Bliss
- TV comedy drama
- Sky One
- 2018
- 6 episodes (1 series)
Comedy drama about a bigamist written by David Cross and starring Stephen Mangan, Heather Graham and Jo Hartley. Also features Spike White, Hannah Millward, Goran Kostic and Oscar Kennedy.
Character guide
Andrew
At his core, Andrew is a decent, caring man. But he is ultimately very weak. Andrew truly loves his partners and his kids. Truly.
He has only himself to blame for this appalling mess he's found himself in. He's not greedy, or exploitive, just so very uncomfortable with confrontation and the idea that he's hurting someone that he now finds himself in this ridiculous situation. He believes, and it's important to him, that he would never intentionally hurt anyone. And that has morphed into the justification for continuing this physically and mentally gruelling charade. "What they don't know won't hurt them. It's better this way, everybody's happy, yes?"
Because he has fooled himself that his selfishness is well-meaning, he is now left to constantly try to "do the right thing" (as he sees it).
Kim
Kim is wife to Andrew Ballard, American, and mother to their 15-year-old daughter, Christina. A bit of an agoraphobic but she's trying to overcome it. Kim has never been comfortable speaking in public and suffered from dyslexia at an early age.
Other than that, she is quite sociable, with a desire to be considered a real people pleaser. She yearns for the stability of a home life where her husband doesn't have to travel constantly. Frustratingly, she can be seemingly carefree but simultaneously highly strung.
Denise
Partner of Andrew Ballard and mother to their 15-year-old son, Kris. Denise came from money but was always self-conscious of it. Through a series of events, she was cut off from her folks, and cut herself off from them as well. This has always bothered her but she's stubborn to a fault.
She is aggressively "bohemian" and can get caught up in the latest fad with childlike abandon (but it never lasts). She used to be socially and politically active, but that was in the past. She is sharp and self-assured, and doesn't suffer fools gladly.
While her life isn't exactly the one she envisioned for herself when she was younger, she truly loves Andrew and loves being a mum to her son. She is proud of them. Although Andrew's ability to just drop everything and go off and write and get published can make her jealous.