Most of us have experience with annoying neighbours. Whether it’s inexplicably always living next door to someone who loves listening to drum and bass at 11 o’clock at night or dealing with quibbles over whose responsibility it is to fix a broken fence panel after an unruly storm, dealing with residential annoyances is part of daily life.
However, new drama The Feud explores what happens when neighbourly disputes get kicked up a notch. The 5 drama, which stars Waterloo Road and The Cuckoo’s Jill Halfpenny and Spooks’ Rupert Penry-Jones as Emma and John Barnett, follows a couple living in peaceful suburbia as plans for a kitchen extension have disastrous consequences.
(By Rachael Davis, PA Assistant Lifestyle Editor)
As objections to the Barnett’s building plans are raised, unexpected and life-threatening secrets are unearthed and Emma’s dreams of upgrading her home twist into obsessive paranoia, fear, and danger – resulting in incalculable consequences for the couple and other residents of Shelbury Drive.
Before the drama unfolds, let’s hear more from stars Halfpenny, 49, and Penry-Jones, 54, about the twists and turns of the not-so-neighbourly disputes.
SO, WHAT IS THE FEUD?
JH: The Feud is a tense thriller. No one is being honest about what they’re doing or how they’re feeling, which makes for exciting television. Even my character Emma, who feels she’s deeply honest, still lies.
It’s a scenario we can all relate to, most people have WhatsApp groups, and most people have experienced neighbours having work done to their house. But where The Feud takes us is the stuff of nightmares.
RPJ: The Feud follows a microcosm of neighbours who live in a cul-de-sac and has elements everybody will connect with. In fact, when we were discussing the series, everyone had a story to tell about battles with neighbours or building disruption. Everyone will be able to relate to a street of people which can implode.
This takes situations to extremes by taking all the worst stories you might hear and combining them into one story.
IT’S A RECOGNISABLE TALE OF BRITISH SUBURBAN LIFE, THEN?
JH: With suburban life, and a street like Shelbury Drive, we all like each other until someone does something to interfere with our lives. We like each other because we’re not getting in each other’s way but the minute you play your music, park over a driveway, or your teenager brings all their friends over, there’s a problem.
In suburbia we’re all fine with each other as long as we’re leaving each other alone – that’s not friendship. If you say you love your neighbours because they don’t do anything to p*** you off, that’s a pretty low bar.
In the first episode you see how quickly the neighbours react defensively – they all profess to like each other and yet within the first episode they all become obstructive.
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I THINK MOST OF US CAN RELATE TO THE COMMUNITY WHATSAPP GROUP FIASCOS IN THE SERIES…
JH: I do have a WhatsApp group and ours mainly consists of bin talk. We live in a flat in a Victorian house and the bins are regularly blown over. There are six bins per house so there’s a debate about who puts the rubbish back in the bins.
The comments by the neighbours in The Feud are very passive aggressive and it doesn’t take long to become out and out aggressive. The gloves are off and there’s no time for WhatsApps anymore.
Another fun aspect of playing Emma is she thought everyone was cool with one another – never believe the WhatsApp group, Emma!
WHAT ARE THE BARNETTS LIKE AS A FAMILY?
RPJ: Emma and John are trying to fix a fault in their relationship and had planned to move home, but Emma decides it would be better to stay and do up the house. Many people, especially at the moment, would understand it’s cheaper to do up your kitchen or build an extension compared to moving and the cost of stamp duty.
However, John’s reasons for wanting to move are not as honest as he pretends. He finds himself in deeper water than intended and he’s trying to run away, so when Emma says they’re going to stay he has to go along with the decision. This compounds all the pressure he’s already feeling.
HOW DOES THE FEUD TAKE SUBURBAN DRAMA TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
RPJ: You know immediately something terrible has happened and all is not as it seems, because the series opens with the house covered in blood. That’s quite fun, and you don’t know how the story reaches that situation.
Emma, Jill’s character, is under constant pressure – as she tries to deal with one person, her phone pings with a message from her dad, and then there’s another message from the builder. The heat’s slowly being turned up underneath her.
There’s a lovely sequence in episode three where our neighbours Derek and Barbara are so angry with us, they start playing modern freeform jazz at full volume through the walls. The scene is like what’s going on inside John and Emma – they’re trying to live normally with a terrible noise in their heads…
In a way the scene reflects the whole series – they’re trying to keep in control, bottling everything up, until they just explode.
JH: I didn’t predict how it would end. I never imagined it would turn quite so gruesome, and I never expected it would go as far as it goes when it starts out in such a domestic setting.
The Feud starts on Monday, April 14 at 9pm on 5
