Sky’s brilliant, biting comedy-drama Breeders is back for a third season – and series leads Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard have suggested this isn’t the end of the road.
Freeman and Haggard play Paul and Ally, who are faced with the harsh realities of parenthood as they raise their children Luke and Ava.
The second season – aired last year – featured a significant time jump, with Alex Eastwood and Eve Prenelle taking on the roles of older versions of Paul and Ally’s children. But while the advancing ages of these characters might suggest there’s a limit to how long Breeders can explore the challenges of raising young children, Freeman told RadioTimes.com that he thinks there’s still “more to do”.
“I think we can stand a bit more!” he said. “While still not becoming, you know, Luke and Ava being 45. Because they are still young – the characters are 11 and 13, so there’s still loads of growing up to do, actually. So I think that we could do more without it being desperately clinging on… there’s feasibly more that we could do, I think.”
Haggard also suggested that there’s “another chapter” to explore for the family. “The great thing about this story is it’s a family and people get older and change, so there’s so many different stories to tell. I think there’s definitely another chapter,” she said.
The third season of Breeders charts the aftermath of a tense argument between Paul and Luke, which saw the latter punch his father, while also exploring how Ava feels isolated from Ally as the family directs its attention towards Luke, who is living with anxiety.
Fans of the series will be used to the scenes featuring Paul’s eccentric parents, Jim (Alun Armstrong) and Jackie (Joanna Bacon), providing some light relief. “It’s a very different atmosphere [during filming], because those scenes, for the most part, serve a different function,” Freeman said. “They are a bit more, you know, the pressure cooker sort of being released.”
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But he hinted that Jim and Jackie will in fact be involved in a more dramatic storyline in Breeders’ third season. “As the series goes on, Jim and Jackie particularly get more serious, they get more of a run at showing different colours on their palette, not not just the comedy sidekick sort of thing.
“There’s a strand of story that is beautifully done – from the writing department and the acting department and the directing department – involving Jim and Jackie, which is just… yeah, it’s great. And it gives them [Armstrong and Bacon] a chance to spread their wings.”
Breeders returns on 13th July 2022, airing on Sky Comedy from 9pm with all three seasons also available to watch via Sky TV and NOW – sign up for Sky TV here.
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