Back to Life’s Daisy Haggard: We are much quicker to vilify women than men

As the post-prison comedy wraps up, Haggard discusses second chances and writing interesting female characters
Double standard: Daisy Haggard says we need more interesting female characters
BBC/Two Brothers Pictures/Luke Varley

Miri Matteson is in her 30s, lives with her parents and hasn’t had a job since 2000, when she worked at Fat Face and fancied Jamie Oliver.

Her life has been on hold because she’s spent 18 years in prison for murder, but despite this she seems like a nice person and is trying to make a fresh start. This is the plot of BBC One comedy Back to Life, which concludes on Monday.

It follows Matteson as she tries to do normal things like find a job and a boyfriend, in a town where people think she is, as one says, “a sick b****”. Her sexually frustrated mother (Geraldine James) and eco obsessive father (Richard Durden) tread carefully around her as they, too, adjust to her return.

“I was fascinated by how we treat women compared to how we treat men when they’ve done something wrong,” says Daisy Haggard, 41, who co-wrote the show with Laura Solon and plays Matteson. “We are much quicker to vilify women than men, harsher on them and less forgiving. And we need more interesting female characters. I was also interested in the idea that it is possible to do something bad and not be a bad person.”

Research: Daisy Haggard spoke to women who had been in prison to research the project
Rex Features

In her research, Haggard spoke to women who had been in prison. “I wanted to know what life was like afterwards — small details like what they wanted to eat when they came home; unanimously it was crunchy, fresh food like celery — and the bureaucratic hell they had to enter, like how to register for a doctor when you have no proof of address.”

Back to Life’s humour is often found at the most bleak times, in a similar vein to Fleabag, and Ricky Gervais’s After Life. “Everything is funny and everything is sad,” says Haggard. “I could never write something that didn’t have comedy. Rounded characters are ones who are a mix of funny and sad — life is complicated and has more colours than just being one or the other.”

It’s set on the Kent coast because Haggard wanted a location that contrasted with prison, she says: “The extreme opposite of prison was the sea, the expanse, fresh air, the sound of seagulls.”

Haggard was a producer too, which meant it was easier than usual for her to balance childcare with work — her daughters joined her on set. “I did whole rehearsals with my one-year-old, Wendy, in my arms,” she says. “I didn’t want my kids to feel like I’d disappeared so I took full advantage of being able to bring them along. It makes everything so much nicer with them being there.” It made for better work but there was one downside. “My four-year-old did ask if I had been in prison, which made me wonder if I should have watched the rushes with her. I told her it was pretend, which she didn’t believe, and not to tell anyone at school.” Her partner Joe Wilson, one half of the electronic band Solomon Grey, did the show’s music.

Matteson’s dad was inspired by Haggard’s own father, director Piers Haggard. “He’s pleased to have made it into the show. I’ve had many a heated discussion with him about how much he rinses plates before putting them in the dishwasher — it’s a waste of time. The show is one way to get the message across, although he still does it. He’s lucky I didn’t include the time I brought a boyfriend home and found him sucking a hose in the back garden to get the bathwater down to the soil.”

Bleak: The show finds humour in dark situations
BBC/Two Brothers Pictures/Luke Varley

That’s where the parallels with Haggard’s life end. She doesn’t fancy Jamie Oliver (still, she “can’t believe he hasn’t tweeted about the show”) and her mother, a stained-glass artist, is nothing like Matteson’s.

Haggard grew up in Stockwell, where she’d force her family to watch her do dance routines. “And I impersonated Thatcher a lot because it made people laugh,” she says. “Even though my dad told me it wasn’t a good impression. I’d roll up my hair and say,” she drops her voice an octave. “‘Hello, my name is Margaret Thatcher.’” She never got parts in school plays — “I’d come back from auditions crying and do poetry competitions instead.”

Her father discouraged the idea of her acting but it was futile. When she was 16, he asked her to fill for an actor reading a Ruth Rendell murder mystery script. “The producer gave me the part of Emily Mortimer’s sister, against my dad’s will. He was strict but I wouldn’t have had that chance if he wasn’t my dad so he was right. Then I went to drama school and didn’t get anything for years,” she laughs. Like Matteson, she’s had a range of jobs — including at the Harrods Christmas shop: “I put decorations in weird positions.”

Will there be a second series of Back to Life? “I hope so. We have lots of ideas.” But first she’s taking two months off. “Having kids makes you clear about what you want to do,” she says. “I used to lie around in pants for ages complaining about not achieving. Now if I have a spare hour I’ll work my arse off. And if you are absent working, the job must be worth it.”

Back to Life is on BBC iPlayer and on BBC One at 10.35pm on Monday

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