''Sally4Ever'' is a British

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television series created by

Julia Davis Julia Charlotte L. Davis (born 25 August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy '' Nighty Night'' (2004–2005) and the comedies ''Hunderby'' (2012–2015) and ...

. The series stars Davis, Catherine Shepherd and Alex MacQueen. It premiered in the United Kingdom on

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HB ...

on 25 October 2018, and in the United States on HBO on 11 November 2018. The story of a love affair that quickly spirals out of control, this seven-episode series explores love and sex in today's confused, obsessive and gender-fluid world. The show follows Sally (Catherine Shepherd), who is about to marry David (Alex Macqueen), her nebbish boyfriend of ten years, when she encounters the charismatic Emma (Julia Davis). The two fall into a romantic relationship, but what starts out as an exciting and sexy fling takes an unexpected turn when Emma reveals herself to be a nightmare. In 2019, the series won the BAFTA for Best Scripted Comedy.

Cast and characters

as Emma * Catherine Shepherd as Sally * Alex Macqueen as David *

Julian Barratt Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe along ...

as Nigel *

Felicity Montagu Felicity Jane Montagu (born 12 September 1960) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Lynn Benfield, the long-suffering assistant of Alan Partridge. Early life Montagu was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, to Lieutenant-Co ...

as Elanor * Steve Oram as Mick *

Jane Stanness Jane Allison Stanness is a Welsh actress, writer, and singer-songwriter, best known for starring as Deborah in the BAFTA winning comedy series ''Sally4Ever'', as Matron in the 2018 film '' Slaughterhouse Rulez'', and as Mary in the 2020 Sky TV co ...

as Deborah * Georgie Glen as Pat *

Vicki Pepperdine Vicki Pepperdine (born 1961) is an English comedy actress and writer. She was nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards for co-writing the BBC sitcom '' Getting On'' (2009–12), and was also nominated for a British Comedy Award for her portrayal of D ...

as Belinda *

Lena Headey Lena Kathren Headey ( ; born 3 October 1973) is a British actress. She gained international recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister on the HBO epic fantasy drama series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which she rec ...

as herself *

Sean Bean Sean Bean (born Shaun Mark Bean on 17 April 1959) is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Bean made his professional debut in a theatre production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' in 1983. Retaining his Yorkshire ac ...

as himself

Development and production

''Sally4Ever'' was given a seven-episode order by Sky Atlantic and HBO in May 2018. Sky Atlantic released the trailer for the series on 5 October 2018.

Release

The series premiered on 25 October 2018 on Sky Atlantic at 10 pm, and on 11 November 2018 on HBO at 10:30 pm. (via HBO press release) It was made available for streaming on

Now TV Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * No ...

in the UK. In Canada, it premiered on HBO on 11 November 2018 at 10:30 pm. It premiered in Australia on

Fox Showcase Fox Showcase (formerly known as Showcase) is an Australian premium drama cable and satellite television channel. It was initially part of the Showtime Australia channels and was managed by PMP chief executive officer Peter Rose. In 2007 Rose ...

on 5 February 2019 at 7:30 pm.

Episodes

Reception

The season received a 97% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

with an average rating of 7.75/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave it an average score of 77 out of 100, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". ''Sally4Ever'' was praised by Sean O'Grady of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' as "brilliant, but more than usually disturbing", describing the sex scene between Emma and Sally in the pilot episode as "Pervy, kinky, gruesome, cringey" and "one of Davis' finest scenes yet". 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 ...

'', Lucy Mangan gave it four stars and applauded Julia Davis for fashioning "another wholly sadistic half hour that leaves the viewer skewered and writhing in exquisite agony".

References

External links

* (

) * ( HBO)
''Sally4Ever''
on

* {{BAFTA TV Award for Best Scripted Comedy 2018 British television series debuts 2018 British television series endings 2010s British comedy television series 2010s British LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s British LGBT-related television series English-language television shows Lesbian-related television shows Television shows set in England HBO original programming Sky Atlantic original programming BAFTA winners (television series)