Sharon Horgan had wanted to name one of her daughters Muireann, but didn’t as her husband couldn’t pronounce it. While this would become a running joke on Horgan’s critically acclaimed relationship sitcom Catastrophe, it also informs why Horgan chose the name Merman for the company she founded with producer Clelia Mountford. “There’s no huge reason behind the name – Muireann means ‘of the sea’ in Irish so I guess I got it into the company name, if not my daughter’s. And as ridiculous as it sounds, there’s this scene in Zoolander that I’ve no idea why I got stuck in my head …” Horgan is struggling to keep a straight face. “Plus, I really like mermen. I like men with half-fish bodies.”
“And no penises,” Mountford chips in. As the pair dissolve into laughter, Horgan muses that, when it comes to the company name, “we should have a better story”.
Stories are important to Horgan and Mountford, who are rapidly building a business on them. In the past fortnight alone, Merman has signed a three-script, first-look deal with Sky Vision and has had two pilots announced: for the BBC, Motherland, co-written by Horgan, Holly Walsh, and Graham and Helen Linehan, and for Channel 4, The Circuit, a comedy about a series of disastrous dinner parties reuniting Horgan with Pulling writing partner Dennis Kelly. Then there’s the hat trick of Royal Television Society award nominations for Catastrophe, plus wins at Friday’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for Best Comedy and Best Writers for Horgan and co-writer Rob Delaney.
“We had no idea that Catastrophe would be the success that it was,” Horgan says. “For years, I said that it doesn’t really matter if no one is watching as long as you’re proud of what you’ve made. Now I feel it’s much better when more people see it and appreciate the story and characters. It was a really hard slog to make two [series] within a year – it killed us a bit – but apart from that …”
Horgan and Mountford met on The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, as actor and producer respectively. Mountford had worked in theatre and radio, and in television as a freelance producer and head of comedy at RDF. She also devised A Young Doctor’s Notebook starring Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe. Horgan’s breakout hit as a writer-performer was in the brutally funny noughties comedy Pulling. And now there’s Catastrophe. Clearly they are talents at the top of their game – so what convinced them to team up?
“Sharon wrote me a ‘Will you go out with me?’ email, and we went from there,” Mountford says. Horgan nods: “It was pure luck that it was the right time for me and it was the right time for Clelia. It’s hard to find the right person because usually they’re already involved with someone else or have set up already.”
Horgan says that she “liked the idea of having more control over what I did. I had gotten over taking projects to people. I wanted to come up with something and make it myself. I wanted it to be a business and not just a pod [company within a company] deal where you’re still essentially being parented.”
Mountford agrees: “It felt like the right time to own things more creatively and more financially,” adding that, with a commission for a third series of Todd Margaret that became Merman’s first, “we hit the ground running”.
They’ve barely paused since. Merman is working on the sort of projects you’d expect of a much larger, more established company, based on Horgan and Mountford’s drive, passion and experience. The company’s transatlantic positioning – to adapt a phrase from French and Saunders, “a foot in London, a foot in New York and the world in between!” – is a case in point. When we meet, Horgan has just finished five months working in the US as showrunner on HBO’s Divorce, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, and co-produced by Merman.
“It happened naturally and wasn’t something calculated,” explains Mountford, whose extensive contacts in the US comedy community took shape while making Todd Margaret. “There’s so much TV being made over there that it would be crazy to be scared of it. It’s a surprisingly small community and, in essence, it’s the same as here – writers and talent trying to get things made.”
Horgan says that she hopes her experiences working in US TV – notably in the writers’ room – will inform the way that Merman works here. “You have a bunch of writers working for you and you think ‘This is nuts: you’re all probably better than me so why are you working on this show and not your own?’ Well, some of them don’t want to, some of them have and it hasn’t worked out, and some haven’t had The Idea that’s got their engine going. That was a really interesting discovery for me. Some writers are brilliant but aren’t necessarily good at original ideas and love to be brought on to a project.”
Mountford adds: “We want to nurture new writers, perhaps pair them with more established writers, encourage them to work on their passion projects but also push themselves. We want to do things we can get excited about, make things we want to watch. We don’t want to spend a year working on something that we know we can sell but have no passion for.”
Combining saleability and passion will be key to Merman’s branded content operation, run by Horgan’s husband and former ad exec Jeremy Rainbird. Horgan accepts there’s residual snobbery about making shows for advertisers but that is changing. “The fact [Todd Margaret creator and star] David Cross is on our roster for branded content shows talent isn’t afraid or ashamed of it. It felt like there was a gap in the market where comedy could be utilised to work for brands and we’d be crazy not to try and fill it.”
And as Mountford points out: “When branded content really nails it – be it through the idea, script or directing – that’s beautifully creative. It’s another way for writers and directors to make stuff and that can only be a good thing.”
“It’s still early days,” says Horgan, “but it’s about us having an understanding of what’s right for us too. It’s about choosing the brand carefully, being selective or doing it for a charity for example.” Mountford chips in: “We haven’t sold our souls yet, if that’s what you’re asking!”
Given their obvious zeal for Merman, it’d be a little too early to be selling their souls just yet. Horgan and Mountford talk enthusiastically about nurturing new talent and the privilege of writers bringing them their babies. Is the pair’s gender relevant to Merman’s inclusive, encouraging ethos?
“We don’t have an agenda, as such,” Mountford says. But, Horgan adds “It is significant in that we are working with a lot of female writers and female talent. But that’s probably because we’re drawn to them and they’re drawn to us.”
As Horgan and Mountford talk of their inspirations and aspirations, it is, for the most part, women’s names that come up. Horgan deeply admires Jill Soloway and her show Transparent and is in awe of Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley. “The care that went into it, its integrity, and the incredible performance at the heart of it by Sarah Lancashire. I felt really proud of British TV when that came out because it was as good as or better than any US drama.”
Meanwhile, Mountford namechecks Amy Poehler. “Like Tina Fey, there’s no lag in quality whether it’s something she’s written or something she’s produced with other writers. That model – of bringing up writers and talent – is something that we at Merman absolutely aspire to.”
With ambition like that, little wonder that Merman is making a splash.
