Shaun Pye says his new slice-of-life series, “There She Goes,” wasn’t intended as an exercise in self-analysis.
“It wasn’t meant to be cathartic, originally, but it became quite cathartic as me and my wife, Sarah, talked about things we probably hadn’t talked about for a long time,” says the British-born writer/comedian/actor (“Extras”). “One of the offshoots of doing this show is that we were in a better place.
“We didn’t go into it thinking it would be good therapy, but it was.”
The six-episode series, premiering Tuesday on British TV streaming service BritBox, revolves around Rosie Yates (actress Miley Locke), who’s born with a rare, undiagnosed chromosomal disorder leaving her unable to speak and developmentally challenged.
Rosie is based on Josephine (“Jo”) Pye, the daughter born to Shaun and his wife, Dr. Sarah Crawford, in 2006. “We knew something was wrong before she was born; the measurements of her head were at the bottom of the charts and as time went on she would miss milestones like laughing or making eye contact or responding to stimuli,” says Pye (he and Sarah have an older son, Frank). “Right from the start Sarah knew something wasn’t right and, with Frank, [she] had something to compare it to. Jo’s problems with eating went far beyond our problems with Frank.”
“There She Goes” flashes back and forth between 2006 and 2015 as Rosie’s family — exasperated-but-loving parents Emily (Jessica Hynes) and Simon (David Tennant) and big brother Ben (Edan Hayhurst) — deal with Rosie’s everyday challenges.
Pye says that Simon, his onscreen alter-ego, changed quite a bit from the script’s first draft. “He was more of a hero, and I showed it to Sarah and said, ‘What do you think?’ She pointed out that the Simon character was weighed down by holding the family together and that Emily was sort of crying and depressed all the time and he sort of saves the day.
“She said, ‘We’re not putting this on television’ … and she became fully engaged,” Pye says. “So we started the process of revisiting all of that time and it was fascinating. My name is on the credits at the end … but it’s very much a collaboration between us. I think all the characters come from Sarah’s insight as well as my blinkered way of looking at things.”
There are moments of dark humor in the series; Simon mentions “God’s little outtakes” in reference to Rosie and wonders why he and Emily can’t have “a syndrome” named after them (“I could be the next Tourette,” he says). “The watchword of this show is honesty, and all the characters and talks are real,” Pye says. “We didn’t include anything that felt forced. This is what our family would say and was very much couched in reality. We, as a family, use dark humor and sarcasm on a daily basis as a way of dealing with the situation. We don’t sit around being deadly serious all the time.
“What surprised me, and had me a bit worried when it first aired [on BBC Four last October], is that we had a screening for a lot of charities and people interested in disabilities and I was nervous,” he says. “To a person they were very kind about the show and they all made the same point: ‘If we don’t laugh about it we’ll go mad.’ ”
So what does the future hold for Jo, who’s now 12?
“We very much live in the moment and don’t really think too much about the future,” Pye says. “She’s not a normal child and is not going to go to college. I envision her living with us for as long as possible. It’s the question that underlines everything, really — the whole vista of challenges coming up.
“I’d rather put my head under a rock for a few more months.”
“There She Goes” Series premiere Tuesday on BritBox