Created and written by former stand-up turned TV writer Kat Sadler,who also stars,Such Brave Girlsis inspired by her own experience with mental illness. She plays 20-something Josie,who is trying to “find herself” after a recent suicide attempt,and years of under-treated depression. Josie lives with her sister Billie (Sadler’s real-life sister Lizzie Davidson) and their dysfunctional mother Deb (Sherlock’s Louise Brealey),who is in debt,and a lot of denial. All three were left reeling when the girls’ dad left the house to buy teabags 10 years earlier,and never returned.
The eternally maudlin Josie,who only comes alive when she’s discussing her fragile mental state,is the butt of jokes from Billie. Deb,meanwhile,urges her daughter to “stop thinking,stop loving and stop letting big feelings in at all”. Deb’s main mission is to find a man to look after her and she’s recently met Dev (Paul Bazely). She has to close her eyes when she has sex with him,but she considers it worth it because “he’s got a massive house. Massive.”
Billie,meanwhile,has abandonment and daddy issues,and is obsessing about Nicky (Sam Buchanan),her on- and mostly off-again boyfriend who is now seeing someone else. She’s considering cutting her wrists and texting him a photo,to which Josie advises to “use a clean blade”. Deb’s advice to both girls is “learn to love with less of your heart. Less and less,until eventually,there’s nothing left any more”. Among these brutal jokes are some that are silly and puerile,but the series’ best lines are the uncomfortable truths around their varying degrees of emotional damage.
Billie remains convinced that their dad could come home (“They do move stuff around in that shop a lot,” she says of the local supermarket he was headed for). Josie,who has reconciled with boyfriend Seb (Freddie Meredith) at her mother’s urging,is really gay,but can only flirt with the woman she fancies by discussing her depression and trauma. Deb,who believes therapy is bollocks for rich people,makes increasingly frantic attempts to land Dev,which leads her into a tangle of lies,including that the girls’ father is dead. In trying to impress him,she sinks further and further into the debt she wants to escape.
Directed byThe Inbetweeners′ Simon Bird,Such Brave Girls is largely female-led (the men appear only in supporting roles),and it’s extraordinary that Sadler and Davidson are relative newcomers;the acting and comic timing of the sisters is spot-on.