Sharon Horgan says she only found confidence after Bad Sisters series two

BBC News

31-05-2025

Bafta award-winning actor, writer, producer and director Sharon Horgan has told an audience at the Hay Festival she finally found confidence after the second series of her hit show Bad Sisters came out last year.The star, whose back catalogue includes sitcoms Catastrophe, Pulling and Motherland, said she previously thought "there was a possibility I was just in the right place at the right time, or that I had the right people around. "But I think with Bad Sisters, even though there's a huge team of people, it felt like mine. That feeling I belonged in that room."Bad Sisters, an adaptation of Belgian series Clan on Apple TV+, is a revenge tale about sisters aiming to kill an abusive husband.
Horgan also talked about how she first turned to writing because she couldn't land any acting roles, hence deciding to write parts for herself.Speaking about penning her first pilot back in the early 2000s with Dennis Kelly for BBC Three show Pulling, about a group of 20-something women and their chaotic love lives, Horgan said: "Comedy was mainly written by men, writing the female parts. I was writing about myself and my friends - flawed women. No-one was really doing it at that point."She said she was concerned that because her female-led sitcom had been picked up, it might mean other women wouldn't get their shows made."It felt like a one-in, one-out kind of system. Like, we've had the female comedy [quota]."She then spent several years "waitressing and doing unsuccessful pilots" before eventually hooking up with Rob Delaney on X (then Twitter) and going on to create Catastrophe.The Channel 4 show was about a couple who ended up settling down together following an accidental pregnancy after only a week of dating. Horgan said: "We wanted to show how difficult it was to stay in love when you're a parent... and you've got terrible people running around under three foot!"
Motherhood was a theme the Irish star returned to when she created the hit BBC series Motherland, alongside Holly Walsh and Graham Linehan. Following a pilot episode aired in 2016, it went on to spawn three hit series, two Christmas specials, and recent spin-off, Amandaland.The dark comedy sees a group of mum friends - and one dad - navigate the challenges of middle class motherhood.Horgan told fans at Hay: "I was living it. I would go to my daughter's primary school every day and just feel existential. You have to find your people. and that's what happened to me. I met these two really great women who are still in my life now."It's sort of just getting a group of misfits together. I felt like an outsider. It's a really great, fun show but it's also about how lonely it can be. I experienced that, walking through a park with my pushchair... and seeing a group of mums having a picnic and thinking, 'Why aren't I at that?'"
Since then, her career has continued to thrive and she has juggled multiple roles on many of her shows ranging from executive producer to actor to writer and even director.But she admitted her perfectionism had occasionally caused an issue on set."I'm trying to get better at it. It's also about having people around you that you really trust almost as much as you trust yourself. But I remember being pulled up on it by a big star in a show I did, just going: 'Don't you think all of these people can do their jobs? You think you can do your job better than all these people?'"And I remember at the time thinking, 'I can't say this out loud,' but 'yes'!" she laughed.
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At the end of her discussion, Horgan is asked which of her characters she'd most like to be. She plumps for Sharon Morris from Catastrophe.Despite her obvious success and new-found confidence, Horgan's admiration for Morris, a funny, brave and strikingly honest woman just doing her best, is clear."Even though she's selfish and can be awful... she was just able to articulate how she was feeling," she said."I think that's the great thing about writing. You get to say all those conversations that you have in your head and you wish you'd said. She had all my thoughts, the thoughts I was afraid to say at the time."