the show, the writer jokes that he has to remember that his wife didn't leave him for an estate agent; his wife was an estate agent. In 2003, Moffat told The New York Times that his "ex-wife wasn't terribly pleased about her failed marriage being presented as a sitcom on BBC2 on Monday nights". In an interview with Richard Herring, Moffat says that "the sit-com actually lasted slightly longer than my marriage". Conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based on his relationship with his second wife, TV producer Sue Vertue. Moffat reused the surname 'Taylor', which is Mark's surname in Joking Apart, for Jack Davenport's character Steve in Coupling. Recording The pilot, directed by John Kilby, was filmed at Pebble Mill in Birmingham on 9–10 August 1990. It is practically identical to the first episode of the series proper; some scenes are even reused, notably the scene with Mark and Becky meeting when he accidentally turns up at a funeral. The reused footage gave rise to the first episode's shared director credit between Spiers and Kilby. The stand-up sequences were shot against a black background. Although this made it clearer that they were not "real", Moffat thought that it looked odd. The pilot was transmitted on BBC2 as part of its Comic Asides series of pilot shows on 12 July 1991. Moffat had written all six episodes of the first series before recording commenced. With series two, he had written only the first four episodes by the time recording had commenced, only delivering the final episode by the first day of rehearsals. All of the location shots were filmed at the beginning of the production block. Recording for the first series of six episodes began on location in the first half of April 1992 and were mainly filmed in Chelsea within a short distance from the director's home. The stand-up sequences were filmed in the Café Des Artistes on London's Fulham Road, now known as the Valmont Club, and were shot for the benefit of the studio audience, with the intention of reshooting them later for the broadcast version. Robert Bathurst has complained that, in order to save £5,000, this promised reshoot never materialised. The close ups of Bathurst were filmed in the studio for the second series, with stock footage of the club's audience reused. After the exterior shots had been filmed, the episodes were recorded at BBC Television