Interview with Oli Taylor & Dillon Mapletoft (Co-creators, Writers and Executive Producers of Everyone Else Burns)

8 October 2024

Interview with Oli Taylor & Dillon Mapletoft (Co-creators, Writers and Executive Producers of Everyone Else Burns)

How does your creative process work?
Dillon: We did a lot of the outlining together, hammering out the overall plot and where we wanted the characters to go. But then we pretty much divided the scenes up between us. For some of the bigger set pieces though, we'd come back together to write side by side.

Oli: It’s really nice when Dillon and I can be in the same room, but I live in Cambridge and he lives in London so that can be rare. We’ll Zoom in the morning and hold each other accountable throughout the day. It makes a massive difference to have him there and know he’s keeping a careful watch on everything. We tend to outline together, build the episodes out and then divvy up the scenes. Sometimes there’s a scene we're particularly excited to write together. Whenever we have a gag that’s made it to the screen, it’s usually gone though many, many rounds of revision. Simon (Bird) comes to us all the time and often throws in his own stuff, and it becomes very collaborative. A lot of the performers that we work with have such phenomenal comedic instincts.

How does it feel coming back for series two?
Oli: We always wanted to come back to the Lewis family. We left things open at the end of the first series in terms of - what does Rachel’s life look like now she’s chosen her family over university? How is she going to feel after going through penance? It's amazing to have the chance to tell that story and to see all the performers we love working with so much - as well as being able to say hello to some really exciting new faces, like Sian Clifford and Paddy Young.

Dillon: It’s difficult to say without sounding cliché but it’s just a privilege to be working on it. There’s so much love and care from all departments on this show. It’s so special to see characters in a world that you've created be brought to life. I did feel a bit terrified to start with, because we were so desperate to push the scripts as far as we could and develop series two in a new way to series one. You’d be amazed at how much material we ultimately didn’t use. We really wanted to do something a bit different with the characters and push them a little further in terms of their journeys.

What was it like working with Sian Clifford who plays Maude?
Oli: We were really excited by the character of Maude. At the table read, it became clear that she was going to do so much for what we’re saying in this series about relationships and the strain between Fiona and David. It was a very organic process of realising what this series needs. Working with Sian has been incredible, the first scene we shot with her was in David’s bedroom, seduction by pie - this weaponised tradwife who's come to steal him away with her perfect squash ratios.

Dillon: It’s just a dream to work with Sian. She’s so good at what she does and she has this incredible ability to take vast swathes of text in her stride without a second thought.

What did you think about the reaction to series one?
Oli: It’s always a journey when something you've worked on gets released because you suddenly become aware that, once it's out in the world, it belongs to other people and they have their own perspectives on it. Something that we found very heart-warming is that we would occasionally get messages from people who belonged to niche religious groups like the one portrayed in the show, and they would tell us about their experiences and the ways in which they felt seen and related to the show. That meant more than anything else and that’s what special about this show, this world and its unique perspective on religion and community.

Dillon: The honest answer is that the show coming out was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever been through. It’s so scary, especially having grown up in a world kind of like the one we are depicting, wringing that out from your own life experience... I’m so grateful that it’s struck a chord with people and I really hope the cast get all the recognition they deserve for how brilliant they are. It would have been heart-breaking to say goodbye to those characters.

Can you talk about the themes of this show and why it resonates with people?
Dillon: We wanted there to be a thematic coherence to this series and ultimately it felt most natural and most comedy-first to hone in on the relationships. Rachel's journey is jump-started with the arranged marriages, which has the knock-on effect of putting Fiona and David’s relationship under the microscope, and also kickstarts Aaron's fight for the kind of relationship he'd be able to have (or not have) in the future.

Oli: I think the coming-of-age story with Rachel resonates the most with people. Even though you may not have had an experience growing up believing that Armageddon is just around the corner, you’ve probably experienced some of the other barriers in life that she faces, like the pressure from parental figures to follow a certain path, or behave a certain way.

What are you most looking forward to audiences seeing this series?
Oli: I’m very excited for audiences to see Amy James-Kelly as a braver, bolder and more belligerent Rachel pushing back against her parents as she tries to find her own way. Also, for Maude trying to tempt David away from Fiona, and for everyone to meet Jeb, this young heartthrob who might not turn out to be all he appears to be. Mostly I am excited for audiences to come back and inhabit this world and see the journey everyone goes on as Samson tightens his stranglehold.

Dillon: I guess if I had to pick one thing... I’m probably most looking forward to audiences meeting Maude, getting to experience the force that is Sian Clifford and just the sheer weirdness of that character and her interpretation of power.

Finally, what has Jamie brought to the show as director for this series?
Oli: He’s phenomenal and he directs in a very comedic way which we really appreciate. Whenever we write a gag, we trust him, alongside our director of photography, to do everything they can to deliver it. So, if we have a line where David goes on an unhinged monologue you can guarantee there will be a slow push in on him to sell that unfolding madness.

Dillon: He’s unflappable. He's funny. He plays the fool sometimes but it’s entirely calculated. He shoots in a really unselfish, comedy-first kind of way that's enabled us to get alt lines and loosen things up. Everything just feels brighter, funnier and more energised, and he's a huge part of that.