Sally Lindsay and Daniel Ryan mourn the loss of Mount Pleasant (2024)

TV Magazine chat to Sally Lindsay and Daniel Ryan about the final ever episode of hit show Mount Pleasant...

How are you feeling now that we’ve reached the last-ever episode of Mount Pleasant after six series?

Daniel: Oh, it’s been emotional. We were disappointed to hear that it wasn’t going to go on, but every year we’ve been thrilled when it has come back. We found out the week before the National Television Awards, and then we were invited to that by the new boss who had just got rid of us! We were there with
Ross Kemp, who had also just lost his show [laughs]. Maybe it was a consolation prize.
Sally: We still don’t really understand why it was cancelled. No explanation was given.
Daniel: We were still quite shocked and kind of asking: “Does it have to be dead?” Was there a possibility of it coming back as Sky is a subscriber service? But as it stands, this is it.

Did you both have strong feelings about what this final episode should be like?

Daniel: No, we didn’t really. Mark Brotherhood is such an incredible writer and I think he’s done us proud.
Sally: I was talking to Sir David Jason on my other job, Still Open All Hours, and he was telling me that when they took Only Fools And Horses off air for a bit, they were very clever in not killing anyone off. David and his wife really like Mount Pleasant, so that was ringing in my ears and I asked that we didn’t have a big death.

Your characters Lisa and Dan have a trip to Blackpool in the finale. Did you treat it a bit like a holiday?

Daniel: I spent so many years of my childhood going to Blackpool, so to be able to go when the Pleasure Beach was open just for us was amazing. If only I could have told my eight-year-old self that was going to happen. There used to be this tiny car park next to a row of houses by the Pleasure Beach, and as a kid I desperately wanted to live in one of them. Suddenly, my trailer for Mount Pleasant was parked right next to those same houses.
Sally: You knew every ride. It was like going on them with a real Blackpool Pleasure Beach geek. We had a right laugh.

What are your favourite memories of working together?

Daniel: Day two of filming series one, dancing naked in the bathroom. I’d been naked a little bit on television before, but it had always been relatively tasteful. This was… I mean, the poor girl saw every bit of fruit and nut as we were dancing around to Fatboy Slim! Once you’ve done that with a complete and utter stranger, I think anything else is possible.
Sally: [Howls with laughter] I’d just had a C-section with my twins, so I wasn’t best pleased to be going in a bath with someone. They kept putting this plaster on to cover up Daniel’s bits. June, who was the show’s wardrobe mistress at the time, just kept making him a bigger one because it kept falling off. The last one he wore was like a bloody elephant! In the end we were like: “Oh, f*** it, let’s just get on with it.” It was a beautiful thing.

How emotional was the last day’s filming?

Daniel: We were back on the set and it was quite sad because all the props were being sold off, so anything we’d finished using had a price tag on it. There wasn’t time to get sentimental about it. It was all for sale. I’ve got a Dog And Dart sign up on the wall in my office now.
Sally: I’ve got the Dog And Dart table where we used to have all our discussions. That’s in my kitchen. Also, that little Chinese cabinet when you go into Dan and Lisa’s house is now in my hall. And I’ve got that beautiful hand-painted lamp. I had a van load. When I opened the cabinet, I found a terribly un-PC photo from the 1970s of [co-star] Bobby Ball with a massive Afro, wrestling a strapped-up alligator.
Daniel: Embarrassingly, the other day I got caught wearing my character’s fleece by someone in the Co-op. They were straight out with the camera for a selfie and it went on Facebook, so I look like a right saddo wandering around in my ex-costume.
Sally: It was a beautiful last day, but it was so sad. It was weird thinking we weren’t going to be doing this again. There’s a picture of us on Twitter with me trying to look happy, but not doing very well. Our last scene reminded us of our very first one, when we first drove into the close. I couldn’t look at Dan and he couldn’t look at me as we knew we’d just fill up.

LAST EVER! Mount Pleasant Friday, 9pm, Sky 1

Don't know what to watch tonight? Get your daily guide to What's On TV from The Sun Online