There She Goes Special – the cast speak

Posted Filed under

David Tennant and Jessica Hynes return as we catch up with the story of the Yates family. 

Having finished its second series in 2020, hit comedy There She Goes returns for a special on 21st June, 2023.

Based on the real-life experiences of writers Shaun Pye and Sarah Crawford, whose daughter was born with an extremely rare chromosomal disorder, There She Goes follows the day-to-day life of Rosie Yates (Miley Locke), a severely learning disabled girl and her family, dad Simon (David Tennant), mum Emily (Jessica Hynes) and older brother Ben (Edan Hayhurst).

There She Goes Special - Emily (Jessica Hynes), Rosie (Miley Locke), Simon (David Tennant), Ben (Edan Hayhurst)

Here’s the synopsis for the special:

Rosie Yates is now 13 and is starting to display increasingly challenging, emotional and physical behaviour. Veering wildly from joyous obsessions with her letter X, tigers with Xs on their nose, ticket barriers and Fedex lorries to sudden violent outbursts both directed at her parents Si and Emily and herself.

The family realise that Rosie is simply struggling to cope with the onset of puberty, just like any other teenage girl. Whilst the family deal with a teenage Rosie, their geneticist calls with news of Rosie’s condition.

In the earlier timeline Emily starts thinking about whether she and Si should think about having another child after a chance meeting with a mother of a child with a chromosomal disorder.

There She Goes Special David Tennant & Edan Hayhurst

Ahead of the programme, its cast have been speaking about the show.

David Tennant plays Simon

He tells us what’s in store for the Yates family:

They get some long-awaited information on Rosie’s condition, but getting some answers doesn’t necessarily give them the closure they imagined it might.

And addresses the numerous cult references that Simon and Emily make throughout the series and the special:

The debate over what the correct plural for Batman is has stayed with me and is something I often find myself pondering.

There She Goes Special Jessica Hynes & Miley Locke

Jessica Hynes plays Emily

She talks about reuniting with the cast:

Miley and Edan are still a complete delight – growing into fine accomplished young actors, it was wonderful to see them again. David Tennant was as always brilliant, effortless and joyful to work with.

She also answers a question about whether she brought her own parenting experiences to the role?

Instinctively yes, I think so. Rosie bashes a soup spoon out of my hand in the scene and I picked it up, put it in my mouth to clean it quickly and then offered her the soup again (which she doesn’t take) – that is a reflex from being a mum and spoon feeding toddlers.

There She Goes Special - Miley Locke as Rosie

Miley Locke plays Rosie

She tell us what it was like coming back to the role:

Becoming Rosie again was so lovely. I have played her from a very young age and being able to play her again was fun, emotional but overall, the most incredible experience and I’m so grateful I got to do this again.

And talks about her favourite scene:

There’s a scene where I kick tomato soup over Jessica and David which was great fun to film, the soup landed everywhere it wasn’t meant to. There were a lot of laughs in between takes.

Miley also talks about her research for the role:

I’ve meet Joey, who Rosie is based on, lots of times. Shaun [Pye] sends me lots of videos of her and he gives me lots of advice on how Joey would be in each scene, we work on it together. Sarah (Joey’s mum) also helps give me direction along the way.

There She Goes Special - Edan Hayhurst as Ben

Edan Hayhurst plays Ben

Edan talks about reactions to the series:

I am proud of the project and proud to be a part of something so poignant and inspiring in its topic. The script was very compelling and sometimes quite dark but the series carries it well with its humour. I enjoyed seeing it come together, in the end it felt like a heart-warming show and something I felt very grateful to be a part of.

He also addresses playing tense scenes opposite David Tennant:

David is very easy to work with- he’s effortlessly funny and you can’t help but get on with the guy and that comfortable space is needed to really delve into the emotional parts of acting. It’s hard to find that when you don’t feel so at ease in your work. I found him easy to act off of and that’s all you can really want.

The There She Goes special is made by Merman. The special’s director is Tom McKay (Bloods) and the producer is Clelia Mountford.

If you want to catch up, the first two series of There She Goes are available on BBC iPlayer.