Sex Education superstar Aimee Lou Wood's first TV writing project, Film Club, references a vagina's “flaps” within the first five minutes.
When her on-screen sister Izzie (Liv Hill) asks her for a tampon, she hands her a super-plus-sized one. She is immediately teased for having “giant flaps”, and responds with a dramatic “I've got massive, wizened, 28-year-old flaps”, rather reminiscent of her Sex Education character Aimee's graphic comedic flair.
When I sit down with Aimee and her on-screen mum, Hostage star Suranne Jones, I point out the parallels between the series' opening lines and the series that made her a star. Aimee doesn't disagree with me.
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Film Club is, though, a far cry from Sex Education in terms of plot. Aimee co-wrote it with her drama school pal, House of the Dragon star Ralph Davies, teaming back up with director Catherine Morshead after working with her on BBC's Daddy Issues, where she plays a hedonistic woman grappling with an accidental pregnancy and a hapless dad.
Her screenwriting debut sees her play Evie, a woman recovering from a mental health crisis. She throws a film club every Friday night at 9pm in her garage with her friend Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan), decorating the space to match the film of the week, from Wizard of Oz to The Shawshank Redemption. But when Noa gets a new job and prepares to move away, the pair must navigate what they really mean to each other.
“It's so much more raw, it's a very vulnerable feeling," Aimee describes to GLAMOUR the feeling of writing your own TV scripts. "Not to be graphic, it's like your skin's been peeled off, and everyone's just walking around, prodding your vein. It’s just a lot. It costs more, [especially] when it's your words. That's why it's lovely to co-write… the next thing I'll probably do by myself, but it was so nice having Ralph, because it meant that you share some of that vulnerability. But it was amazing.
“I will never, ever, ever, not be so grateful for the magic feeling of hearing these incredible actors say [my words]," she continued. "I couldn't believe that Suranne Jones was saying some of the daftest lines… I would write things and think, ‘what would really make me laugh to hear her saying?’, and then they were being said. That was just magical.”
While it may be a romcom series, Film Club definitely doesn't have your average romantic comedy blueprint. It's romantic, sure, and it's funny – but it also grapples with some seriously awkward protagonists, Aimee's Evie and Noa, their means of communicating their feelings through movie quotes. It's quirky, and very cute.
Aimee was drawn to telling a romantic story 1980s style, not attracted to the “yearning” era we seem to be in right now with shows such as The Summer I Turned Pretty. “I like the classic rom coms,” Aimee says. “You know, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, the classic, get nostalgic, cozy vibes. With chatterbox characters, rather than, the simmering looking into each other's eyes.”
“My favourite romcom is Broadcast News, which isn't really a romcom,” she explains. “My favourite romcoms are always kind of not romcoms. I think you use that as the vehicle, but you can then it allows you to explore.”
We meet Evie as she navigates her way through a mental breakdown of sorts at the end of her 20s, questioning what's next for her when she's unable to step outside her driveway and into the world. Her film club in the garage is a refuge, but Noa's imminent departure forces her to face up to her next chapter. “Evie doesn't know what her plot is, she doesn't know what her story is, and she's obsessed with other people's stories and movies,” Aimee says. “Life isn't a film and there isn't a script and you don't know what's going to happen next. Everyone's doing life for the first time and you don't know what's coming. And I think it was very important to me to explore that.”
She has also opened about her parallels with her character, in terms of both of them discovering their neurodivergence. Aimee has revealed that she was diagnosed with ADHD and autistic traits earlier this year, and her writing of Evie was a conversation with herself, in a way. “Basically, it’s about a girl who’s working out she’s autistic, and I didn’t know that about myself when I was writing it,” she told Radio Times previously. "It was all subconscious.”
Suranne plays Suz, a classic Northern mam who is feeling “the pressure” to protect and heal her daughter's mental illness, while batting away at the social stigma she feels. “Being a mum myself, I don't know what I'm doing half the time,” she tells GLAMOUR. “I think Suz hasn't sorted her own stuff out, but all she wants is for [life] to be nice and to be a good mum.”
Aimee wrote the role of Suz for one person only. “I wrote those words with Suranne's voice in my head,” she said, adding on cultivating their mother-daughter dynamic: "I do feel a bit like we never really had to meet because we just knew each other straight away… The first time hearing Suranne say these words that I'd written so long ago, but then they were coming out of her mouth and it was exactly what I'd imagined, but even better.”
“Your personality comes through,” Suranne says. “Your writing is so beautiful.” Aimee describes the message of the show as “100% nostalgic”. “It’s so comforting,” she says. “That was part of what me and Ralph wanted to do was bring back the kind of neurotic, talkative characters.”
GLAMOUR's chat with Aimee and Suranne spanned our much-loved Friendship Test, as well as what it means to them to film the story in the North of England and what they learned from working together.
What did it mean to you both for the series to be set up North, when the industry can be so London-centric?
Aimee: It's home, isn't it? Just speaking in our own voices and being in that world, it's just so close to the heart.
Suranne: It was literally like getting into a warm bath… It made me feel very nostalgic. Just hearing that accent, and obviously all my family's up there, it just felt warm.
Suranne, how did playing Suz compare to playing the Prime Minister in Hostage?
Suranne: I'd just done Hostage when I came to do Film Club. For me, it was brilliant, because [in Hostage] Abigail has to be held together. Susie's the opposite of held together. She's just a big ball of love, gets everything wrong and tries her hardest – and is just like a whirlwind. So it was brilliant. I loved it.
Aimee, what is Suranne's favourite film?
Aimee: I remember talking about August: Osage County at one point.
Suranne: Yeah, love.
Aimee: Yeah, I remember. What would be a quote from that?
Suranne: I don't know. But my other one that you just found out is Wizard of Oz.
Aimee: Oh, of course. Wizard of Oz is what got Suranne into acting. That's what inspired her.
Suranne, who would play Aimee in her biopic?
Suranne: It would have to be… God, no one's at the right age, but it would have to be like a Bella Ramsey or a Florence Pugh or Anya Taylor-Joy. It's got to be someone that's kooky, intelligent, fun, beautiful with a dark side.
Aimee: I wish that we could time travel and Shelley Duvall would play me, but she's died.
Suranne: Or Diane Keaton.
Aimee, what surprised you most about working with Suranne on this series?
Aimee: She's the most open person. It's the most beautiful quality, because she makes everyone feel so comfy with themselves. Within five minutes, you just want to tell her everything. I did and we did. It's incredible because you just wear your heart on your sleeve, and you're so honest about who you are, about everything, that it makes everyone else match that energy. So everyone just feels so free, because no one's having to try or pretend to be anything that they're not.
Film Club is available to watch on BBC Three, BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
