After her memorable stints in Sex Education, Living and The White Lotus, Aimee Lou Wood is back in six-part drama-comedy, Film Club, which has just landed on BBC iPlayer.
The Stockport-born actor, 31, appears in and co-wrote this heartwarming dramady (with a romantic undercurrent) as agoraphobic twentysomething Evie, who suffers with mental illness and can’t leave the walls of her mum’s Manchester home.
To cope and as a creative outlet, Evie hosts a weekly film club in her mum’s garage, which she decorates to reflect whichever flick is that week’s focus, as well as dressing up in costume herself.
One key member of Film Club is Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan), her old University friend who is equally obsessed with films, but disaster strikes when he announces a dream job could take him to Bristol.
There’s also a romantic comedy element to the series, as Evie and Noa are clearly obsessed with each other – but are yet to be honest about their feelings.
Those who have already started on the series, which dropped today, have taken to social media with their praises.
‘Just finished Film Club and it’s exactly why bbc3 is and always will be the best bbc channel, so good,’ said @coombluc on X.
Financial Times gave the series four stars and called it an ‘understated gem’, while Radio Times dubbed it ‘delightful’ yet falling short of being a knock-out personal favourite.
Speaking with The Independent in a recent interview, Aimee revealed she coined the idea in lockdown, when she used films to connect with the outside world.
Co-written with Aimee’s theatre school friend and House of the Dragon star Ralph Davies, the pair wanted a snappy dialogue-heavy romantic comedy in polar opposite to longing, weighted stares in shows popular in 2020 like Normal People.
‘We wanted nerds to fall in love. We wanted to see neurotic, messy people falling in love instead of really cool, silent people,’ Aimee explained.
Elsewhere Suranne Jones departs from her usual robust thriller characters as Evie’s eccentric, pearl-clutching mother Suz, while Adolescence star Owen Cooper also appears as local teen Callum.
In another interview with British Comedy Guide, Aimee explained how she took inspiration for Film Club from one of Matt Haig’s books.
‘He says something along the lines of, “when you lose the plot, you need a plot”; I feel like you can understand your own story and your own life more through characters,’ she said.
Reflecting on whether parts of her are in Evie, Aimee explained: ‘Evie and I are not the same, but there’s a lot about her that very much resonates with me and is an expression of me for sure.
‘It’s more after I’ve watched the series back that I’ve realised how much I was channelling or expressing, even sub-consciously.
‘I think what Film Club represents is that second adolescence in life. There are so many coming of age shows with teenagers, but no one actually comes of age at 16 or 17!
‘The age that I think is harder is the gnarlier twenties – when you still feel like a kid, but at the same time you’re a grown up.’
Film Club is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
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