Pulling (TV series)

Main characters

In writing the series, both Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly agreed that the main roles needed to be female and have the funny lines.

Horgan: "There was nothing out there for me; I had to give myself a break! Peep Show has very funny female characters but they're generally girlfriends or incidental women who are just helping the story along."

Kelly:"When we were writing Pulling, we wanted to make sure the comedy was with the women. Even with comedies that are about women, it's often the blokes who get the funnies. In Pulling we even err too much the other way and make the men too two-dimensional. But it was important for the women to get the funny lines."

The main characters are:

Donna

• She is in a five-year relationship with Karl, to whom she is engaged.
• 29 years old at the start of the series.
• Works in an office.

Louise

• Naive, unrealistically hopeful.
• Works as a cafe waitress
• Happens to find herself in bizarre situations, including meeting up with voyeurs in a carpark believing it to be a dating site, and stalking a man who frequents her café.

Karen

• Heavy drinker.
• Promiscuous, outgoing, chaotic and aggressive.
• A primary school teacher who is not suited to her job.
• Several years older than Donna and Louise.

Episodes

Series 1

Karen cries in front of her class only to be subsequently placed under suspension for numerous incidents. Louise begins to date Karen's latest conquest, but he instead has sex with Karen again. Karen is being stalked by middle-aged married man Mark, whom she had a fling with. Louise decides to find a gift for Donna on the Internet, but inadvertently researches porn instead. She tries to find new friends via an Internet site. She naively misunderstands the nature of the sites she visits and is surprised and puzzled when her 'new friend' takes her dogging. Karen expects some money to arrive from Mark, but discovers he died of a heart attack the previous day. She goes to his funeral to try to obtain what she is owed, and takes his son to the pub. Karen tells Louise that she has not gone more than a week without sex since she was 12. Karen tries to give up alcohol, but doing so worsens her personality. Louise has not had sex in nearly two years, so she decides to be less choosy and asks Lithuanian colleague Oleg on a date. They go to his place, but he lives in very overcrowded conditions, so they go back to the flat. She asks him for sex and tells him she does not want a relationship with him. He rejects her offer. Sam plans a weekend away with Donna and his friends, but she is unenthusiastic. Sam takes Donna to an art gallery; he likes the exhibits, but she does not. She watches Miss Congeniality 2 with Karl. Sam gives Donna an ultimatum: it is either Karl or him.

Series 2

Tanya finds Karl in a club and they have sex in his kitchen. Donna is angry with Karl for having sex with one of her friends. Oleg intends to return to Lithuania, but changes his mind and stays. Louise is disappointed when he falls asleep while she is fellating him. He still wants a relationship with her, but she does not. Karen bumps into her ex Billy in the pub. They get drunk, take drugs and have sex. Louise becomes acting manager of the café while Richard is away. A depressed artist visits the café and asks her to display his feces-based paintings in the café. She agrees to, despite not having authorisation to do so by Richard. The paintings repel customers. Karen discovers an ill cat in her bedroom and decides to keep it. She takes it to a vet, who tells her that the cat has cancer and needs an operation that will cost £700. She asks the vet to euthanise it, but Karen thinks the fee for that is too high, so Karen takes it home where she and Louise kill it with a brick in the garden. Karl is invited to a dinner party by Tanya, but realises she is treating him like a new partner and a father to her son. She asks Donna to break up with Tanya for her. During the conversation between Tanya and Donna, Tanya tells Donna that she does not want Karl any more. Louise leaves the flat and stays with Richard. She tells him that she has a business idea, and encourages her to go ahead with it. He introduces her to businessman Ivor to help her realise the plan. Her product is Cockloleeze, which are penis-shaped ice lollies. Richard dislikes the idea, but Ivor likes it and says he will contact his business partner to try to arrange from them to be produced and put on the market. Donna buys a kebab from a takeaway. Seconds after leaving, it is snatched from her in the street. She tells Louise and a policeman, but neither takes it seriously. Donna visits Karl, who assures her that it was a real crime. Richard and Oleg ridicule her about taking the theft seriously. Donna goes to the police station, where a different policeman refuses to take her theft report seriously. She steals his sandwich to make a point, and is arrested. She is released eight hours later, and Karl picks her up. He tells her that he is selling his house, which Donna is disappointed with despite her not having bought it or lived in it. Donna sees the thief at a bus stop, and tells Karl. The two confront the thief and take from him the amount of money that Donna paid for the kebab. Donna and Karl go to a bar, where they kiss. Karen apologises to Louise and invites her to dinner. Louise has a meeting in relation to her Cockloleeze later that day, so Karen says that they will not drink alcohol. They go back to the flat, where Louise passes out whilst drunk. Louise realises that she has accidentally shoplifted. She is pleased and goes on to shoplift many times. She puts two items in an elderly male customer's pockets, then walks out. He tries to stop her outside the shop and calls a security guard. She reports the old man to the security guard for shoplifting and she escapes. Karl's house is up for sale at an estate agent for £320,000, which is £80,000 more that he bought it for ten months ago. Donna is horrified that Karl is set to make a huge profit and emigrate to Tuscany, Italy, where he intends to buy land. She visits his mother, Margaret, to try to persuade her to talk Karl out of emigrating, but she angrily tells her to get out of her house and Karl's life. Donna suggests to Karl that they get back together; he refuses to. Louise is strongly attracted to a man who is a customer in her café. Donna decides to try to distract herself from Karl emigrating by sleeping around. She has a one-night stand with one man. She then meets another but decides not have sex with him and hits him and rejects him for being creepy. She has sex with Karl, then he leaves.

Cancellation

Pulling was unexpectedly not renewed for a third series by BBC Three controller Danny Cohen, despite Kelly and Horgan both wanting to write another series. Instead the channel opted for a one-hour-special to "tie up loose ends" of the show's narrative.

The Guardian reported that news of the cancellation "perplexed those involved with the show" and that "insiders criticised Cohen's decision" especially as Pulling had "nearly doubled its [viewing] figures" since the first series and had "outperformed BBC3's average share both for the slot and for prime time in 2007, beating the slot average by 41% for the younger demographic". The show had also fared well critically and had been nominated for a BAFTA award. The newspaper reported that they had "sources" who had "claimed the decision was because the show no longer fitted in with the target audience of BBC3, which is being focused on a younger age group". However, this reasoning was denied by a BBC spokeswoman and controller Danny Cohen. Commenting on the cancellation Cohen said: "Pulling has had two fantastic series on BBC3 and we've committed to an hour-long finale episode as a mark of its quality". He justified the decision by saying that he had to cancel the series to make a room for new shows on the channel: "In an ideal world, we would recommission many more of our comedies - but on BBC3 we have to continually make room for the new. Every recommission means one less space for a new project."

In response to the news of the show's cancellation The Guardian published an article, 'Popular but pulled', about various popular TV shows that have been unexpectedly axed. The article reported that "Irate supporters [of the show] set up a Facebook page called Save Pulling. At the time of writing [April 2009], however, the group only had 1,049 members - with a good third of those being media or comedy professionals." Kelly was also quoted as saying that "We were quite disappointed - and quite surprised - by the decision to cancel as the show was doing really well, had won awards and I believed Danny [Cohen, BBC3 controller] liked it." Cohen however stated that "We didn't cancel Pulling, we just commissioned it in a different form [as a special]".

In a 2010 interview Kelly and Horgan claimed that they still didn't understand why the BBC refused to make a third series, with Kelly saying that they both "cried" and "threw ourselves at their feet" in desperation to have another series made.

2009 episode

By the end of the episode, each of the main characters reach some sort of resolution. Louise, initially distraught at having to stick with a relationship out of guilt is overjoyed when her current boyfriend ends up in a coma, and she finds contentment in doting on him. Karen is quickly tempted back to her former ways by Billy, but it is dismayed when she discovers he has been lying about being terminally ill. Nonetheless, the return to her old ways prompts her to cut ties with her current, controlling partner and in the final scene of the episode she is seen marrying Billy whilst intoxicated. Donna and Karl meanwhile make a kind of reconciliation when Donna finally dumps the arrogant Stefan and Karl's new fiancé is revealed to be cheating on him.

Home media

Both series have been released on DVD, although the final episode has only been released as a digital download in the UK. The final episode was included in the Region 4 DVD set available in Australasia.

References

References

1. Raphael, Amy. (16 May 2009). "There's no moral centre to Pulling because we don't have one!". The Guardian.
2. (27 April 2009). "Popular but pulled". The Guardian.
3. (2 October 2008). "BBC3 axes Pulling after two series". The Guardian.
4. (24 September 2010). "ABC2 Programming Airdate: Pulling (episode one, season one)". ABC Television Publicity.
5. (10 February 2011). "UKTV Programme Synopsis: Pulling". UKTV Online.
6. (27 March 2008). "Sharon Horgan". BBC News – Newsnight Review.
7. (7 December 2008). "Brand wins British Comedy Award". BBC News.
8. (8 December 2008). "Horgan's 'Pulling' axed by BBC Three". Digital Spy.
9. Holmwood, Leigh. (2 October 2008). "BBC3 axes Pulling after two series". guardian.co.uk.
10. (2009). "2009 Episode Guide". comedy.org.uk.