‘I really hate vanity on screen’

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan talks about Big Mood, a dark comedy about friendship, entering your 30s, and bipolar disorder, on Channel 4 at 10pm on Thursday, March 28.

Maggie and Eddie have been best friends for a decade, staying together through all the challenges of their twenties. Career woes, boy trouble, questionable life choices and wild fashion moments – you name it, they’ve got through it side by side, in each other’s pockets.

But now their thirties are looming, and life’s getting more serious. With their careers – Eddie’s as a Dalston pub owner, Maggie’s as a playwright – both reaching rocky territory and Maggie’s bipolar disorder making an unwelcome return, they’re being forced to take a long, hard look at their codependent friendship and whether it really serves them.

Comedy series Big Mood, starring Bridgerton and Derry Girls’ Nicola Coughlan as Maggie and It’s A Sin and Inside Man’s Lydia West as Eddie, portrays a pivotal moment for this pair of besties. The future’s at their doorstep, and with their friendship under threat by big life decisions and the complexities of dealing with a serious mental illness, questions are being raised about whether their friendship can survive in its current state.

Ahead of the show’s launch, we hear from Irish actress Coughlan, 37, about why she loves this series, her experience of filming the comedy alongside Bridgerton, and portraying female friendship and bipolar disorder.

Darkly funny, emotional and relatable, the series – written by Coughlan’s long-time friend Camilla Whitehill – paints a refreshingly honest picture of female friendship and of severe mental illness across six episodes on Channel 4.

There are truly hilarious lines, a brilliant Love Actually-themed 30th birthday party (including a cameo from Joanna Page), the re-appearance of handsome exes at the worst moments, and even a steamy run-in with an old school teacher, but it’s also got a lot of heart.