''Such Brave Girls'' is a British sitcom about a dysfunctional single-parent family created by

Kat Sadler Kat Sadler is a British comedian, actress, and writer. Career From Sutton, London, Sutton, Sadler started in comedy at Warwick University where she studied film and literature. She would write sketches for the comedy society and performing stand ...

for

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

. It stars Sadler, with

Louise Brealey Louise Brealey (born 27 March 1979), also credited as Loo Brealey, is an English actress, writer and journalist. She played Molly Hooper in '' Sherlock'', Cass in ''Back'', Scottish professor Jude McDermid in ''Clique'', Gillian Chamberlain in ...

and Lizzie Davidson. It is directed by

Simon Bird Simon Antony Bird (born 19 August 1984) is an English comedian, actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in the multi-award-winning E4 comedy series ''The Inbetweeners'' (2008–2010), as well as its two films ...

and produced by

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

with Various Artists Ltd. The first series ran from 22 November 2023. It was renewed for a second series in May 2024.

Synopsis

Sadler has described the series as being a “family sitcom about trauma”, but that it’s also about “being narcissistic losers who are pathetically obsessed with what people think about us.”

Cast

as Josie Johnson *

as Deb Johnson * Lizzie Davidson as Billie Johnson * Freddie Meredith as Seb *

Paul Bazely Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

as Dev Wilson * Jude Mack as Sid * Sam Buchanan as Nicky *

Carla Woodcock Carla Woodcock (born 4 October 1998) is an English actress. Woodcock made her acting debut as Susie Garrett on the Netflix series ''Free Rein'' (2017–2019). She was then cast as Marina Perry in the fourth series of the Channel 4 series ''Ac ...

as Bianca * Amy Trigg as Claire

Production

The series was created and written by

, who also stars. It is directed by

and was produced for Various Artists Ltd and

by Catherine Gosling Fuller, with Phil Clarke, Jack Bayles, Piers Wenger and Sadler as executive producers. It was commissioned after a successful 2021 pilot episode. Sadler appears in the series alongside her real life sister Lizzie Davidson, and they play sisters on the show. Sadler told ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' that Davidson read the drafts and acted as her “sense check … telling me if I’ve gone too mad”. She described their characters of Josie and Billie as “not us, but they are certainly inspired by bits of us … we have taken some of the worst aspects of ourselves”. She said that their own mother had seen it “and laughed in all the right places”. Bird wrote to Sadler asking to direct the series after watching the 2021 pilot episode, with Sadler and Bird agreeing to keep the series as a comedy rather than veer towards comedy-drama. A second six-part series was commissioned in May 2024.

Filming

Filming began in May 2023. Filming took place across

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

with filming locations including

The Wirral Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee, Wales, River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the Ri ...

and Knowsley.

Featured Locations

*Linghams Booksellers, Heswall - Series 1 * Mini Monster's Funhouse, Gayton - Series 1 * West Kirby bar “The Wild Inn” - Series 1: episode 2 * The Mediterranean Kitchen, Higher Bebington - Series 1: Episode 3 * Wirral Country Park,

Thurstaston Thurstaston is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is part of the West Kirby and Thurstaston Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. The village lies on the A540 roa ...

- Series 1: Episode 4 * St Michael's Church, Shotwick - Series 1: Episode 4 * Heswall Hall - Series 1, Episode 5 * Heswall

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resulte ...

Heswall Heswall is a town on the Wirral, Merseyside, England. At the 2001 Census, the population was 16,012, including the nearby villages of Barnston and Gayton. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 it was part of the administr ...

, Merseyside - Series 1: Episode 6 * Hooton Hand Car Wash - Series 1: Episode 6

Broadcast

The series started airing in the United Kingdom on

on 22 November 2023, with all episodes released on

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

the same day. It was available in the United States on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

from 15 December 2023.

Reception

Critical reception

Lucy Mangan Lucy Katherine Mangan''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for ''The Guardian''. A major part of her writing is related t ...

in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described the show as “properly brutal and properly funny”, saying that she found “particular joy in seeing a woman-led, female-written show that doesn’t pull its punches”. She added that it was “brave – singular, fresh, scabrous and unflinching – but still – or, rather, as a result – hilarious.” Steve Bennett for ''

Chortle Chortle is a British comedy website launched in 2000 by Steve Bennett. The site is a major source of comedy news in the UK. It also reviews comedy shows nationwide, including extensively at the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and presents the ...

'' gave the show four stars commenting that “elements of pure sitcom” combine with an “earthy, nuanced realism of the dysfunctional characters” with Sadler’s “unique comic sensibilities” combining with an “admirable reluctance to take serious issues seriously” which “makes for an impressively different series.”

Accolades

In February 2024, it was nominated in the Best TV Show category at the

Chortle Awards The Chortle Awards were set up in 2002 by the comedy website Chortle to honour the best of established stand-up comics currently working in the UK. A panel of reviewers draw up a shortlist, which is presented for public vote at the Chortle websit ...

. The series was nominated for Best Scripted Comedy and Sadler and Meredith were nominated in the Best Comedy Performance categories at the

Royal Television Society Programme Awards The Royal Television Society Programme Awards, (often referred to as the RTS Awards) seek to recognise programmes or individuals who have made a positive and material contribution to their genre: either because their content or originality in fo ...

. In May 2024, the series won in the scripted comedy category at the 2024 British Academy Television Awards. The series was nominated for Best Comedy at the 2024

Broadcasting Press Guild The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. History The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle. Currently it groups over 100 staff and fr ...

Awards.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Such Brave Girls 2023 British television series debuts British comedy television shows British English-language television shows Television shows set in England Television shows shot in Liverpool Television series by A24 2020s British comedy television series 2020s British television miniseries BBC television comedy