The road to the altar for Beyond Paradise's Martha (Sally Bretton) and Humphrey (Kris Marshall) has not exactly been a smooth one: during the show's first series, the struggles of going through IVF treatment put a major strain on their romance and at one point led to Martha breaking off their engagement — but the couple realised that they were meant to be together and eventually reconciled.
This year, a wedding has always been on their to-do list but they've been busy with their application to become foster parents — at least until Humphrey decided that they'd waited long enough and spontaneously booked their ceremony with just a few weeks to get everything ready.
Recently, Martha's mother Anne (Barbara Flynn) has been throwing herself into planning an extravagant wedding for her only daughter, partially as a way to distract herself from her own pain after discovering that her new boyfriend Richard (Peter Davison) was a liar and a cheat. But Martha and Humphrey had something more low-key and intimate in mind — and as the big day dawns in this week's finale, the pair are wondering whether to tell Anne that they don't want or need all the bells and whistles.
We caught up with Sally Bretton to find out more about Humphrey and Martha's big day — and whether we can expect them to live happily ever after...
Sally Bretton interview for Beyond Paradise
How is Martha feeling on her wedding day?
"Humphrey and Martha didn't have much time to plan their wedding, and even though that's because they want something relaxed and easy, Anne has sort of stepped in. Because Martha's an only child, Anne wants her to have the very best, and that's causing a bit of friction between them both. So Martha's excited, but stressed — which I think is probably everybody on their wedding day!"
Why do you think it's taken Humphrey and Martha so long to get married?
"I think they're so happy together, and they've been through a lot of big moves: they've been through the IVF process, they've come back to the south-west, they've had to find somewhere to live, Martha's opened a business... I think it's just been going from one project to the next. They are so committed to each other anyway that it was always going to be happening — it was just a question of when."
Were you excited when you found out Humphrey and Martha would be having their wedding in this series?
"Oh yeah, because they're so lovely to play. They have been on a journey, those two — it's a proper love story, and you want them to live happily ever after. Martha has freaked out a couple of times, not because of a lack of feelings towards Humphrey, but like in the last series, she thought he might be better off with someone else. So hopefully this will quieten them down!"
This isn't your first screen wedding — you got married as Lucy in the Not Going Out Christmas Special in 2014. How do the two weddings compare?
"Haha — well, they're similar stress levels! When you get married on telly, the dress isn't always one that you would necessarily choose. I think I've been in three wedding dresses on telly, and that Not Going Out one is not something I would have popped myself in in real life!"
Martha and Humphrey have been a lot happier in their relationship in this series. Have you enjoyed getting to play that out?
"Oh, it's been so nice to have them more settled, putting down roots and feeling more secure in this new environment. They're very together, and it's been really nice for them not to be in such a stressed-out place. It's been lovely to play that this year."
Martha's developed a friendship with Esther (Zahra Ahmadi) this year too — we loved the scene where they got drunk together!
"That was really fun to film! It's really nice that Esther and Martha are developing their own friendship outside of Humphrey, rather than being the two women who are flanking him. And of course there's also a friendship developing between Martha and Esther's daughter Zoe (Melina Sinadinou) as well, it's really lovely to play all of that."
This episode sees Martha's relationship with Anne coming under some strain. Do you and Barbara enjoy your scenes together?
"We really love working together — Barbara's so brilliant! With Anne and Martha, there's a tension between obviously how close they are, as Martha's an only child and she lost her dad in the last couple of years, but there's also friction too, that Martha doesn't want to tell her mother too much and then ends up telling her anyway. So there's that irritation, but that closeness — they're constantly pushing away and pulling closer together. It's really well-written."
We have to ask about one of your other key scene partners — what's it like working with Selwyn the duck?
"Do you know, the duck isn't bad! He can be a bit chatty, and sometimes we have to wait for him to stop, but in general he's good. There's actually two of them, so if one gets a bit too chatty, we swap the other one in!"
How did you react when you first found out there would be a duck in the series?
"I just didn't expect it to be a real duck — but yeah, he's real, and he's lovely!"
Finally, what does the future hold for Martha and Humphrey?
"I suppose they're just on a journey of working out what 'family' will look like for them and how they want to go about that, or if they want to go about that. They've got a lot of love to give, so I think it's about working out whether they can direct that somewhere where they can help children who might need a little bit of support for a period of time in their lives. That's really where they're up to — they didn't come out of IVF wanting to foster, this just sort of developed for them and now they're exploring what that looks like!"
- The Beyond Paradise finale airs on Friday, April 26 at 8 pm on BBC One. Catch up on the series so far on BBC iPlayer
