YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND
MUCH LIKE HER BEST-SELLING MEMOIR, EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE, DOLLY ALDERTON’S TV ADAPTATION PLEDGES A WILDLY FUNNY, MESSY, YET JOYFUL WATCH. GEMMA DUNN HEARS MORE
WHEN Dolly Alderton released her memoir in 2018, readers were hooked.
Her debut title served up an unflinching account of (just about!) surviving her 20s.
It won a National Book Award for autobiography and was shortlisted for the 2019 Non-fiction Narrative Book of the Year in the British Book Awards, and struck a chord with audiences the world over.
So it’s little wonder that news of Dolly’s self-penned TV adaptation also caused quite a stir.
Made by Working Title and the BBC, the seven-part series is billed as “a semi-fictionalised adaptation of the best seller”.
“It’s a messy, boisterous, joyful, romantic comedy about two best female friends from childhood and what happens when they move in to their first London house share and the first phase of adulthood,” says Dolly, 33.
Set in 2012, with flashbacks to suburban adolescence in the early Noughties, the drama dives into the bad dates, heartaches and humiliations that fans of the book know all about – and yet asks if platonic love can survive romantic love as we grow up.
At the centre of the story are childhood best friends Maggie, played by The Witcher’s Emma Appleton, and Birdy, played by The Morning Show’s Bel Powley; plus university friends Marli Siu as Nell and Aliyah Odoffin as Amara.
“When we first meet Maggie, she’s just finished her university gap year and she’s moved to London,” says Emma, 30. “(She’s embracing) adult life in a big city; she’s with her friends and she’s just figuring out what that looks like and what direction she wants to go in in the world – she’s excited by it.”
In contrast, “Birdy is quite anxious and nervy” according to Bel, also 30. “(She’s) Maggie’s childhood best friend. They’ve known each other since they were 11 years old, so they’re embarking on this journey together, along with their other friends Nell and Amara.
“I’d actually read the book because my best friend gave me it – so my Maggie, which I thought was a beautiful thing,” she adds.
“I was completely obsessed with it. I read it and remember thinking, if this gets turned into a TV show then I want to play Farley, who ended up being Birdy.”
“I’m the same as Bel; I read it because all my friends were telling me to read it in lockdown,” chimes Alex Rider actress, Marli. “Literally every one of my best friends had it.”
Prized for its funny, honest musings on love, friendship and relationships, and growing up as a millennial, the series will feature the raucous nights out, first dates, and awkward sexual encounters detailed by journalist, podcaster and columnist Dolly.
But perhaps the most heartwarming scenes come with the dancing as the foursome learn a choreographed routine at home before being let loose on the dancefloor.
“The dancing is something that brings all four girls together,” says Aliyah,
22, who makes her onscreen TV debut.
“That’s the theme that runs through it till the end, if there’s music and there’s communion, that’s when all four girls are right there together. “It’s quite cool that it’s something most female friendships can relate to, that freedom on the dancefloor.” “Aliyah is the real dancer of the group – she’s basically a professional dancer – and we had a choreographer for all the dances and spent a week learning them,” Bel recalls, the four having moved to Manchester for the duration of filming. Her favourite memory is “100% the choreographed dances, learning them and Aliyah
I’d actually read the book because my best friend gave me it – so my Maggie, which I thought was a beautiful thing Everything I Know About Love star Bel Powley
teaching them to us in our apartment and then filming them on set. It was just hilarious, funny, gorgeous and great”.
“I get really emotional watching because there was so much love being put into it and we all have such a connection and all really love each other,” Emma adds.
“Every time I go out with my friends, it’s that connection, the free and joyous feeling of dancing.
“It’s a universal thing of female friendship, dancing and enjoying each other’s company.”
What does the show say about the path of friendship?
“I think it says it’s messy and it’s flawed and it’s beautiful and confusing – because you have these outside influences,” Aliyah says.
“Especially for Maggie and Birdy as their friendship was formed when they were so young, so it’s the idea of how it shapeshifts as you grow, and life changes happen – when you go to uni and have boyfriends and break-ups and that sort of thing.
“It shows the love that remains despite all that confusing stuff that happens.”
“The ups and downs makes them stronger, it’s part of growing together,” says co-star Marli.
“The fights, that’s part of friendship we don’t see a lot. It’s usually portrayed as b **** y or catty, how women fight, but actually it’s healthy in a relationship when you grow together.”
Emma adds: “It shows that although romantic love is amazing, all your relationships are equally as important and that you should feel fulfilled with your friendships, even if you don’t have the romantic relationship.”
As for the trickier subjects in Dolly’s memoir, from drugs to body dysmorphia and heartbreak, the drama tackles those too.
It’s something we have only seen in the past few years on screen, says Emma.
“It’s so important [to be able] to go, ‘OK, I’m not the only one thinking that or doing it.
“So it might open up a discussion, amongst friends when you see it. I think we are seeing a lot more of it, and that comes with the good stuff. Both are true and realistic.”
“I hope we’ve made a show true to the real female experience – women of all ages. Even my mum! She was in her twenties once,” says Bel, who adds that the foursome cherished having “collaborative and really gracious and generous” Dolly every day on set.
“Those themes of love, heartbreak, friendship, sex, and dancing are universal for women and hopefully everyone relates to it.”
Everything I Know About Love starts on BBC1 on Tuesday at 10.40pm