Those in desperate need of some comedy after a trying year will be glad to check out Frank of Ireland, premiering through Amazon on April 16. Created by the sibling duo of (Brian Gleeson, The Bisexual) and (Domhnall Gleeson, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), the 6-episode first season tackles the humorously ordinary struggles of Frank and his hapless but best friend Doofus.
Finding himself recently single, Frank also can't seem to write a single song despite believing himself to be a musician. Not only that, but his ex-girlfriend Àine (Sarah Greene, Dublin Murders) now has a new man, and he doesn't like that one bit. Will he and Doofus manage to turn things around before he gets kicked out the house by mother?
Domhnall Gleeson spoke to Screen Rant about the process of creating a series with family and friends, the cast chemistry, and the purposely terrible musical skills of his protagonist.
I love that Frank of Ireland is like a family affair. What was it like writing with Brian, and how did you come up with the concept?
Domhnall Gleeson: It was myself and Brian and Michael Moloney, who I had written with previously and who I've known since I was in school. He's a fantastic writer, Brian's a fantastic writer, and we were just kind of knocking ideas around. Brian said we should do something funny; it kind of started there.
Then we took a long time figuring out what kind of show we wanted it to be. We came up with the character of Frank, and for Brian to play Frank, pretty early - the first thing was the character, and everything grew from there. It took a long time; it took us like five years to get to set because it was our first time doing it.
Then when Sharon Horgan came on board - the wonderful Sharon Horgan and Clelia Mountford, who's absolutely fantastic - things started moving quicker. Then we found a home at Channel 4 and with Amazon. We were very lucky they supported us and got us to set, and I still can't quite believe that we got to make it.
That's quite a journey, and an inspiring one for those who wish to write despite the years passing.
Domhnall Gleeson: Yeah, that's the thing. It's the condensing of things. I think for us as well, there was many different versions of the show; many different tones of the show. We knew we wanted it to be funny, and we wanted Frank front and center. The tone that it ended up being took us a long time to find, but I'm glad we took the time, I have to say.
I love that Frank being front and center is also the case in Doofus' life. How did that dynamic evolve, and why does Doofus let Frank drag him along?
Domhnall Gleeson: Well, it's funny. There's a whole thing in America about the can-do sort of personality, and oftentimes that can be at the center of comedies over there. And I think a more heroic quality sometimes, with some of the comedies - not in things like Always Sunny [In Philadelphia], but in some of the other comedies.
Whereas in England and Ireland, in Britain and stuff, you get - not the loser, but the guy who isn't succeeding, front and center. I think that's who Frank is, in a way. He thinks he's a hero, but he's not. He thinks things are probably going well but could go better, and we know that they're not going very well.
Doofus is just blind to it. Doofus looks at him and sees the coolest man in the world. We always said Frank behaves like a 13 year old, but Doofus behaves like a 9 year old. When you were a kid, your older cousin was the coolest person in the world. You're like, "I want to be like that. I think that person is cooler than the members of Oasis, I'm pretty sure." That's the way Doofus sees Frank. And that's why he's so happy to be allowed this friend, and he allows himself to be treated like crap, unfortunately. But then things come to a head, and he starts behaving badly himself. So, I think we gave him a shot.
The cast has such great chemistry. Obviously, we know where your and Brian's comes from, but what was it like developing that chemistry with the rest of the cast?
Domhnall Gleeson: It was amazing. We did not have a lot of time. But Brian made a good point early on when we were talking about this that each person who came in brought something unexpected to the mix. And I think that's great, because then you don't know what to expect to come back from the other side of the camera. And so it's actually a discovery. It's not like, "Okay, everything is planned this way, and that's how it's going to go." It's a discovery.
And those actors are all so wonderful. Sarah [Greene], Liz [Fitzgibbon], Tom [Vaughan-Lawlor], Pat Shortt, and our dad. It is a wonderful group of of actors - Sade [Malone], who came in at the end, was just wonderful. We got super lucky with the cast, and they all took it really seriously even though it's so stupid. They took it really seriously. So, yeah, we were blessed with that.
I love that, because playing it straight makes it funnier than playing it off as a joke from the start.
Domhnall Gleeson: They really did. And we saw so many wonderful actors in Ireland. We saw some of the best actors that Ireland has to offer, and so many could have done a wonderful job. it's just the particular flavor each of these incredible actors brought was just perfect. We just loved it so much.
You're not only doing some writing, but also producing and of course starring. What was it like juggling all those different roles this first go round?
Domhnall Gleeson: It was a lot. It was a lot, and I was not prepared for it. I had not done a lot of like television in my life, but I'd done a show previously called Run, that Vicky Jones was show runner of, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and all these amazing people involved. But I had seen how much work it took to make something. And even having seen it, I couldn't have expected it. It was a lot. It was a lot.
I was pretty tense, but I think the fact that it was funny helped. It helped relieve some of that tension, and the fact that Brian was doing such a great job. It was intense, but worth it by the end of that.
One of my favorite aspects of the show is that they're musicians, but the music is either terrible or just not there. Like, "I'm going to sing a song..." and scene. Did you have to try hard to make the music awkward?
Domhnall Gleson: Yes, we had to try hard. Michael, one of the three writers on it, is a wonderful musician and a wonderful writer of music. He wrote a lot of bad songs and wrote them brilliantly.
We had seen this thing on YouTube by John Daker. He's very funny. He's the loveliest man; you can tell he's a really nice man. But he did a thing where he tried to sing "That's Amore," and he forgot all the words. We just laughed about it for so long, and I think maybe we took some inspiration from that for the show. There's nothing funnier - more awful for the person, but funnier for the people in the crowd - than somebody forgetting all the words. That stage fright, there's nothing like it. Forgetting your line in a play is the worst.
So yeah, that's where we got that from. But Michael wrote a lot of the music in the show and did a wonderful job. Then some of the other music, he wrote with friends of mine growing up, Rowan and Owen. I had written music with them growing up, so we took it from everywhere.
I am a Star Wars fan and a Hux enjoyer, so I'd like to know if there's any Star Wars property right now or series that you are most enjoying or looking forward to?
Domhnall Gleeson: The only stuff that I've watched in the last year is comedy, essentially. We went cold turkey on comedy for a good while in the lead up to the meat of this, because you don't want to cloud your vision or anything like that. Because if that's what you're doing, it becomes work. And then with the pandemic, and just how serious it's been, it's been difficult for everybody. Comedy is where I've put my salvation for the year.
I haven't actually much of the Star Wars stuff, so I can't say.
Frank of Ireland premieres April 16 on Amazon Prime.