The Cup – a six-part comedy series for 91Èȱ¬ Two
Pal Aron plays Dr Kaskar
Pal Aron – most familiar to television audiences for his regular appearances as Sonny in Coronation Street, DC Brandon Kane in The Bill and Adam Osman in Casualty – thoroughly enjoyed playing Dr Kaskar in The Cup.
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He says: "Of course it's the script that initially gets you excited. It's really funny and that I think comes from the honesty in the characters; the fact that it's so character driven and the humour comes from the situations they find themselves in."
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Dr Kaskar is a gynaecologist in Bolton and is hugely ambitious for his footballing son Ranjit, locked in a constant battle with rival dad Terry.
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Pal explains: "Ranjit is the joint leading goal scorer with Malky [Terry's son]. As a result of this, Terry and Dr Kaskar are deadly rivals, constantly fighting and bickering with a lot of one-upmanship, whereas the kids get on well, love the game, have other hobbies and interests and are basically altogether more grown up than their parents."
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And Pal doubts he will follow his character's lead when it comes to raising his own small son.
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He laughs: "Can you imagine the incredible pressure Ranjit is put under by his father?
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"My boy is only 15 months old and I am looking forward to kicking a ball around with him, but I wouldn't dream of treating him like that.
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"Also, I'm not a big fan of football. I'll watch important matches but only in the company of others and with a drink in my hand!
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"But hopefully a lot of the audience will be the same. They might learn something from the series and be able to relate to the situations; in life we laugh because something is funny and we laugh because it rings true."
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Despite not being interested in football, Pal's especially enjoyed filming the football scenes.
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He explains: "Luckily I'm not expected to play football properly – that's the responsibility of the kids!
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"There was a fantastic scene when they had rain machines in and Terry and I were covered in mud, taking penalties against each other and it was just such fun!"
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He continues: "My character is hugely ambitious in absolutely everything that he does.
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"He breathes success whether it's football, the arts or anything really – he just wants always to be the best he can.
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"In fact his son's name, Ranjit, means 'victorious' which is a happy coincidence as the writers didn't know; they just chose the name because they liked it. They seemed really pleased when I told them what it actually meant."
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Pal is full of admiration for the children in the series: "The kids are fantastic because they enjoyed the experience of filming The Cup so much and really wanted to give it their best shot every time.
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"Matt the director would tell them to have a knockabout for 20 minutes and the amount of energy he got back from them was amazing – they all seemed to genuinely love it and love playing football.
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"Haylie, who plays Ali – the only girl in the team – is absolutely fearless at football; she goes for every tackle and gets 100% involved – brilliant."
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Pal was a fan of the documentary style as well: "I'm new to this style of working but it's been fun to do.
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"The main challenge is to try and make it look realistic – it's a mock documentary so the characters know that there's a camera trained on them.
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"As the story continues you see the characters becoming more confident in front of the camera – trying to make it look real was the biggest challenge."
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