Colin From Accounts' Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer on their 12-year age gap

Stars of 'Colin From Accounts' Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer sat down with Yahoo Lifestyle to chat about their show, their life and their relationship.

Video transcript

- You guys had a very busy past 12 months, having a daughter, and then you shot this early this year?

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Early this year, yeah.

HARRIET DYER: In February and March.

- How did you do that?

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Don't know. Was in the grip of COVID, which was awesome fun, and the grip of biblical rain in Sydney if you remember like, February, March. I have no idea how we got it done.

HARRIET DYER: There was someone up there looking over us because any time we really needed to shoot outside and for it to be beautiful weather, it was. And then any time we're inside it was torrential rain. It was just really good.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: It was crazy. As for the baby, we had an incredible nanny. And she basically raised that kid while we shot the thing.

HARRIET DYER: Like two, months, yeah.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: It was like a--

HARRIET DYER: You can't really choose when a TV show gets greenlit finally. Like, we were in development for so long and throughout COVID, and then funding happens. And it was like a very slow turn on of a green light.

There was never a moment that we, like, called our family, and we were like, we're making a TV show. Like, even in January, we're like, are we still doing this? I mean, I don't know if we would have chosen a better time to shoot in terms of parenting, but it's fine. I mean, she doesn't remember.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: There's no good time to do that either really.

HARRIET DYER: It was just, like, an exercise. It was a writing exercise to get me out of the house. I just moved to LA, and I was a bit bored, and Patty was making "No Activity." And he goes, why don't you try and write something? I feel like you've got a good head on your shoulders. You've read so many scripts in your career. Like, give it a go. You've got a good sense of characters and words. And then I showed him, and he said--

PATRICK BRAMMALL: I didn't realize quite how good. I mean, it was annoying. At the end of the week, she came and went, anyway, I've written this. And I was like, you joking?

Like, this is the-- what? Have you been secretly taking writing classes or something? It was really, really good. It was, basically, the pilot that you see is what she wrote in a week, actually four days because you spent the first day downloading--

HARRIET DYER: Final draft.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Final draft, yeah.

HARRIET DYER: It took a while. I had to delete a lot of things off my computer.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: It's a test. If you can do that, you're ready to write.

HARRIET DYER: Yeah, it was like a test. But then Patty kind of wrote ep 2, and then I wrote ep 3. And so it ended up, I did, like, all the odd numbers, and he did the evens. But then we really just passed them back and forth between each other, so every episode is kind of 50/50 now.

Well, we are 12 years apart.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Yeah, that's a real thing.

HARRIET DYER: We're both year of the dragon.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: A couple of dragons.

HARRIET DYER: A couple of dragons. No, it's just funny when you're like, I don't believe in, like, astrological stuff. It's almost like, well, if you're 12 years apart, you're the same Chinese, like, year. And I thought, that's interesting.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: You don't believe in astrology.

HARRIET DYER: Well, I don't know. Do I?

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Classic Libra. It's not a problem for us, but it's a good mind for comedy, the 12 years between us.

HARRIET DYER: It'll only be a problem for us when he's 82, and I've still like got it at 70. (SNAPS FINGERS) Do you know what I mean?

PATRICK BRAMMALL: I might still have it (SNAPS FINGERS) at 82.

HARRIET DYER: I don't (SNAPS FINGERS) think so.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: I (SNAPS FINGERS) think so. I'll be (SNAPS FINGERS) doing that a lot because (SNAPS FINGERS)--

HARRIET DYER: Brad and Angelina, they were 12.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: And they worked out great.

HARRIET DYER: I think that's right, Brad and Angelina? It's never come up for us, except once someone asked me at an airport--

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Which is in the show. We put this in the show.

HARRIET DYER: We did. We did.

HARRIET DYER: At an airport, we just landed from LA, so I was looking particularly, like, I guess make up free and adorable. And Patty was looking haggard.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: It was a 15 hour flight. Come on.

HARRIET DYER: And we were waiting for a coffee at Sydney airport, and this woman came up and she-- Patty went to go to the toilet. And this woman goes, sorry, sorry. Is your dad in that show? And I was like, oh my god. Which show?

[LAUGHTER]

PATRICK BRAMMALL: "Your dad."

HARRIET DYER: And then-- yeah, dad.

HARRIET DYER: And then she went "Glitch?" I went, yeah. Also, he's my boyfriend. And she was like, oh my god. Oh my god. Don't tell him I said that. And I was like, as soon as Pat walked back, I was like, hey dad. It was disgusting.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Yeah.

HARRIET DYER: But I don't know. It's not come up for us otherwise because I'm very wise.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: (SNORTS)

HARRIET DYER: Beyond me years.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: We can cut that out.

[LAUGHTER]

I also did stress [INAUDIBLE] party.

HARRIET DYER: The "Party" episode?

PATRICK BRAMMALL: It's stressful, isn't it? Isn't it good?

- I felt like a Gordon. I just like--

PATRICK BRAMMALL: You're the Gordon?

- Yeah.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: You're either a Gordon or an Ashley in episode 7.

HARRIET DYER: Ep 7 was a big one to just mine that, like, because there's comedy in 12 years apart, especially if someone's 40 and someone's 28. Like, the whole 30s is missing, and 30s is massive for people. And so we wanted to just, like, really accentuate it for at least a whole episode where he's just a fish out of water around all these kind of "young folk."

PATRICK BRAMMALL: I'm trying to host this young person's party, and I get it all wrong, and all her cool hip mates show up, and they're all hot and doing their thing. And I'm dressed wrong, and it's--

HARRIET DYER: He puts that light. Pat's awesome.

- Yeah.

- What Chad's.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: Chad's, I put out some Chad's. I'm just like, oh my god. Are these Chad's? And he's like, yeah. And I go, I didn't know it's retro. He was like, it's not.

[LAUGHTER]

HARRIET DYER: Sad.

PATRICK BRAMMALL: That's based on my 16th birthday party when people are coming over and my mom put out like M&Ms and cheezels and stuffing balls. I'm like, Mom! What are you doing? Don't put it out!

[LAUGHTER]