How To Stay Married is an eight-part comedy series about staying together when romance has made way for routine, and the ever-changing nature of family life continually throws curve balls into the mix. It’s a look at the problems that can befall even the best marriage, blending the daily challenges with the minutiae of domestic life.
In season three, stay-at-home-dad Greg (Peter Helliar) becomes overly involved in primary school politics. He’s driven by a rivalry with perfect parent, Luna (Casey Donovan), who’s also the President of the Parents and Friends Committee. Luna has the irritating knack of beating Greg at every turn, but when Greg realises he has a groundswell of popular support, a leadership spill seems inevitable.
Breadwinner Em (Lisa McCune) faces her own personal challenge when her domineering boss tasks her with ghost writing yet another “autobiography” for well-known Australian cricketer, and Greg’s number one sporting hero, Adam Gilchrist. For someone like Em, who still dreams of writing a fiction bestseller, it’s a dull hard slog, until she uncovers a controversy that could ruin several careers, including her own.
Woven throughout their personal battles, Greg and Em must also face a constant flurry of family upsets such as teenage heartbreak, stolen school lunches and the untimely death of a beloved pet turtle. But the biggest upset of all occurs when Em struggles to tell Greg some life-changing news.
Mediaweek spoke to the series creator, lead actor, executive producer, writer (episode 1 and 8 plus co-writer for episode 4), and director (episode 4) of the series, Peter Helliar, about the show. He said that the goal was to make a show that was relatable.
“The fact is Australia hasn’t done a sitcom just about a family like this. There have been families, but they explored mother-daughter like Kath and Kim or mother-son like Mother and Son. The Hey Dad..! and All Together families there was no mother, it involved two widowed men.
“We wanted to show an Australian family on screen which is amazing that it hasn’t been done before.”
How To Stay Married returns for its third season at 8:30pm Tuesday May 4 on 10.