Alma's Not Normal
Alma's Not Normal is a British sitcom first broadcast as a pilot episode on BBC Two in April 2020. The series follows the eponymous Alma, from Bolton, as she tries to give her life meaning and the "fabulous" outcome she has always dreamed of, while coping with the strained relationships of her family that saw her spend time in care, something else which she is trying to reconcile. The series is written by and stars Sophie Willan and is inspired by her own experiences of the care system. Willan won the 2021 BAFTA Television award for best comedy writer for the pilot episode. A full six episode series was commissioned for broadcast in 2021. A second series was commissioned in 2022. Background Willan wrote the first draft around 2014 on the back of the austerity measures of the Cameron Government, that Willan says "felt really negative for welfare recipients, mental health [care] and social services recipients – people like my mother, people who’ve had difficulties." As Laura Minor argues, "Alma's Not Normal provides commentary on the gendered and classed impacts of austerity in the North." Willan won the BBC's Caroline Aherne Bursary in 2017 which awarded her £5000 to develop her ideas along with mentorship from the BBC's Comedy Commissioning Editor, Kate Daughton, to develop a script. The script was performed as a rehearsed reading in front of an invited audience including Controller of BBC Two, Patrick Holland. Willan was given a commission for a pilot on the spot. Wilan wrote the script for the first series of the show during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cast and characters Sophie Willan as Alma Nuthall – Alma is a working-class aspiring actress in her thirties who has recently been through a break-up. She spent some of her childhood in care and works as an escort, having left school without qualifications. Jayde Adams as Leanne, Alma's confident and sexually promiscuous best friend and main confidant of the series. Alma describes Leanne as having the “raw sex appeal of Debbie Harry but the mannerisms of a truck driver.” Siobhan Finneran as Lin Nuthall – Alma's mother Lin struggles with mental health issues and a heroin addiction that meant she was unable to look after Alma during childhood, and she has a troubled relationship with Alma in adulthood. Lorraine Ashbourne as Joan Nuthall – Joan is Lin's mother and Alma's grandmother. She raised Alma as a child when Lin was unable to. Alma regularly visits Joan as an adult. James Baxter as Anthony, Alma's ex-boyfriend. Maizie Wickson as Young Alma Nicholas Asbury as Jim Dave Johns as Bill Katie Redford as Jane Dave Spikey as Ian, a drama teacher Sue Vincent as Trish Episodes Pilot (2020) Series 1 (2021) Episode one is the pilot episode, renamed as Feng Suey. Reception In her four star review of the pilot episode broadcast in 2020, Lucy Mangan in The Guardian praised the fine cast and the "swiftly and surely drawn characters" and commented on the episode's "emotional undertow, that,