugh, that's when we'll stop. But at the moment, the people who watch it seem to really enjoy it.

Meet The Richardsons returns to Dave on Thursday, March 3.