The wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful Flowers returns to C4 on Monday, June 11 at 10pm and runs all week. Here is an interview with Will Sharpe who wrote the series and plays Chun. Read an interview with another of the stars, Olivia Colman, here.

First off, season one – you must have been thrilled with the reception the show got.

Yes, although it was kind of surreal more than anything else. It all happened very quickly. Once Channel 4 had made the decision to strip it across a week, the slot that seemed to make the most sense was quite soon after we’d started post-production, so the whole thing was a bit of a whirlwind of trying to finish it and get it out. It took a while to sink in. Possibly it still hasn’t. And also I had nothing to compare it to. But I was definitely grateful for people having watched it and did have a sense of the overall reception. I tried not to think about it too much.

Is that because a successful first series means there’s added pressure for series two? Did you feel that? Did you have that ‘difficult second album’ syndrome?

I think I probably felt the pressure initially, because you don’t want to let anyone down. But I don’t think we’d have embarked on a second series if we hadn’t wanted to, if it hadn’t felt like there was unfinished business. So, in that sense, it didn’t weigh as heavily as it could have done, in that it didn’t feel like it was just for the sake of it. There were still things to say, things there wasn’t space to explore fully in the first series. The other thing that I feel is important to mention is that the audience’s response, particularly surrounding the mental health story, was hugely motivating. And also that we never really stopped. As soon as the first series was over, we were talking about the second series. So I never felt like I had left the world of “Flowers”. A lot of the pressure just came from us loving the characters and wanting to do them justice.

So how is the second series different?

One thing I was keen to do with the second series was to keep it the same show, but to move it on, to broaden the world and deepen it. I guess the first thing you might notice is that it’s set in a different season. Where the first series had an autumnal, wintery palette, was about depression and was set against the fairytale world of Maurice’s children’s books, the second series is set in summer and is more about manic depression, or bipolar disorder as it’s now more commonly known, which contains within it depression. The story of Maurice’s mental illness continues and how it impacts on his relationship with Deborah and his family, but this time the central seam is Amy’s journey of gradually discovering that she has bipolar disorder. Her manic, or hypomanic, state of mind, along with the summer setting, are also reflected in the new palette, which is colourful and warm and bright, as well as the music and the editing and the overall energy of this series, which is often quite wild and epic, like a kind of rush.

Where do we start at the opening of season 2 – where do we find the characters?

I guess it’s about two years later and I was keen for it to feel that time had passed. So that’s partly reflected in how the characters look and also a little bit how the world looks, to try and make the first series feel like a memory, as it would to the characters. Deborah has been working on a book about Maurice’s depression and that’s been her way, I suppose, of processing the events of the first series. And also to reclaim a sense of independence, perhaps, that she might have felt she’d lost over time. Maurice is on medication and trying to implement the tools that have been given to him from treatment. He’s seemingly in a better place, but as the series goes on I think we realise it’s not as simple as everything suddenly being rosy and perfect. Even if it’s not problems born directly out of you, there will might problems from those around you that will challenge your mental state.

Donald is increasingly frustrated by his inability to grow up and has started an independent plumbing business. He’s a sexually frustrated young man. I think he’s sort of become an embarrassing dad before even starting a family or even having any sexual or romantic experience, or lived any kind of life beyond a sort of adolescent man-boy. His journey is interesting, because on the surface he’s the clown, but he’s also vigilant and in some ways understands Amy better than anyone else. He wants people to take him seriously. Amy on the other hand seems to have found her feet and is pursuing her music with her female music group “The Pink Cuttlefish Orchestra”. It’s almost a kind of weird experimental performance art. They come to stay at the house because she’s working on her next show. At the same time, she starts to get interested in her grandfather Felix, Maurice’s dad - an apparently quite temperamental and arrogant magician who ran away from home, abandoning Maurice and his mum when Maurice was a little boy. They’ve never really talked about it as a family, but Amy’s curiosity is piqued. She finds a book amongst Felix's belongings called "Baumgaertner", which is full of strange and violent Baroque style paintings that seem to tell a story. Amy tries to set these images to music and her increasingly fizzy state of mind becomes a sort of portal into the world of “Baumgaertner".

You didn’t mention Shun, the character you play. The show is about a family, and it’s named after them, but Shun is the other key character. What’s his role in the show, why is he there? He’s comic relief, but he’s more than that, isn’t he?

Yes. I think he, as a character, is asking that same question about himself, and about his position within the family. He is trying to feel at home and maintain a sense of purpose among the Flowers. On the one hand, he is very welcomed into their household and they are his friends. On the other hand, he isn’t a part of that family in a biological sense and, now that Maurice is not writing "Grubbs", he feels somewhat at a loss as to what to do with himself and underlying issues start to bubble up to the surface. Shun came from my desire to feed some of the flavours of Japanese comedy that I grew up watching into the show. And then, like all the other characters, he challenged his position in the sitcom and started to show me other aspects of his character.

Flowers is by no means your average sitcom. It is often deeply poignant. Are you aware of trying to keep some balance between light and dark, or do you just get on with telling your story and the balance is whatever it is?

I definitely do have an eye on the balance overall, partly because I think it makes it funnier if you can buy into these characters as human beings with feelings, however eccentric they might be. And also I think it makes the storytelling more effective if you’ve given space for people to laugh, to relax, before you go somewhere a bit heavier. The actors are all so deft at being extremely silly and funny one minute and then very sensitive and emotive the next, which was always such a pleasure to watch and direct and just generally to be around. The performances are a big part of what defines the tone, as well as the music.

The only thing I’ve always been quite militant about is not laughing at anyone’s misfortune or mental state. There has been some discussion about whether it’s a comedy. I don’t really mind what genre it is – in spite of its connotations, I’m quite comfortable calling it a comedy drama, because I think it contains both. But I definitely wouldn’t call it a drama, because these are comedy characters first and foremost and the engine of the story is more often than not comedic, even if it takes us to a difficult place. If I had to side with one, I’d probably call it a comedy. I think it’s helpful to be able to laugh, even when exploring issues that can be painful to think about. I sometimes think of it as a comedy with a mental illness.

Interview continues here.