Colin from Accounts star Richard Brammall's revealed a "downer" ending that had been pitched for the show as the series drops its final episode.
The Australian romantic dramedy, set in Sydney, follows Gordon (Brammall) and Ashley (Harriet Dyer), who meet after a car accident injures a stray dog who they name Colin from Accounts.
The actor spoke to Seven Sharp's Hilary Barry from his home in Los Angeles ahead of the release of the show's final episode after three seasons.
Brammall said he and his real-life wife Dyer got "some feels, some big feelings" about the ending – primarily a sense of "relief that it’s out there".
"We feel good but it’s like sending off your kids to university or something. Not that we’ve ever done that, but it feels like there’s a big void," he said.
Brammall said there was "no lightning bolt moment" when the idea for the show that would become Colin from Accounts came about.
"It was a funny concept that Harry and I thought about, you know, a funny start to a show if this happened," he explained.
"I think she experienced something like that some years before when she was a nanny. She said she was wheeling someone else and saw some hot guy and, like, wheeled the pram into a tree. No baby was hurt in the Genesis story."
Dyer began writing the pilot for the show in 2017 while waiting for work to come in, he said.
"She was like, ‘Here you go’. And no one told her that you're not meant to write a pilot in five days, you know? And I was like, ‘This is amazing’. Anyway, turns out she's a genius writer."
Brammall confirmed season three would be its last – but "not as strong a full stop as Harry kept pitching a version where Gordon dies at the end".
"We entertained it for a while, because it was, like, gonna be a sort of a locked off thing over the bed, and you see Gordon and Ashley together with Colin, and then you see Ashley getting, she's pregnant, and then Colin's older, and then there's a little baby, and then Colin's gone. And then there's a new puppy, and Gordon's older, and then Gordon's gone. And then Gordon's replaced by a Great Dane.
"And we were like, that's pretty good. And then we thought about it, and we thought, you know what? That's a downer. That's a downer."
The popularity of Colin from Accounts led to other opportunities for Brammall – including the role of Anne Hathaway's boyfriend in The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Brammall said he had initially turned down the offer to audition due to his busy schedule and the logistics of balancing family life, with his wife and children based in Montreal.
"So I said no. And then, they came back and offered it to me like a week and a half later. And I think because they're such fans of Colin from Accounts. And so it looked like a move on my part, but it wasn't a move. I really meant no. But then when they offered it. It was like, 'As if I'm going to say no now'. It's an offer, of course."
When asked if he was 'having a moment', Brammall was humble.
"I must be having a moment," he joked. "The only problem with having a moment is the moment passes and it's like 'remember when Patrick Brammall had a moment?'
"But all jokes aside, because I've been thinking about it a lot, is like all we have is this moment, you know? Without getting too full-on about it. It's like yeah, it's a moment. It's a great moment."
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