Creators devise exit strategy for ‘Colin from Accounts’

“We jumped ahead a wee bit just to get us out of hot water,” says Harriet Dyer, who plays Ashley and writes the series with Patrick Brammall, her husband and the actor who plays Gordon.

“The first two seasons, there’s only four weeks in story time that separates them,” Brammall explains. The third helps explain the aging process — “Colin” was filmed over a nine-year period.

“Harrie and Patty are aging more rapidly than Gordon and Ashley,” Dyer says.

“I don’t think anyone’s buying that Gordon’s actually 42 anymore,” Brammall adds.

When viewers check in, (spoiler alert) they’ll discover the two aren’t together. He no longer owns the brewery; she’s practicing medicine. Colin, the dog who brought them together, however, is just fine.

The real twist: Both Gordon and Ashley have new partners.

“I thought, ‘What better obstacle than them being with new people?’” Dyer says. “It feels a little nuts to do but we were pumped to tear them apart again and see if they can find their way back.”

Dyer had time away from “Colin,” an Australian-based series, when she starred on “DMV,” a CBS comedy.

“It was really a lesson in ‘get up, do the job, go home,’” Dyer says. “I loved playing with the different ensemble members, but I think it taught me more rigor. The rhythms of an American comedy are not the same as the rhythms of an Australian comedy. I had to be quite dexterous in the old mouth department. And when I got back to ‘Colin,’ I had to slow it all down a bit.”

Both Dyer and Brammall wanted to end “Colin” rather than leave it open for more episodes.

“I think an audience can sniff out when you’re leaving the door open for something,” Brammall says. “We are so committed to this world and these characters, (we) wanted to end it. Also, there’s the practical component: We do everything on this show. We write the whole thing, we act in it, we produce it and we sit in the edit for 11 weeks.”

“And we have two little kids,” Dyer says.

While they’ll continue to write other things (they’re currently working on a film), they haven’t committed to a spin-off. “I’d love to see ‘At Home with Lee and Lynelle,’” Dyer says. “However, we couldn’t. We’d have to write it.”

“And we’re too controlling,” Brammall says. “We couldn’t be able to hand this off to anybody.” Because Season 3 gives ample storylines to supporting characters, any could be fodder for another series.

Brammall, however, is working on an AppleTV+ series, “Last Seen.” It premieres a day before “Colin’s” drop, “which is mental,” he says.

Both say they’ve enjoyed creating “Colin” and watching it attract an international audience.

“The thing I’m most proud of is us having created something that brings some joy into the world and not take joy out of it,” Brammall says. “There’s a lot of hills to climb in this and we’ve both learned a lot in making it and had a great time.”

And Colin?

“He’s always been two different dogs,” Dyer says. “But, actually not so much because Zak is 100% Colin. In Season 1, we had to use Buster a little bit. Buster was always just a standby.”

“Zak is a really good boy,” Brammall says. “He was a little heavier this season, as we all are, but he was Colin all the way through.”

And Buster will get a chance to work with him in the third season.

“So, you’ll see them together,” Dyer says.