Editing Coupling (British TV series) (section)

===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>