In continued Sharon Horgan is incredibly busy news, Sharon Horgan is working on a new comedy-drama for UKTV’s W channel and RTE in Ireland, Women on the Verge.
The show is inspired by Grazia columnist Lorna Martin’s book Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which began life as a Grazia magazine column called Conversations with my Therapist.
In a joint statement, Merman’s Clelia Mountford and Sharon Horgan said: “We were huge fans of Lorna’s book that told her personal story so compellingly and honestly. We are very happy that we’re finally getting to bring her story to the screen and destroy whatever privacy she has left.”
Sharon has been working on the series since 2011 and it is now set to air this year starring W1A’s Nina Sosanya, Catastrophe’s Eileen Walsh and Better Call Saul’s Kerry Condon.
Women On The Verge is a “darkly comic tale of three career-driven friends in their 30s who share the same nagging concern – that while their friends and colleagues seem to be increasingly in control of their lives, they seem to be moving in the opposite direction”.
Sharon plays the enigmatic therapist, Dr F, counselling Laura, played by Kerry Condon, an investigative journalist on the brink of ruining her career by sleeping with her boss – however her boss appears to be transferring his affections to a young blogger called Samara. Nina Sosanya plays single mum Katie, who wants to have another baby while Eileen Walsh is Alison who has recently returned to her ex, Martin, after some unsuccessful Tinder dates.
Writer Lorna Martin said: “I feel incredibly lucky to be working with such outstandingly talented people to bring these stories to life. The show is a love letter to women who haven’t ticked all the boxes and whose lives are a bit messier and more complicated than they ever thought they’d be.”
Adam Collings, channel director for W said: “Women on the Verge offers a highly original, no-holds-barred take on a subject matter that will be instinctively familiar to the W audience. Taking the gloss of Sex and the City, combined with the brutal honesty of Girls, this is a project unlike anything else on British TV.”
Pete Thornton, senior commissioning editor for UKTV said: “The chance to bring this project to life for W represents an exciting opportunity for us. We’re delighted to be working with the talented and much in demand teams at Merman and House Productions alongside a brilliant cast – led by the extraordinary Kerry Condon – to delve into the chaotic, sometimes tragic but always gripping lives of Laura, Katie and Alison.”
Justin Healy, executive producer for comedy at RTÉ added: “The fact that UKTV and Sharon were keen to produce an Irish scripted comedy is testament to the fact that Irish people are incredibly funny and that we have some of the best creative comic voices around, something we will continue to develop and support at home and internationally.”
