Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall are a little bit stressed. They’ve almost finished editing the long-awaited second season of their comedy, Colin From Accounts, but they’re not sure they’ve got everything quite right.
“Tomorrow is the last day we can work on it, and then we’re on a plane,” Harriet says, sitting next to husband Patrick on a Zoom call with TV WEEK.
(Image: Supplied)
Patrick adds: “This is where all the ideas and the, ‘Hey, wouldn’t this be funny?’ all become very real. It’s like, ‘This is what they’re going to see.’”
The story behind Colin From Accounts is a great one: real-life Aussie couple write a quirky romantic comedy, shoot it with themselves in the starring roles, then watch it become a hit around the world. But that kind of fairytale success takes a huge amount of work.
“People don’t like to hear that something that looks so effortless is so much effort, but there is so much,” Harriet says. “We’ve been working on this season for a year now, every day going to work together…”
She starts laughing. Patrick joins in.
“We cannot get enough of each other, I must say,” he says.
(Image: Binge)
Just to add an extra level of difficulty, the couple have done all this while parenting their young daughter, Joni. Harriet, 35, and Patrick, 48, adopted Joni in 2021, five months after their wedding in Florida. They’ve brought her to work with them a few times, but it has its challenges.
“When she was an infant, you could put a dummy in and have her on set,” Harriet explains. “Now she’ll be like, ‘What’s that?’ in the middle of a take.”
At least the couple have been seeing more of their daughter than they did when they were working on the first season. Back then, they would get home after a long day and she would already be in bed. Now, as a two-year-old, she doesn’t need as much sleep.
“We are getting some of her each end of the day,” Harriet says, “but it’s hard, because now she’s playing up a bit at night, so we might only get 15 minutes between her bedtime and our bedtime.”
Patrick is happy to be getting the extra time with Joni.
“But we don’t see her enough,” he adds.
Patrick and Harriet met back in 2015 when they both worked on Aussie comedy series No Activity. Patrick moved to the US the following year and Harriet a year later. They’re still based there, but it’s not permanent.
“We will move back [to Australia] at some stage,” Harriet promises. “What keeps us over there currently is that it’s the only place that we have stuff. We have a house, a car, a pet, insurance… And we’re there because we’ve both worked there and it’s good living and it’s good money.”
The success of Colin From Accounts has opened up more opportunities in the US for the couple.
“Now we’ve got a lot of people that want to chat about future projects,” Harriet says. “And that’s exciting.”
One thing that did bring the couple home was last year’s TV WEEK Logie Awards. Colin From Accounts won Most Outstanding Comedy Program, while the duo also took home Most Outstanding Actor and Most Outstanding Actress. Harriet admits she was “so nervous” on the night.
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“I was scared of winning and getting up there and having to talk on telly as myself, but I was scared of losing because the show means so much to us – and that’s a benchmark I’ve got to get rid of, because we can’t win everything,” she explains.
As if starring in Colin From Accounts wasn’t enough, Patrick also has a recurring role in Bluey as Uncle Rad. Joni is a fan of the Aussie kids’ show, but doesn’t recognise her dad’s voice.
“I’ve seen you actually go, ‘Hey, that’s Daddy,’ and she just tunes out,” Harriet says. “I don’t think she can work out that a voice in a TV is a person.”
So would Harriet like a role in Bluey, too?
“Oh, I’d love one,” she says.
“Who wouldn’t?” Patrick adds. “It’s the high point of my career. I’ve never had more street cred than when I got a role on Bluey.”
(Image: Supplied)
The couple say they’d love to act together in another project, but not play love interests.
“We can’t continually put our own chemistry on screen because it has to thrive off screen,” Harriet explains. “It’s like a garden. We’ve got to water it.”
They both start laughing.
“There’s a lot of different relationships we could play,” Harriet continues. “I’m not even averse to playing brother/sister.”
“You’re constantly wanting to play brother/sister,” Patrick says. “It’s weird!”
“No, it’s not weird,” Harriet insists. “We want to do lots of stuff together.”
“We’ve got lots of ideas,” Patrick adds.
“Because also, we know it works,” Harriet concludes.
Stream Colin From Accounts on BINGE from $10/mth, with a 7-day free trial.
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