Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont on series 5 of Meet The Richardsons

Meet The Richardsons returns for a fifth series, offering a fictionalised look into the married life of   comedians Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont, who co-writes the show.

Joining the Richardsons for the new series are guest stars Adrian Chiles, Alexander Armstrong, Amanda Abbington, Ben Shephard, Carlton Palmer, Carrie & David Grant, Charlie Cooper, Cheryl Baker, Dick & Dom, Gregg Wallace, Julian Clary, Kemah Bob, Kimberly Wyatt, Lee Mack, Matt Forde, Max Rogers, Nigel Havers, Roland Gift, Stephen Mangan, Steve Pemberton, The Cheeky Girls, Tim Lovejoy and Toyah.

Here Jon and Lucy talk about what’s in store, their new guest stars – and how much of the show is real.

What can viewers expect from series five?

Lucy: I think this is the best one to be honest. Every series we’ve got better and better. When we started out in series one, it was a little bit of an unknown. It was sort of mockumentary, but it was scripted, but we had real people in it. 

I do struggle to explain it really and I think that wound people up because sometimes I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. I think we’ve just got better at making that genre, so I think this series is the funniest yet, personally. 

When I started out, I was working but not a great deal and because it’s followed our own life, in this series my career has really taken off and I’ve reached 40 and I’m having a midlife crisis. I think viewers can expect much of the same, but I think it’s definitely the funniest it’s been.

Jon: It’s more of being under the same roof with someone you love who irritates you on a daily basis. It’s just two people winding each other up. 

Did you ever think you’d make this many series?

Lucy: No, not really. You just never really know if anyone is going to watch it or anyone will know it’s there, so it’s been great.

Jon: We have got better as the series have gone on, we're able to work faster. We work very efficiently for a show that’s largely improvised. It’s because we have people like Lee and Eddie who have worked on it from the beginning. It's a lengthy process from writing it but not many scripted things get that far. It’s a privilege to have been given this many goes at it.
 

What can you tell us about where you’ll be in this series? Are there any new neighbours?

Lucy: We haven’t moved this time so it very much continues from the last series but our anxieties, our wants and needs, they intensify. Without giving too much away, our neighbours on one side are going through a bit of a crisis and on the other side we get a Pussycat Doll [Kimberly Wyatt] and her husband so that causes a bit of a riff.

Do you still have people who think this is a fly on the wall reality series?  

Lucy: Yes! It really makes me laugh when they say ‘Oh god you’re always arguing’ well, they’re comedy characters. I love it when people think that, so much of it is. My mum’s in it and even she thinks it’s all real.

Jon: 74.3 per cent is real. It’s difficult because you could say 12 per cent because the bits that are real, the cameras weren’t there at the time so we’re re-enacting it because it wasn’t captured live. 

But in terms of the couch scenes, there’s no script or agenda so that is real. Everything Lucy’s mum says is real. If it wasn’t real there is no way on earth Lucy would write for her Mother some of the lines which she comes out with.

We follow Lucy’s Bafta nomination [for best comedy actress for her role in Meet The Richardsons] this series, how does that play out?

Lucy: The character of me gets a real taste for fame and wants to go all out so I’m very much going for it.

Jon: I don't think people realise how well written and acted it is because it looks so natural. Lucy doesn't get the credit she deserves for her craft because people think they're watching two stand-ups messing about. 

I'm going downhill the other side, so it won't be long before I'm recording 3,000 episodes of a quiz a week in an airport hangar somewhere. I'm quite happy for Lucy to take on the world and it will happen.

Which guest star were you most excited about joining you this series?

Lucy: I just love every guest we ever have on. They’re always so up for a laugh. Steve Pemberton was great, Stephen Mangan, Kimberley Wyatt. Tim Lovejoy turned out to be a really good actor, he’s brilliant in it. 

Do you have any dream guests you’d like to have on the show? Anyone you’ve tried to get but it hasn’t worked out?

Lucy: Jonny Vegas has always been my dream guest and we’ve had him on a lot.

Jon: I’d have to still say Marcelo Bielsa or Lee Evans.

Lucy, do you think you’ll ever be invited on Sunday Brunch again? [When she was on last year she got in toruble for saying 'pissed' on air]

Lucy: No, I don’t think I’ll ever be invited on the show again because under my breath I said ‘I want to go home’ so I think that upset them all. It’s on for around nine hours. Somewhere in my head I feel like I’m still on it now really, I never left.

What’s the best part about doing the show together?

Lucy: It’s always been a really lovely, big family on the show. All the crew, the producer the director and the other writer. It hasn’t really been like making telly it’s sort of been like playing. Everyone mucks in and sometimes we don’t know what we’re doing and sometimes we do, and it works.

Jon: I think we’re quite relaxed around each other when we’re on our own but when we have guests, we both click in to gig mode and work as a double act. I become a heightened version of me and you become a heightened version of you. And we could both do with being heightened, let’s be honest.

 I think that’s why we like filming together because we look like a normal sized couple on ratio.

We’ve seen you both on a few other TV shows such as Taskmaster, Bake-Off, The Wheel. Are there any other shows on your bucket list either solo or together?

Lucy: Not really. It was Would I Lie To You? that I always wanted to do. I’ve done that twice now and I’m going to be doing it again. I’m hoping that I don’t do much telly anymore and just do that show. 

I don’t like doing a lot of telly. I’m having to turn down quizzes now. I can’t keep doing quizzes and doing bad on them. I lost someone £98,000 on The Wheel! I get booked because I’m so bad on them so I’ve started turning them down now. I can’t do anymore. 

Jon: We turn down almost everything as a couple just purely so that Meet The Richardsons is the sum total of our efforts.

• Meet the Richardsons  starts at 10pm on Monday on Dave 

Published: 2 Apr 2024