Nicola Coughlan has discussed casting Bridgerton co-stars Ben Miller and Jamie Beamish in her all-star comedy audio series, Whistle Through The Shamrocks, co-created with playwright Camilla Whitehill.
In Bridgerton, which will return for a second season, Coughlan plays Penelope Featherington, while Miller played her on-screen father, Lord Featherington, who died in season one.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Coughlan revealed that Miller – her “fake daddy” – would play the loathsome English aristocrat Cromwell Dumblington in her new scripted audio series, set in Ireland.
Asked if she was looking forward to reuniting with Miller after his Bridgerton character’s death, she said: “Yeah, definitely. it’s a funny thing right? We sort of wrote this insanely terrible English man that we were like, ‘Who is going to do this?’ Then Ben was so up for it and was so funny. And also, for someone that has such legendary comic history behind them, for someone like that to [say], ‘Oh this is actually hilarious,’ was really, really nice.
“The script – it’s so ridiculous, and it gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on, but he just fully committed to it and was so, so funny, but yeah, it’s very exciting. ‘Fake Daddy’ is what I call Ben Miller,” she joked.
Whitehill added: “It was one of my best days when we were watching him [Miller] record his part, because he’s so incredibly talented and funny.”
!["Whistle]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/10/ahG8UvQF-0b9978f.png?quality=90&resize=300%2C413" "\"Whistle")
Jamie Beamish, who played repulsive suitor Nigel Berbrooke in the Bridgerton cast, also stars in Whistle Through The Shamrock’s voice cast as “Daddy”, head of the central O’Flanneryn family.
“I’m gonna try to write it into every possible – every job I ever do, that I just want to work with Jamie, because he’s in Derry Girls too, and in Bridgerton. So honestly, we just love him so much,” said Coughlan.
She jokingly added that “blackmail was a huge part” of securing the podcast’s starry voice cast, which also includes the likes of Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness, Brooklyn 99’s Stephanie Beatriz, Susan Wokoma, and Ed Gamble.
In the six-part audio series, Coughlan plays Tiny Nelly O’Flanneryn, while her co-creator Whitehill reads the stage directions and adds commentary.
Whistle Through The Shamrocks is part of the Acast Creator Network, and episodes drops weekly on Mondays wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, from 1st November 2021.
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