A nipple flash and an injured dog are the catalysts for Colin From Accounts, one of the most quick-witted, joyful new series of the last year. Now that Americans are finally catching on, Paramount+ has officially announced today that it will be picking up Colin From Accounts season two. This Australian meet-cute story was created by its stars, actually married actors Harriet Dyer, who plays 29-year-old medical student Ashley, and Patrick Brammall, who portrays 40-something brewery owner Gordon. Their lives collide when Ashley cheekily flashes her tit at Gordon while he’s driving to work, causing him to hit a stray dog. They jointly decide to care for the injured critter. Agreeing that he must not have a cutesy dog name, they christen him Colin From Accounts. The chaotic chemistry between the two actors—plus Colin, now puttering along with the help of rear wheels—creates a vibe that is screwball and charming, with the show falling somewhere between Fleabag and Ted Lasso on the comedy flowchart.
The series was a hit in its native Australia and in the UK, where, Brammall says, no less than Love Actually maestro Richard Curtis declared it “one of the best rom-coms he’s seen in ages.” But it took nearly a full year for it to land in the US on Paramount+. Dyer and Brammall are shooting the new season in Australia right now—although, just to make things a little more confusing, the couple actually lives in Los Angeles with their toddler, Joni, when they’re not making Colin (hence the LA-centric name of Gordon’s Echo Park Brewery).
Dyer and Brammall spoke to me from Sydney on a Saturday morning Zoom call, discussing season two’s progress and what it’s like to create alternative versions of themselves. Since it was one of their rare days off, they had decided not to get a babysitter for Joni, which made for a Colin-style madcap scenario as they juggled the needs of a Vanity Fair interviewer and an adorable, energetic toddler rampaging through their residence.
Harriet Dyer: Our daughter’s in the freezer. I’m just gonna tell her to get out.
Patrick Brammall: She’s always in there looking for ice, because she loves Frozen.
Dyer: Is that a thing?
Brammall: Well, the main Frozen guy, he’s got lots of ice. That’s his whole job.
Vanity Fair: Colin has been a very word-of-mouth show in the US. So many of us are looking for feel-good shows that are also smart and real.
Dyer: There’s such a fine line between sweet and sickly. We have to put plenty of heart in the show for it to be a relationship comedy and for people to feel yummy. But there’s also a line for me personally, where I don’t want to kind of sell too much of our actual love. Like the other day, we had a scene in season two where I forgive him after this big fight, but it felt very real. It feels a bit icky to be shooting that and putting that on a TV show and packaging something that is quite personal. So we draw that line too.
These are fictional characters, but you worry about putting too much of yourselves into them?
Dyer: We’re capitalizing off of our chemistry, and also I’m like: Does chemistry run out in real life? I don’t know! We’re really putting it to the test, but we don’t want to abuse it.
Brammall: The whole thing started as a fun situation for two fictionalized versions of us. But as it’s evolved, there’s elements of people we know and stories we’ve heard and things from our own lives that we’ve pilfered like bowerbirds to make the world funny and real. The thing that is real, as Harri was saying, is this sense of banter. When people find out that we’re a real-life couple, they’re like, Ohhhh! They feel like they’re getting a behind-the-doors peek at us. And they’re not—but if people want to look into the show that way, we’re not going to stop them.
Dyer: We are pilfering our own charm with each other, and sometimes it feels a bit weird to package it and put it on television.
Actors do that anyway, right? So much of it is about chemistry. They’re just not usually married in real life.
Brammall: That’s right. You use what you have in the moment for real, knowing that it’s play. And it’s a really playful show, even when it dips into serious and more emotional stuff.
Dyer: It feels really fun to be able to play both sides of an argument that actually probably, in some form, has happened to us before—even if it’s not those words, it’s those feelings and rhythms. I feel like we’re good at fighting. Even if one of them is wrong, we each will make sure that they had their best chance in the argument. Like in episode seven, where they have that huge fight after her birthday—Ashley was really poorly behaved, but he was stressed and anxious and acted out. Both of them were a bit wrong. A few girlfriends of mine from high school were like, “Ugh, Harriet, I did not like Ashley.” That’s great! We really want people to be a bit mad with them from time to time.
Does writing arguments for your fictional characters help get them out of your system?
Dyer: It’s too hard to argue in real life—we’re too tired! We were shooting all this week, for instance, and we finished late, but she doesn’t know that [points to Joni, who veers in and out of view]. She’s still up at the same time, so it’s a juggle right now. But we truly will look back at this time as a golden time.
American audiences are watching more international comedies these days, including Australian ones like Deadloch and Colin. It seems to be disproving the idea that comedy doesn’t travel.