‘Breeders’ Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard reflect on the show’s legacy

No more breeding for Breeders — the FX comedy about a messy British family just started its final season on FX, streaming next day on Hulu. Before the start of the actors strike, show co-creator and star Martin Freeman told ABC Audio that he learned from his time on The Office — which ran for just two short seasons — and from other short-lived British shows like Fawlty Towers, “Knowing when to get off stage is vital,”

“Even from an egotistical point of view, like even if you want to kind of think about your legacy or what you leave behind, I think you’re more likely to have good favor with people if they still like what you’re doing when you stop doing it,” he adds.

Freeman’s goal was to portray that “the idea of a perfect family doesn’t exist. And the idea of this sort of identikit, lovely, colorful, sunshiny family just is not true. And we know it’s not true. And we’ve always known it’s not true.”

“So let’s make people feel okay about the fact that they come from dysfunctional, weird families,” he continues.”

Freeman says the show has always been about how messy family can be, especially for the kids, explaining, “If you’re a sibling, you have not chosen any of this, right? You haven’t chosen any of it. So it’s hard, you know, but it’s worth the struggle because I think family can be the most beautiful thing in our lives.”

For Daisy Haggard, who plays Aly on the show, “it’s about showing the other side, the real side, of family life, and allowing people to identify with the slightly darker moments rather than feel ashamed. So if the show can do that for people, then I’m delighted.” 

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