Sharon Horgan explains why Bad Sisters is returning after being designed as a one-off

"You’re absolutely spot on," says Sharon Horgan, the show’s producer, writer and co-star, who, to the delight of Bad Sisters’ fans, is reprising her role as eldest sister Eva Garvey in series two of the Apple TV+ drama.

"That was one thing I thought about a lot when we were considering the second series. Having researched women who’ve killed their partners and ended up in prison being punished, it doesn’t mean that they stop loving that person. As well as capturing the idea of their conscience and their guilt, there’s the question of who looks after these women, who are victims themselves. How do you move on from that?"

This is the thorny question facing the Garvey sisters – Eva, Ursula, Bibi and Becka – as they rapidly realise that Grace’s problems haven’t disappeared with the same finality as her murdered husband, John Paul, aka "The P***k", or JP. "Grace has this family that’s there to support her, but in the two years that have passed [since John Paul’s death], they’ve been damaged by it, too. While they are there for each other, they’re all acting out in different ways."

Although, they weren’t supposed to be acting out at all. Bad Sisters was originally conceived as a one-off (based on Belgian drama, Clan), but Horgan says her mind was changed after being "blown away" by the viewers’ response.

"You hope that people will connect with the characters, but you never know. We had a sense that it could have legs for more, plus I kept having ideas for what could happen, post the offing of The P***k. Maybe we could find a bigger enemy. We did a writers’ room to figure out if there was anything there, and the idea for a second series became stronger. Plus, we really enjoyed making it. We really like being a big gang of sisters."

Thankfully, it wasn’t hard to get the cast back together again, despite Eve Hewson (Bono’s daughter, who plays Becka) since starring with Nicole Kidman in The Perfect Couple and the other sisters – Anne-Marie Duff (Grace), Sarah Greene (Bibi) and Eva Birthistle (Ursula) – all having filming schedules to juggle. "They’re all busy, but they wanted to do it, which was great," Horgan smiles. "They all enjoyed it the first time around, so they were happy to come back."

After bonding so deeply during the making of series one, she says they’re now like sisters in real life. "There’s a real sense of being supportive of each others’ endeavours. We miss each other [now that filming has ended], and we’re getting giddy for doing the press, so we all get to be together again. It’s a lovely feeling. It was an unexpected bonus that came from making this series, getting to be friends with all those girls."

The second eldest of five children (her parents moved from London to Ireland when she was four, jacking in running a pub and taking up turkey farming), Horgan is open that her family informs her writing, albeit indirectly. "I’d already used my brothers for inspiration in Catastrophe, although they’ll kill me for saying that. With Bad Sisters it was more about capturing the feeling of family and the giddiness of when you’re all together. You get to stop being parents and regress to how you were when you were younger.

"I tried to tap into my own family for that. Because I play Eva, who’s the eldest, I also tapped into my relationship with my older sister. We were just talking about it on [our family] WhatsApp, actually – the familial anxiety we all have, and how we manage to buoy each other but also panic each other at the same time."

Grace’s abusive relationship was at the heart of season 1; a finely wrought study of the invisible devastation wreaked by a husband’s coercive control. "Part of the reason why the responsibility of doing another series was such a big one was due to the amount of people who got in touch with me saying that they’ve been through that experience themselves, and it was such a huge thing to see it on screen," reveals Horgan.

"We’ve seen domestic violence dramatised, but the coercive control aspect – the isolation, the financial control – those things are less explored. Having had women contact me whose sisters, mothers, daughters and friends have been through that, it was such a relief to feel like we got it right, and to know that seeing that story out there made them feel less like they were f***ing crazy."

Coercive control was only made a crime in 2015, and is still notoriously hard to prove, since the gaslighting and verbal abuse leave no physical marks. "It’s so hard to help someone when they don’t want to be helped," says Horgan. "And it’s not that they don’t want to be helped – it’s just that they’ve been diminished and gaslit to such an extent that they don’t think there is a problem.

"In the first series, we had to be so careful that you were behind these sisters and this choice that they make, which is not moral in any way, but you’ve got to see the reason why they’re doing it – love. They’re losing their sister, but they also see that it’s going to impact on her daughter Blanaid, and the effect that it’s going to have. I’m not condoning how they decided to approach it, but I am trying to show the reality of that situation, and the truth of it."

Horgan is one of few writers skilful enough to weave humour into such a tragic storyline. "It’s a tricky thing to do," she acknowledges. "But I think you reach people in a different way when you can make them laugh – more so than if it’s a hard-hitting drama, because sometimes that can be painful to watch."

There’s certainly much to find funny about Eva, who’s now a fitness and wellness freak –complete with her own menopause coach. "She’s just trying to throw a bit of money at her problem," smiles Horgan. "Eva doesn’t have a family, and she’s in this situation where she thinks she’s got to fix herself.

"I love each of these sisters in a way that’s almost not healthy. Obviously the thriller aspect of the story is so important, but I also wanted to show life – Ursula’s separation, the cuckoo parenting – and that none of it’s not complicated, or tricky, but they’re all just getting along with it. I hope there’s enough time spent with the sisters that you understand who they are and who they’ve become."

Horgan is currently cuckoo parenting herself (she separated from her partner in 2019; they share two teenaged daughters). If Pulling was about her 20s, Catastrophe was about meeting someone and settling down and Motherland was about parenting, Bad Sisters is another show whose plot reflects her life, grim murder notwithstanding.

Does she ever feel too exposed by what she’s written? "Oh God, all the time!" she hoots. "Even when it seems less obvious, like this, which is a thriller, or even when I’ve done shows that I’m not in at all, I feel exposed, because you’re writing from your own experience, and people know that. I suppose I’ve not been shy about saying that. You get a bit nervous before it goes out, thinking, 'Oh, I hope people don’t think I’m a psycho' – or worse. I hope they relate to it. Because if they don’t relate to it, there’s something wrong with me."

Aah, so does that mean she does actually have a menopause coach? "Ha! Well, not strictly a menopause coach, but someone who figured it out with me, who I talked to and worked out what it was I needed and what was missing. I still am going through the menopause and trying to find a way around it. There were so many things wrong with me that are now not too bad. It’s wild that [menopause] is not more widely talked about.

"There’s a lot of change now, which is amazing, but it’s extraordinary how much we go through that’s not even questioned, because there’s so little research and time that’s gone into it. I think we all help each other by talking about it."

And laughing about it – which is arguably the best medicine of all.

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Bad Sisters season 2 will premiere on Wednesday 13th November on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes, then new episodes weekly. Season 1 is available to stream on Apple TV+ – sign up to Apple TV+ here.

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