Don't Start by Frank Skinner.txt
BBC Radio 4 - 23:00
Don't Start by Frank Skinner
What do long term partners really argue about? A masterclass in the great art of arguing. Starring Frank Skinner and Katherine Parkinson.
Well observed, clever and funny, Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Each week, our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint - a text from a friend, a trilby and a bad night's sleep. Each week, the stakes mount as Neil and Kim battle with words. But these are no ordinary arguments. The two outdo each other with increasingly absurd images, unexpected literary references (Androcles and the Lion pop up at one point) and razor sharp analysis of their beloved's weaknesses.
Frank says: "I've spent an unhealthy percentage of all my relationships in argument mode. Sometimes it's simply destructive but, on other occasions, it can be like an elaborate verbal dance. One of the characters in Don't Start talks about finding 'poetry amidst the bile'. Radio loves language and that gives me licence to explore a style of comedy that loves language too. I'm a fan of those Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn films when their bickering is finely-crafted, funny, and yet somehow still very real. That's what I've tried to achieve with Don't Start."
Neil ........... Frank Skinner
Kim ...... Katherine Parkinson
Produced and directed by Polly Thomas
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4
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Series 1
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2011-10-05 - Part 1
A text sparks the first of Neil and Kim's arguments. Via a Greek chorus, a not eating celery pact and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the couple spectacularly fail to agree.
2011-10-12 - Part 2
Neil's new trilby hat is a flashpoint for an argument.
2011-10-19 - Part 3
Kim's bad dream sparks a heated debate that incorporates Elvis on fire.
2011-10-26 - Part 4
Celery rears its ugly head again as Neil attempts his Androcles and the lion tactic when making tea, and Kim admits she has grievance nostalgia.
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Series 2
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2012-09-12 - Part 1 - The Notebook
Frank's apparently innocent discovery of an old notebook strangely rekindles Kim's former enthusiasm for Frisbee throwing.
2012-09-19 - Part 2 - The Toenail
Frank's attempts at recycling strike Kim as an unhealthy obsession with death.
2012-09-26 - Part 3 - Pillow talk
2012-10-03 - Part 4 - The bathroom
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The first series of Don't Start met with instant critical and audience acclaim: 'That he can deliver such a heavy premise for a series with such a lightness of touch is testament to his skills as a writer and, given that the protagonists are both bookworms, he's also permitted to use a flourish of fine words that would be lost in his stand-up routines'. Jane Anderson, Radio Times.
'Writing and starring in the four-parter Don't Start (Radio 4) Frank Skinner gives full rein to his sharp but splenetic comedy. He and his co-star Katherine Parkinson play a bickering couple exchanging acerbic ripostes in a cruelly precise dissection of a relationship'. Daily Mail
... 'a lesson in relationship ping-pong' - Miranda Sawyer, The Observer.
Series 2 follows hard on its heels. Well observed, clever and funny, Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Each week, our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint - the Krankies, toenail trimming and semantics. Each week, the stakes mount as Neil and Kim battle with words. But these are no ordinary arguments. The two outdo each other with increasingly absurd images, unexpected literary references (the Old Testament, Jack Spratt and the first Mrs Rochester, to name a few) and razor sharp analysis of their beloved's weaknesses. Underneath the cutting wit, however, there is an unmistakable tenderness'.
Frank says:
'Having established in the first series that Neil and Kim are a childless academic couple who during their numerous arguments, luxuriate in their own and each other's learning and wit, I've tried in the second series to dig a little deeper into their relationship. Love and affection occasionally splutter into view, like a Higgs boson in a big tunnel-thing, but can such emotions ever prevail in a relationship where the couple prefers to wear their brains, rather than their hearts, on their sleeves? Is that too much offal imagery?
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