Sharon Horgan revealed she was left terrified that she had given nits to legendary actress Joanna Lumley while recording her first-ever radio pilot.
The Bad Sisters creator recounted the bizarre and nerve-wracking moment when she found herself in the BBC offices, terrified she might have passed the pesky lice onto the star, who currently star in her Motherland spin-off Amandaland.
Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, she began: "I think I was stuck in a rut. It’s not like I wasn’t doing things—I was putting on plays above pubs and all that—but I was too scared to have a proper go.
“Then I got my first break, a radio pilot, when I hadn’t been at the job centre that long.”
The Irish actress and writer recalled arriving at the BBC, clutching her yellow jobcentre folder filled with scripts, when panic set in.
"At the time, I had nits,” she said. “I don’t know who I got them from, but I was squatting in a manor house in North London, and I must have picked them up from some skank.
“Then, I found myself in the BBC reception thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ And Joanna Lumley was there! I was so nervous I’d given her nits. It was just this weird moment of two worlds colliding."
Fortunately for Horgan, her career has come a long way since then.
The award-winning writer, actor, and producer is now behind some of the most critically acclaimed TV shows, including Catastrophe, Motherland and Amandaland.
During the podcast, she also opened up about the responsibility of balancing humor with heavy themes in her work.
"That’s what I feel my job is—to bridge those tones and keep an eye on it throughout. Especially when you're dealing with really serious subject matter, there’s a responsibility there," she explained.
She admitted that the fear of mishandling sensitive topics kept her up at night. Horgan shared: "The thought of getting it wrong or having someone watch and think we’re taking the piss—that’s terrifying. So, I’m really careful at the script stage, at the performance stage, and all the way through the edit."
However, she still believes in pushing boundaries. "You can test things—try a joke in a moment where you think you shouldn’t, or have a character say something totally out of line. But you can always pull back in the edit."
