Doing the split: writer Abi Morgan on divorce, modern style
To the casual observer it might appear that the profession of divorce lawyers is dominated by women because they are the gentler, more reasoned gender, that they are talented negotiators.
The truth, however, is simpler and more brutally commercial. "It's that way because it used to be a very unsexy end of law," says screenwriter Abi Morgan. "Family law wasn't like corporate. You weren't taking huge conglomerates and bringing them down. It wasn't showy.
"It's only in recent years and actually, the fact that London's become such a financial capital of the world, that there are lawyers involved in divorces," she adds.
Morgan's latest series, The Split, about a family divorce law firm, Defoe's, whose eldest daughter, Hannah (Nicola Walker), has taken a job with a rival law firm, Noble & Hale.
The series was inspired by a conversation creator/writer Morgan had with a mother at her child's school.
"[She] had just got back from the divorce lawyer and one of the things that was really intriguing to me was that she said it was a very female dominated profession," Morgan recalls.
She continued that conversation with her production partner Jane Featherstone.
"We started to have conversations about the relationships that were personal to us, the relationships that we observed and I really wanted to write something which was a homage to marriage but also homage to divorce," Morgan says.
Not, she adds, to be a "negative thing, but rather to be something that is part of life".
At that early point for British television in the series' evolution, producer Lucy Dyke and director Jessica Hobbs entered the frame..
"It was brilliant because we all sat in a room together and we evolved the show with Abi. We all had a real stake in it and it became our collective baby," Dyke says.
"We love and care about this show so much and I think that makes such a difference when you were there from the beginning," Dyke adds. "You really get under the skin of it and get to know it."
At which point, actor Walker enters the frame. Walker had received a call from her agent informing her that Morgan was casting a new series and Walker asked immediately to read for it.
"Then the script comes and you read the script and you want to play it so badly it's like a physical ache," Walker says. "And you take that feeling with you to a small room and you audition for these people, for these women who you really, really respect.
"If it goes the right way, you get a phone call saying you've got the job and that is one of the most fantastic parts of an actor's job. All you want to do is to make that part, get that part in front of the camera and make it flesh in the way that it felt when you read it on the page."
One of the exploration points of the series is the question of whether those charged with the task of managing the lives of others are indeed any good at managing their own.
"The divorce lawyers we met have incredible insight in that they have an understanding maybe of the human psyche and how far couples can push each other," Dyke says. "And maybe that self-reflects.
"But I don't think it was an experience that they seemed more mixed up and damaged. What was great was when we talked to some of the divorce lawyers ... it contextualised a lot of the conversations I'd had with my girlfriends who are going through divorces, or family members who are going through divorces."
One line in the series, that divorce lawyers do not see divorce as failure, was particularly resonant.
"They simply see some marriages as finite," Dyke says. "And I found that incredibly liberating because I think we live in a world that says marriage has to be forever, or it's not successful. But who's to say that marriage has to be forever? It's a very Victorian, religious view of it."
The other unexplored aspect of the gig, Hobbs says, is that because they are placed into the role of mediator between aggrieved parties, they often must function as de facto therapists.
"They're not trained to be therapists but the first thing people do is they come into a room, they shut they door, they tell [their divorce lawyer] about their true financial position and then all about their sex lives," Hobbs says.
"And then often they fall in love with them because they feel so unburdened and happy."
The series also perhaps finally debunks the Sex-and-the-City-fixation of modern female narratives in which marriage – happily ever after, till death do them part – is presented as the natural conclusion of every woman's story.
"That's something you're always trying to undercut the whole time," Morgan says.
"There's a running gag through the series about Say Yes to the Dress," she says referring to the American reality show set in a bridal boutique. "Why do I watch this show? Why am I constantly perpetuating this fairytale? But that's what the important word is, it's a fairytale.
"I think sometimes when people are searching for marriage what they're really searching for is intimacy. And I think the show tries to navigate its way through the challenge around maintaining and holding intimacy."
The Split works, Dyke says, because of the imperfections in its characters.
"The people aren't perfect because it's reflective of our own lives and I think people coming to it will see a bit of themselves in it in that way," Dyke says. "You don't have to have the fairytale."
It also gently reminds that while many things in life are ephemeral, family is for life.
"You can try and walk away from them but they're always there," Hobbs says. "I love that the genesis of the show was Abi's desire to write something that made people feel less alone. I think that's a beautiful platform for it to stand on."
WHAT The Split
WHEN ABC, Saturday, 7.30pm