BIG-HEARTED ALMA’S A DARK WINNER
Willan THE traumatic past of writer Sophie
comedy in has been turned into a joyous dark BBC2’S Alma’s Not Normal.
Sophie, who also stars, has turned her experiences of being a child in care with an addict mother and later doing sex work into a funny show about class, mental
health and addiction. You instantly love Alma, who wears a furry job interviews and says she’s got no qualifications but has “pizzazz”.
Siobhan Finneran is Alma’s drugaddled, rugarsonist mum; Lorraine
Ashbourne her vodka-drinking nan; and Jayde Adams her best pal. A comedy with unruly women, big issues and great heart.
I CAN’T stop thinking about Help, the care home-set pandemic drama on C4 on Thursday.
It was impossible to look away from Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham’s captivating chemistry in this harrowing two-hour watch.
Jodie was care home assistant Sarah and Stephen was Tony, a 47-year-old resident with
young-onset Alzheimer’s. They formed a beautiful friendship, which remained at the heart of
this powerful drama. It was the scenes that followed Sarah on a night shift in the Covid-ravaged care home that really stuck with me. “No one’s coming,” she told a dying resident as he struggled to breathe.
It brought the care home crisis into sharp focus – they were ill-equipped and abandoned. People kept dying and the staff battled on alone.
It is outrageous this was the reality for so many. This upsetting, important drama is must-see television.