It seems almost every successful sitcom was a slow burn when it was first broadcast. Dad’s Army, The Office, Gavin and Stacey - even Fawlty Towers (of which much was expected at the time) was deemed to be a bit so-so when it first launched.
Certainly nothing was expected of Colin From Accounts, as it was an Australian import featuring two people (the husband-and-wife team Patrick Brummell and Harriet Dyer, playing hardscrabble lovebirds Gordon and Ashley) nobody in this country had ever heard of.
But it clicked, surprisingly, and the quirky, rather odd story of how two singletons are brought together by a random car accident and an idiosyncratically injured dog (Colin) became the surprise hit of last year. Critics praised the show because it showed characters being “brave” (awful word) enough to show their true selves, although I think a lot of us who watched it were simply secretly appalled at their behaviour. In other words some found the series charming, while others found it icky. Either way, it was suitably compelling enough to work.
Series two starts this week and fundamentally it’s like the first series squared. Ashley is still a plodding trainee doctor, Gordon is still the haphazard owner of an almost fashionable Sydney bar, and they still both bounce around the show in a lo-fi will-they-won’t-they-survive pantomime.
Like the first series, it’s thin on belly laughs, but captivating all the same - each episode is pregnant with expectation, and often excruciating, as invariably one of the characters embarrasses themselves (usually with great fanfare). There is genuine tension here, which obviously means that we like the characters more than we probably think we do. The fact they’re married in real life means they’re able to bicker in a way that never feels forced or arch; halfway through each episode you start to wonder - yet again - why they’re together, which I guess is a pretty strong counter narrative of any decent relationship.
The couple were originally told to tone down the language, but they refused, wanting the show to be as authentic as possible, or at least what they considered authentic. They also wanted to show the realities of Australian urban relationships.
“I said no, we’ll just keep it super Australian and if people have to Google words or rewind or put on their subtitles, then they can,” said Dyer. “It’s like going for a run, it’s a pressure release valve. It’s good to have a yell on the street and not actually affect our relationship.”
The show is a delight, and delivers on every level. If you enjoyed the first series then you should have no reservations about diving in. It really is super Australian, slow burn or not.
