I TALK TO Lucia Keskin

"The more I listened to it, the funnier I found it. It was such a slander of it that I eventually found it quite camp."

Lucia Keskin began her career online with superbly accurate and properly funny parodies of classic sitcoms, before launching her very own, award-winning, no less, sitcom on BBC Three, Things You Should Have Done, which returns this week for a well-deserved second series.

Lucia is back as dependent pest and stay-at-home-daughter Chi, who in series one was suddenly forced to fend for herself after her parents died. She inherited their house on one condition, that she completes a list of 'things you should have done’ left by her parents.

This time around, Chi is once again forced to contend with life and death, and a long list of things she really ought to have done by now.

Her dysfunctional family navigate the fallout of yet another unexpected bereavement, with mixed results. Chi turns to her list of ‘things you should have done’ in this time of need and opts to do ‘get therapy’, something her parents always knew she’d need to do anyway.

This sees her path collide with Ruth, a totally unhinged, tough-love grief counsellor played by Bridget Christie, whose questionable methods leave a lot to be desired. Ruth manhandles Chi’s list and vows to help her get over her grief and move on from being able to see her dead parents.

I recently caught up with Lucia Keskin to discuss the origins of Things You Should Have Done, working with Bridget Christie, how she really felt about the comments Joanna Page made about series one, and so much more!

First of all, congratulations on two series now of Things You Should Have Done. As a self-confessed sitcom fan, how does it feel to have your show sitting alongside shows you love and grew up watching?

It's crazy. It's crazy when I go on iPlayer now, and it's sort of there. It feels like, what am I doing there?! It's really weird to see.

How did you feel seeing the reaction to series one?

It was weird. It was so strange because I was used to the quick turnaround of doing sketches. You post them, and then it's done. Whereas with this, it was so much work, and then it's out, and you're like, "What do I do now?"

It takes so long for people to find a TV show, and seeing reviews was really strange. It's hard to not take everything incredibly personally and hide away. But it was really nice to see that people enjoyed it.

How did you find the switch from doing everything yourself, as and when you want, to creating a BBC sitcom with teams, sign off and compliance?

I actually much preferred the process and working in a team. But it was strange how once it's out, you just wait to see what people think. That was the weird part, but I do much prefer this version of it, rather than doing the lighting, the make-up and every single thing myself, and crying!

Even relinquishing control?

That's the only thing. The edit is quite hard, because you're like, why can't I just edit this all myself and direct it all myself? Learning to take other people's opinions. But overall, it makes it better.

Going back to the beginning. Where did the idea come from for Things You Should Have Done?

I'd tried writing some scripts, then had a meeting with Steve Monger at Roughcut. I didn't really know what I was doing at all and had something in with a different company that I was more focused on at the time. And I thought that would be the main one.

This one (Things You Should Have Done) I thought wasn't going to go anywhere. It was just mental and we were just throwing around ideas. Eventually we came up with the idea of a girl, who had nothing, and more based on me. I felt like I was wasting my time a bit.

Then it got to the BBC and they wanted a script, and Steve was hopeful that we'd get a pilot, but I was like "probably not". But then we did get a pilot and it kept going in the right direction. It was a big learning process working with Steve, really. He's been my mentor.

How similar are you to the character of Chi in Things You Should Have Done?

Well hopefully we differ a lot, because she is terrible. I feel like she's me if I was allowed to just purely be a default person. If I had nothing holding me back at all and even less brain cells. She's like a default person who's just arrived.

There are more similarities with a younger me, when I was like 3 to 18. It's an amalgamation, but I didn't want her to be called Chi because it makes me look worse. She's an exaggeration of me, I suppose.

Was it quite freeing to write that version of yourself?

It is, but it's also very annoying. Because you don't really know who you are anymore and what is and isn't the character.

Let's talk about the opening scene of series two, then. That excellent Gavin & Stacey parody. Was that a nod to the comments made by Joanna Page about her dislike of series one?

Yes, but it was a last minute adjustment actually. It wasn't originally going to be Gavin & Stacey. We had Chi and Lucas watching something, but couldn't quite pin what it could be. I think it was naked Attraction for a while.

After her comment, I always thought it would be good to either approach Joanna (Page) and get her to guest star or do something with the show. But I never wanted it to be mean or too mental.

So we were in rehearsals and we thought, why don't we just do a made-up scene of Gavin & Stacey with all the characters in it, so it's not specifically about her. Weirdly, it worked quite well. But my main thing was trying to make it more light-hearted.

Not to linger on it for too long, but how did her comments make you feel at the time? And how do you feel now?

It came about because Natalie Cassidy and I followed each other and spoke online, and she told me - I imagine she'd not done it yet - "Make sure you watch next week, because we're going to review your show."

She'd told me how much she'd liked the show, so I was really excited. And obviously, I was a big fan of Joanna Page and Natalie Cassidy; they're both sort of legends.

I remember having a really bad day, and it was 2am and I saw the episode was out, so I listened to it and was like, "Oh my God, this is so horrible!" The worst thing you could hear. Because it's someone I'd watched for so long in one of my favourite shows. So I thought this was it, this is the reality of doing TV. I hate it.

The first thing I did was try to phone the producer and director, who were obviously asleep, and I remember leaving texts saying, "I'm not doing this anymore. I hate it. I can't handle it."

I was so sad, that I couldn't sleep at all, so I thought I'd make a reaction video to it, which made me calm down a little bit. The more I listened to it, the funnier I found it. It was such a slander of it that I eventually found it quite camp.

I haven't heard from her or anything like that. But I've got no bad blood. I'd happily speak to her.

On a positive note, when you posted the reaction video, you received a great reaction.

Yeah, it was sort of the best press we had for it, as it made more people watch the show. It's incredibly hard to market a new BBC show, so that was weirdly one of the best things we'd done.

Series one begins with the death of Chi's parents. Series two begins with another death, Auntie Karen. How did you settle on that as the premise for series two?

The way series one was going, with the pregnancy thing, I thought, yes, we could take it that way, but it felt a bit flat and predictable to just carry on what happened in series one. I wanted something more dramatic and unexpected to happen.

At the time, we were struggling with Selin's (Hizli) availability, so we ended up killing her character. I was really worried at first, what would happen, but weirdly, it really worked in the format of the show, luckily.

And obviously, Bridget (Christie) coming in was wonderful.

Let's talk about Bridget Christie. She plays Chi's therapist, Ruth, and she is phenomenal in this series. Did you write the part with her in mind?

No, I didn't. That character actually went through a few people. Some who couldn't do it. Then we thought, "What about Bridget Christie?" - and once we had her signed up, I could really write the character of Ruth in her voice.

It was a godsend really, because she was made to play that part! She was just incredible. She is just funny as herself. Everything she does is funny. But she was also so lovely, so she fitted in really well with our little family. It was a lovely experience.

And Sarah Kendall is back, which I'm so pleased about!

I love Sarah Kendall. So I always wanted her to come back. I wanted everyone to come back. It was only really scheduling and availability that meant people didn't return. And poor Steve Brody, he was meant to be in it, but he had a health issue which meant he couldn't do it. There was no one that we didn't want to return.

Did you find series two easier or harder to write?

We had such weird timelines, which meant we were rushed for series two, so I found it harder, in terms of schedule and things that went wrong. But coming up with stuff, I think was easier, because we had our characters already.

So in that way it was easier, but there's also a lot more pressure because people already know the show and have expectations.

Was there anything you saw in the reaction to series one that you listened to and changed for series two?

One thing I really wanted to do less of, was the surreal stuff that didn't make as much sense. For example, appearing on a plate of sperm. So I tried to incorporate more, from my sketches, of me dressing up as people and the little tiny celebrities. That was popular, so we've removed more of the less important ones that I didn't think were that good or that funny, and focused more on the TV stuff.

Also, I really wanted to have the show nod to the LGBTQ+ community, with Ruth and Lucas. So it was lovely to be able to add that to it.

You mention the parodies, and obviously the opener with Gavin & Stacey is excellent, but my favourite from series two has to be Gogglebox. It's just so accurate. How do you settle on which shows to parody?

It's a really big discussion. I'll come up with stuff and then when I talk it through with the team, they help me shape it into something that means more or hasn't been done before.

Gavin & Stacey speaks for itself, but with Gogglebox, we wanted to do something at the start of episode six that would feel fitting. And weirdly, Gogglebox just worked. I'd always wanted to do a never-ending loop of them watching Gogglebox, which hadn't been done before.

In series one, we did a tiny bit of The Traitors and EastEnders, but it got cut. I played Sonia, Phil, Sharon and Ian.

Was there anything you were unable to do for series one that you managed to do for series two?

I really wanted more guest stars, which we got for series two. Every episode sort of has a guest star. We've got Marc Wootton, Juliet Cowan, so that was really fun. I love working with people that I really like.

Other than that, I just wanted Chi to look slightly less shit. Not covering my hair in oil every day. That was the biggest thing. More so for myself, because I've got the same name.

Any favourite moments from series two?

My favourite episode is probably episode two, with Juliet (Cowan). That whole world with the big posh was so much fun. But also, Bridget doing a seance was a funny day!

How do you deal with corpsing?

I thought I'd be worse. I still am bad. But everyone is. We all laugh, but that's what makes it fun. I love that. Because if it's bad, well at least we had fun!

You’re part of a generation that didn’t need to go to the Edinburgh Fringe or Drama School to get a career in television and comedy. Was writing your own sitcom always an ambition of yours?

I grew up watching old comedies with my grandparents and loved them, and did musical theatre when I was younger. So I always knew I wanted to perform in some kind of way. I'd got to the point where I had no GCSEs, and could either be Glinda, The Good Witch, or Ricky Gervais.

What did I want to focus on more? I did musical theatre, I really enjoyed it, but wasn't happy enough with it. You have to be really happy for it. So I just started to write my own stuff and do videos.

Stand-up was also something I always wanted to do, but never had the confidence or stage presence to do it. I'd have to have so much alcohol. I don't know how people do it. I think if it was more sketch-based, I might be alright.

But yes, it was always a massive goal to write a sitcom and be able to do what I grew up watching. I still can't believe I'm at this point in my career. It's crazy to me.

Have you started to think about a possible third series? And please assure me that Dave will live!

Oh yeah, I've got so many ideas for series three. I'm working out whether or not there'll be another death and what the twist could be if it's not someone dying. Hopefully, we'd never kill Dave off.

What's next for you?

I'm just wanting to do more acting and writing, really. And come up with more ideas. Work, basically, which is what everyone probably says!

Things You Should Have Done returns Tuesday at 10pm on BBC Three and is available now on BBC iPlayer