Get the party started!
Andi Oliver tells Inside TV how she’s bringing communities together through the power of street parties in a heartwarming new series…
This new series sees Great British Menu’s Andi Oliver celebrate communities by throwing them a huge thank you party. Each episode sees Andi meet local chefs and suppliers to create unique dishes using regional produce. And when it comes to organising, Andi knows just where to begin…
“I start with who the party is for and why we’re doing it,” she affirms. “That’s for the TV and in my life. I used to get people to tell me their favourite colour, holiday, book, that sort of stuff. Then you can piece together a jigsaw of the person to work out what will make them most happy. Then I go to the food, then the music, and then the lighting – that’s very important. I can’t stand terrible lighting!”
While also hearing personal stories and learning the social history of each community, Andi meets up with local performers who will help to bring each event to life…
“Music is a powerful force,” she notes. “It’s like food, in that it’s one of the roots of how we communicate with each other. If you put on a tune that everybody loves, you feel the air shift in the room. So the right music is essential.”
In the Cornwall-based opener, Andi heads to Community Roots, a project which sees myriad volunteers tend to vast vegetable patches – including the very NHS workers she’s setting up a special beach party up for!
“Interestingly, giving up their time brings so much to them,” Andi tells us. “They get so much out of it. And there was one gentleman we met there who’d become widowed, who had never even fried an egg, let alone grown kale! Not only can he now cook and grow his own veg, he’s also made friends. So these projects are incredibly valuable.”
And Andi herself gets a serotonin boost by making others happy, too…
“Oh, my god, I love a party!” she cheers. “And when we’ve pulled it all together, I’m never happier than that. To see people who are so humble about the incredible work they do being celebrated is really, really lovely…”
I start with who the why” party is for, and
Maggie (Nicola Coughlan) and Eddie’s (Lydia West) ride-or-die friendship is tested to the max by the complexities of a serious mental illness in this smart, funny and heartfelt comedy. Inseparable for more than a decade, Eddie and Maggie have stuck fast through the copious ups and downs (and countless questionable life choices) of their 20s, but as Maggie’s bipolar disorder returns while her 30th birthday looms, is her historic bond with an also struggling Eddie futureproof enough to survive?
“Even though the show deals with difficult stuff, it’s a comedy – and that was important to me,” says Nicola. “It’s so brilliantly balanced by how much you have these proper laugh-out-loud moments and then the next scene, you’re crying. It’s about that weird change that happens from your 20s to 30s, when the things you used to get away with that were kind of fun and cute are not any more, and life starts to get that bit more serious.
“Camilla [Whitehill, the series’ writer] has been part of my life for a really long time,” she continues. “The scripts are very much in the vernacular of how her and
I and our friends speak to one another, so it felt very real.”
“I could really associate with both Eddie and Maggie’s characters,” agrees Lydia. “The story is chaotic and hilarious but somehow also devastating and heartbreaking. These are the type of characters I’ve always wanted to sink my teeth into.”
The east-London set six-parter features a cracking cast, including Niamh Cusack as Maggie’s mum Gillian and Sally Phillips as her doctor, Dr Burrows. Joanna Page is also set to make a cameo appearance at Maggie’s surprise Love Actually-themed
fancy-dress birthday party (prompting her admirable octopus costume, pictured above), thrown at the pub Eddie and her brother Jay (Wolf’s Ukweli Roach) inherited from their dad.
“Seeing Big Mood
characters dressed as Love Actually characters just felt bonkers – we just had so
The story is hilarious but somehow also heartbreaking” Lydia
many laughs,” shares Lydia. “Working with Nicola, and so many other amazing actors meant all these genuine friendships formed on set, it was such an amazing place to be in. Everyone was there for a good time and to tell a good story.”
“Honestly, the whole experience was incredible
– I really fell in love with everyone,” Nicola happily continues. “I’m biased, but I genuinely think Big Mood is a brilliant show, I really do. It’s so funny, and I’m so insanely proud of it. It’s the most personally invested I’ve ever been in anything that I’ve ever worked on.”