Editing Coupling (British TV series) (section)

==Production==

===Conception===
Moffat had used the breakdown of his first marriage as inspiration for his 1990s sitcom ''[[Joking Apart]]''.<ref>Andre Ptaszynski and Steven Moffat, ''Joking Apart'', Series 2, Episode 1 DVD audio commentary</ref><ref name="fool">''Fool if You Think It's Over'', featurette, ''Joking Apart'', Series 1 DVD, Dir. Craig Robins</ref> Retaining this semiautobiographical trend, ''Coupling'' was based on him meeting his wife, Sue Vertue, and on the issues that arise in new relationships.<ref name="sysl">{{cite news |first=Adam |last=Sternbergh |title=Selling Your Sex Life |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/magazine/selling-your-sex-life-139866.html?pagewanted=all |date=7 September 2003 |access-date=1 April 2008 }}</ref>

Moffat met Vertue at the [[Edinburgh International Television Festival]] in 1996.<ref name="sysl"/> Vertue had been working for [[Tiger Aspect Productions|Tiger Aspect]], a production company run by [[Peter Bennett-Jones]]. Bennett-Jones and his friend and former colleague [[Andre Ptaszynski]], who had worked with Moffat on the sitcoms ''Joking Apart'' and ''[[Chalk (TV series)|Chalk]]'', told Moffat and Vertue that each fancied the other. A relationship blossomed and they left their respective production companies to join [[Hartswood Films]], run by [[Beryl Vertue]], Sue's mother.<ref name="dust">''After the Chalk Dust Settled'', featurette on ''Chalk'' Series 1 DVD, ReplayDVD.co.uk, prod. & dir. Craig Robins</ref> After production wrapped on ''Chalk'' in 1997, Moffat announced to the cast that he was marrying Vertue.<ref>''Chalk'' Series 1 DVD audio commentary, ReplayDVD</ref>

When she eventually asked him to write a sitcom for Hartswood, he decided to base it around the evolution of their own relationship. Drunk one evening, he went into her office, wrote the word "Coupling" on a sheet of paper and told her to ask him about it later.<ref name="sysl"/>

The couple formed the basis for the main characters Steve and Susan. The four other characters are Steve and Susan's best friends and last ex-relationships (one of each for both Steve and Susan). The fourth episode, "Inferno", was written shortly after Vertue had found a similar tape in the [[VCR]], although Moffat added the '[[spanking]]' element to the script as he "didn't think the real tape was quite pervy enough.'"<ref name="sysl"/>

The show used the "group genre", a type of programme using ensemble casts that was proving popular, with then-recent successes as ''Friends'', ''[[This Life (1996 TV series)|This Life]]'' (also starring Davenport), and ''[[Cold Feet]]''. Moffat feels the group genre reflects young people's modern mores more so than traditional sitcoms, saying, "Young people watch because it is the lifestyle which is just ahead of them and older people reminisce. ''Coupling'' is about two people who get together and bring with them baggage from their past, friends, and ex-partners - people who would never meet under normal circumstances. It deals in the kind of trivia people talk about, important questions like when should a man take off his socks during foreplay?"<ref name="birmingham">{{cite news |first=Olivia |last=Convey |work=Birmingham Post |date=20 May 2000 |title= Drama by Numbers; Forget Boy Meets Girl or Family Sitcoms, Today's Television Audiences Are Demanding Group-Based Shows | page=8}}</ref> Moffat believes group shows would not have been popular with earlier generations of television audiences, stating:

{{blockquote|''Friends'' would have run for only half a series if it had been set during my parents' time. I am sure there has always been misbehaving by people before they settle down, but there was this perception that anyone who ever got married before the '60s was a virgin. What has changed is that all important gap between having left mummy and daddy and becoming a parent yourself. This is the time in which you make decisions which will define you. These few years are pivotal and they are getting longer. There are now people running round with disposable incomes who still want to do lots of things before they settle down to one partner.<ref name="birmingham"/>}}

===Writing===
[[File:Steven Moffat JA Comms 1.jpg|thumb|Steven Moffat wrote every episode of ''Coupling''.]]
According to Vertue, Steven Moffat wrote on the top floor of their family home. Once he finished a script, she read it two floors away so he could not hear her laughing. The producer says that his first drafts were "pretty much ready to shoot".<ref name="s2s">"Coupling: From Script to Screen", credit: Andrew Kerr, BBC Worldwide Americas. Series 4 DVD</ref> She did not give him many notes; she would tick all of the places where she laughed, and then he revised the script accordingly.<ref name="s2s"/>

The humour of the show, according to Moffat, is in the context. He says that there are "no jokes ''per se''" and if they did put jokes in, they were normally taken out because they did not work. He found writing the show difficult at first because he was writing his own voice six times over, with none of the characteristics and inflections of the performers to inspire him.<ref name="s2s"/>

Moffat used a range of styles and techniques, such as [[Split screen (film)|split screen]] and [[Nonlinear (arts)|nonlinear narrative]]s, that are unconventional in sitcoms.<ref name="s2s"/> The first series episode "The Girl with Two Breasts", in which half of the episode is in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/coupling/episodes/s1ep5.shtml |title=5. THE GIRL WITH TWO BREASTS 09/06/00 |work=Coupling Episode Guide |publisher=BBC}}</ref> proved so popular that the producers tried to do something similar every series. Moffat says that the simplicity of the setting encouraged an "epic, ridiculous way of telling an ordinary story."<ref name="s2s"/> The opening episode of series three, "Split", uses split screen to simultaneously depict what happens with Steve and Susan after separating.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/coupling/episodes/s3ep1.shtml |title=1. SPLIT 23/09/02 |work=Coupling Episode Guide |publisher=BBC}}</ref> The series four opener, "Nine and a Half Minutes", depicts the same events in the bar from three different perspectives.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/coupling/episodes/s4ep1.shtml |title=1. Nine and a Half Minutes 10/5/04 |work=Coupling Episode Guide |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

===Rehearsals===
British sitcoms usually cannot afford to occupy a studio facility for the entire run, meaning that they are unable to rehearse in the studio.<ref name="s2s"/> Rehearsals for ''Coupling'' took place in a church hall off [[Kensington High Street]].<ref name="naked-comm">Vertue, Sue; Moffat, Steven, ''Coupling'', "Naked", Series 2, Episode 8 DVD audio commentary</ref>

The actors received their scripts on Friday mornings. Following a [[read-through]], Moffat was generally forced to cut minutes worth of material to achieve the requisite length.<ref name="s2s"/> Director Martin Dennis designed and compiled the camera script on Saturday afternoons. After a day off on Sundays, the sets were erected for a producer's run on Mondays, and then a technical run on Tuesdays. Much of Wednesdays was spent [[camera blocking]], a process which regularly overran at the expense of a dress rehearsal.<ref name="s2s"/>

As the actors became familiar with the material, they would sometimes develop a joke. However, according to Moffat, such elaboration could overcomplicate a joke for an audience coming to the material for the first time.<ref name="dressed-comm">Moffat, Steven; Bellman, Gina, ''Coupling'', "Dressed", Series 2, Episode 7 DVD audio commentary</ref> Martin Dennis, according to Moffat, regularly told the actors, "You know that funny thing you're doing? Don't do that".<ref name="dressed-comm"/> The director encouraged them to deliver their lines as well as they had in the original read-through.<ref name="dressed-comm"/>

===Recording===
All of the location sequences for each series were filmed in [[London]] during the first week of each production block. As Moffat was generally late delivering the final few scripts of each series, those episodes contained no location material.<ref name="naked-comm"/> The exterior shots of the bar were filmed in [[Clerkenwell]] in the first series. After a nearby Thai restaurant complained that filming was disrupting their business, a street just off [[Tottenham Court Road]] was used from series two.<ref name="naked-comm"/> The house in which Moffat and Vertue lived at the time was used as the exterior for Steve's flat, with the surrounding area used for other sequences.<ref name="dressed-comm"/>

Material that was technically difficult was filmed the day before the recording with the live studio audience. A common example of this would be a dinner table sequence, where some characters would be filmed against the [[fourth wall]], rather than the often-used contrived method of cramming everyone together around the [[proscenium]]. Readjusting the set and refilming against the fourth wall would have been too time-consuming.<ref name="s2s"/> However, the absence of the studio audiences made it more difficult for the actors to judge the timing of the laughs. For instance, Moffat says that this prevented Gina Bellman from "milking" a particular laugh in the episode "Dressed", an episode in which most of her scenes were prerecorded because she was wearing minimal clothing on set to provide the illusion of complete nudity.<ref name="dressed-comm"/> The prerecorded sequences were tightened in the editing process once the scenes had been played to the studio audience.<ref name="naked-comm"/>

[[File:Thames Television and ABC Weekend TV studios in Teddington London cropped.jpg|thumb|right|Episodes of ''Coupling'' were filmed in front of a live studio audience at [[Teddington Studios]] in London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.]]

Episodes were mostly filmed in front of a live studio audience at [[Teddington Studios]] in [[London Borough of Richmond upon Thames]] on Wednesday evenings. Sue Vertue says that the live audience reinvigorated the company because no one had laughed at the material for a few days, as everyone knew it so well.<ref name="s2s"/> A [[warm-up comedian]] updated the studio audiences about any important plot detail, introduced them to the performers, and provided entertainment while cameras and sets were being repositioned. [[Rob Rouse]] fulfilled this role for the fourth series.<ref name="s2s"/>

Despite some critics' comments, all of the laughter in ''Coupling'' was from a genuine live studio audience.<ref name="naked-comm"/> Although artificial [[canned laughter]] was not used, the laughter sometimes had to be tweaked during the editing process. For instance, the studio audience might laugh for longer than might be expected of the home audience. Also, the audience's laughter decreased if a scene was shot multiple times; in these cases the laughter from an earlier [[take]] would be used.<ref name="s2s"/>

Moffat felt uncomfortable and powerless during the studio recording. Sitting in the [[Television studio#Production-control room|gallery]], he wrote the word 'help' repeatedly on the back of his scripts. In an interview for the DVD release, he says he was aware that their most successful show received the least amount of laughter from the studio audience.<ref name="s2s"/> Conversely, studio audiences reacted emphatically to his previous studio sitcom, ''Chalk'', yet it received a poor critical reception upon transmission.<ref name="dust"/> Martin Dennis would start editing from the following Monday afternoon. The episodes were then [[Color grading|colour graded]] and dubbed with sound effects and music.<ref name="s2s"/>

[[Mari Wilson]] performed the song "[[Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps]]", written by [[Osvaldo Farrés]] and Joe Davis, to accompany the opening and [[closing credits]]. [[Simon Brint]] composed and arranged the [[incidental music]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Raw Sex star Simon Brint dies aged 61|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13845248 |work=BBC News |date=20 June 2011 |access-date=7 June 2012}}</ref> The title sequence, as [[Mark Lawson]] described, consists of "brightly coloured and suggestive shapes swirl around the screen: circles, curves, and angles tumble like limbs locked together in sex. As the names of the actors discreetly sweep across in black lettering, the bright shapes form the title: ''Coupling''."<ref name="lawson-title">{{cite news |title=G2: Stylish from the very start: Mark Lawson on Mad Men's title sequence - and five other classics |first=Mark |last=Lawson |author-link=Mark Lawson |page=15 |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=3 February 2009}}</ref> Lawson calls the design "elegant simplicity, showing how a clever choice of theme tune can evoke an atmosphere and set a pace to which images can be cut."<ref name="lawson-title"/> The colour scheme was changed for the fourth series, although the basic design remained.