Sharon Horgan: The divorce industry feeds off people at the worst time of their lives

Catastrophe writer and star Sharon Horgan told The Women’s Podcast that her new ten part series for HBO, ’Divorce’ is “a classic tale of two people falling out of love,” and a forensic look at the divorce industry “the industry that feeds off two people at the worst time of their lives.”

The Dubliner said that honesty is at the heart of her writing especially in the hit Channel 4 series Catastrophe:

“It’s nerve-wracking because you don’t know if your honesty is going to shock or surprise people,” she told journalist Una Mullally, guest presenter of the latest episode of The Women’s Podcast. “In terms of finding funny, anytime I’ve stuck to my own life story it’s worked ...”

In Catastrophe, Horgan’s character gets together with a stranger played by Rob Delaney after a brief affair that leads to a pregnancy.

“It’s so extreme, the idea that the person you want to spend the rest of your life with is the person that you’d probably most like to injure … kill, even,” she said.

Horgan talked to The Women’s Podcast in New York, on her way to the set of her new series, which stars Sarah Jessica Parker.

Later in the episode, funny woman Alison Spittle talked about using personal experiences and the topic of mental health to colour her stand-up.

“I had a bit of a breakdown, and when I write comedy it’s always about my personal experience … Having a breakdown is absurd and the events leading up to it are absurd, so I did a comedy show about it.”

Spittle said she “ended up laughing at some of the thoughts I had”, including the urge to throw her handbag off a bridge.

She has many upcoming gigs, including one at the International Bar in Dublin on February 10th and another in Whelan’s in Dublin on February 29th.

Later in the episode, there is an extract from a recent live gig by Republic of Telly’s Joanne McNally.

She talked about the preparations before a recent trip to Ibiza, including being waxed so that she “looked like she had alopecia from the eyebrows down”. She also “spent two grand in Penneys so I could be dressed like absolutely every other Irish person once I got out there”.

And Deirdre O’Kane told Women’s Podcast listeners “a thing or two about motherhood”.

“When you see a woman randomly kicking the tyres of the car in the middle of the street or just having a little scream, you can be sure she made a dinner that wasn’t appreciated,” she said.

O’Kane will perform at DeBarra’s in Cork on April 1st and in Vicar Street in Dublin on May 14th.

The Women’s Podcast friendship episode is approaching and will coincide with Friendship Week in the Life daily features pages of The Irish Times.

The question of the week is: Tell us the best…or worst…thing your friends have ever done for you. There is a prize for the best answer this week.

Listeners are invited to tweet their answers to the question of the week @ITWomensPodcast, post to our Facebook page or email thewomenspodcast@irishtimes.com.

Individual episodes of the podcast are available on Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher and on irishtimes.com.