‘A tricky place to be’ in Season 3

Nikki and Jason finally have the children for which they’ve been “Trying” the past two seasons.

OK … So now what?

That’s the dilemma faced by the couple (Esther Smith, (Rafe Spall) as they adapt to being parents to Princess (Eden Togwell) and her younger brother, Tyler (Mike McAnulty), in Season 3 of the Apple TV+ comedy, premiering July 22.

To complicate matters, Nikki and Jason have only 12 weeks to form a bond with the children in order to convince the local authorities that they’re fit to legally adopt them.

It won’t be easy.

“They got more than they bargained for — two for the price of one,” said Spall who, along with Smith, spoke to The Post about the upcoming season. “The more [time] they spend with [Princess and Tyler] the more their desire is to bond with them … and to want to have them as kids. But then the deeper in they get the higher the stakes become, where there’s that possibility that [the children] might be taken away — all of which creates a jeopardy but also a space for the humor, warmth and … the beauty of this show.”

Season 2 ended with Jason proposing to Nikki at her sister Erica’s (Ophelia Lovibond) garden wedding to the annoying Scott (Darren Boyd) — just as they learned from Penny (Imelda Staunton) that only Princess could live with them in their North London flat. At the episode’s end, Jason discovered Tyler hiding in the trunk of his car.

So here we are.

“I think, for this season, in terms of parenting, their expectations of what they think being a parent is are not necessarily met,” Smith said. “You can kind of have an idea in your head of what kind of parent you’re going to be and how you’re going to talk to a child, but these children are people in their own right … and trying to bond with people who’ve already got certain opinions … I think that’s a tricky place to be for anyone.”

“What’s unique about them is that they don’t have the privilege of having raised the kids since they were babies, then they get these two fully formed personalities with wants, needs and desires, all of which developed without the influence of Nikki and Jason,” Spall said. “Parenting is hard enough, [but] parenting fully formed little beings presents a different set of challenges.”

Jason, meanwhile, is staying home to raise the kids, while Esther, who was promoted to manager at the rental car company, faces the challenges that come with her new position.

Spall, who has three children with his wife, actress Elize du Toit, said he doesn’t approach his scenes with Togwell and McAnulty much differently than he would with older actors.

“First and foremost you want to make them feel relaxed and and not tense up,” he said. “Interestingly enough, that’s what it’s like being a grownup, too. The longer I’ve done acting I realized the important thing about it is being absolutely comfortable on-screen … so you want to get that across to the kids.

“So I’ll do things like, when I’m talking to the young boy playing Tyler, Mickey, even sometimes after they’ve called action I’ll carry on the conversation I was having with him and then I’ll just go into the scene so he doesn’t feel like he needs to make it bigger or do ‘acting,’ that he can just talk like a normal person would.”

Both Smith and Spall said that, as the season progresses, both Nikki and Jason will learn to temper their expectations.

“Things never turn out who you want them to in life and I suppose part of being happy is making peace with the disparity between the way you expect things to be and the way things are,” Spall said. “A lot of rich comedy and pathos lives in that space.”