EXCLUSIVE: Catastrophe Star Sharon Horgan Does The Marie Claire Q&A

Has Catastrophe totally perked up Monday nights or what? (Sorry, Broadchurch, but it is Janxiety an' all). Time to meet the lady behind the LOLs: Sharon Horgan...

Who was the last person who made you laugh? I’m sitting in the edit [of Catastrophe] with Rob Delaney every day so I would say, he, on a regular basis, cracks me up. He’s really, really funny all the time but he’s also just a really nice, good person, so it’s quite good for me to be around someone who is nice. It helps.

What keeps you awake at night? At the moment it’s the edit of Catastrophe, worrying about getting it finished in time for it to go out on air. Generally what keeps me awake at night is when I’m panicking about something big the next day and it doesn’t matter how many pills I take. I give a little bit too much of a shit.

Do you have any recurring dreams? My teeth falling out.

Are you superstitious? Not really but if I’m doing anything that requires live recording, I eat a banana before I do it. I think I did something once where I was too anxious to eat… and now it’s become a thing. Even if I’m not hungry, it’s always ‘I’ll eat a banana’ and that will release energy slowly.

What gets on your nerves? Everything. I have a low tolerance for most things. Reality TV people get on my tits. Gossipy mags. Women being expected to be a certain way in the media and men not. The beautiful glamorous newsreader versus the serious male journalist. That really annoys me. 

When was the last time you cried? It’s been a few years since I’ve had a boo-hoo-cry but my last well-up-tears-running-down-face-cry? My little girl was reading 'The Fault In Our Stars' and I got into bed with her and started reading some to her and I was pouring crying. The chapter I read was a killer. I pray the whole book isn’t like that. She’ll be damaged.

What’s your biggest fear? Death. We all do that slightly existential thing of looking at yourself from the outside and I have way too many thoughts about death. On a weekly basis.

What’s your guilty pleasure? I would happily lie around watching cartoons. Gravity Falls is pretty good and Adventure Time. They’re actually better than a lot of adult TV so I don’t feel too guilty, they’re tremendous.

What do you love most right now? I really truly love Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley. It blew my head off. And the comedy that has blown me away is Transparent. It’s soo good. There’s so much care and thought, they just make me want to make better TV.

When are you happiest? On holiday with my kids. I used to be bad at holidays and too angsty to enjoy them, not being able to switch off. But a couple of years ago I realized that all my happiest memories are from having time out and hanging around with those little nutters. 

Catastrophe is on C4 on Monday at 10pm