Spoilers for One Day incoming.
One Day is sublime television. The new 14-part Netflix series starring Ambika Mod (This is Going to Hurt) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) based on David Nicholls' best-selling 2009 book has the unique power of being both gloriously nostalgic, while also potently current. Nostalgic because the brilliant BAFTA-winning director, Molly Manners (In My Skin 2), has spared zero attention to detail when evocatively recreating the late eighties, nineties and early noughties (Kettle Chips! a Nokia 3410! Cool Water aftershave! Sony Walkmans!) And potently current because of the recasting of the lead role of Emma, previously portrayed as a white woman, with the exceptional Ambika Mod. Add to that its Saltburn-esque visuals (that opening party scene at Edinburgh Uni), Saltburn-esque commentary on the British class system, a banging soundtrack and two standout performances from two of the hottest young British actors of the moment and it really does have all the ingredients to be one of the zeitgeist defining cultural moments of the year. 2024's very own Normal People, if you will, but without lockdown and - if you can imagine it - even bigger, thanks to its global Netflix release.
One Day is sublime television not just because the plot so exquisitely portrays the great, 20-year love story of Emma and Dexter, but it also conveys so much more than that; the passing of two lives over 20 years and all that comes with that.
As Ambika Mod perfectly surmises in an interview with GLAMOUR this week, “It’s about life. Every element of life is conveyed in this story by these characters. It's much more telling about friendship, and growing up and about how life doesn't turn out how we expect it to. [It’s about] the rejection, the failure and the heartache, but also the incomparable joys that come with growing up and growing older, and how we become more competent and more, I suppose, secure in ourselves, the experiences we have and how they shape us.”
She also talks to the importance of representation and her portrayal of Emma.
“In terms of the symbolism of a brown woman playing a romantic lead, especially one in such a beloved story and Emma is such a beloved character and one who was definitely, originally written as white and previously played by a white actress, I’m really excited to bring something new to the role and I hope that young women who don’t see themselves on screen that often see that it’s possible,” she says.
As One Day drops on Netflix, she talks representation in rom-coms and the sticky subject of privilege.
And while the dialogue doesn't ever explicitly engage with their different heritage backgrounds, aside from a clumsy Dexter enquiring after their first encounter, as to whether the reason Emma chose not to sleep with him (something he is clearly not used to) is ‘a religious thing’? To which Emma delivers the first of her many, pithy one-liners: “Well my Mum is Hindu and my Dad is a lapsed Roman Catholic, so, no God wasn't involved" representation in the wider casting is also at the forefront.
For those coming in blind to One Day, who haven't read the book (and if not, do so immediately) or not seen the 2011 film remake starring Anne Hathaway (don't be in as much of a hurry to consume that one) the premise is simple: the story of Emma and Dexter who meet at their graduation ball at Edinburgh University on 15 July 1988 as told over the next twenty years on the same day every year. It's a simple, yet smart plot device that immediately lends itself to a TV show over a film. The date also offers ample opportunity for gorgeously sun-drenched settings from Primrose Hill to Paris.
Emma and Dexter are an unlikely pair from both ends of the class spectrum, which is something that is explored with much more rigour, depth and significance in this series. He is a privileged, pampered, wayward, but oh-so-deliciously handsome and charming toff; she, a bookish, passionately political English graduate from Leeds with ambitions to make a difference in the world with zero tolerance for the likes of Dexter. But they both fascinate each other from the start. However, I remember thinking when I first read the book, that at times they were perhaps just too different to sustain a plausible 20-year fascination and that their relationship didn't have enough substance to command the reader's engagement. And in the first few episodes of this new 2024 series, I had similar reservations.
The much-awaited series drops this week.
Emma's relentless mocking of Dexter seems laboured and there's not enough developed early on as to why this man who clearly has a fragile ego and who can clearly have any woman he wants, would keep coming back for more of Emma's imperious attacks. Equally, aside from Dexter's physical good looks (prepare for Leo Woodall to go full Paul Mescal on the world) and posh boy charm straight from the cannon of Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral right up to Jacob Elordi in Saltburn (yes, I am labouring the comparisons), he just doesn't seem to have enough about him to keep the brilliantly bright Emma interested. She clearly thinks he's a dick, which he is, especially when he becomes a B-list famous, coke and booze-addled TV presenter.
But then Emma doesn't seem to like men in general for the first few episodes, and her equally relentless mocking of her Mexican restaurant colleague, the wonderfully David Brent-esque Ian, played by Jonny Weldon, is just as barbed as her mocking of Dexter, but for very different reasons. (Special shout out should go to Ambika's withering, eye-rolling, contemptuous facial expressions. They will be memed.) Yet both Dexter and Ian always come back wanting more.
However, it's by the time we find ourselves in dreamy Greece in episode 4, on Dex and Em's platonic holiday, that we truly understand the very real sexual tensions driving this connection - yet, Dexter, once again, proves to be a dick. It's not until episode 7 and their monumental drunken fight at the Pacific Bar - which if you remember the 90's simply HAS to be a reference to the legendary Piccadilly haunt, Titanic Bar - that the real meat on the bones of the relationship is uncovered.
From then on in, the story seems to gather real momentum and as we whirl through weddings, babies, break-ups and bad decisions the show really grabs you in a chokehold of emotions.
The writing really holds the piece and I noticed that the phrase ‘One Day’ is often woven into the dialogue, which is a lovely touch. But it was by the time that Emma was quoting Dickens from Great Expectations, and then the significance of that penultimate episode, that I was in pieces: “Imagine one selected day struck out of your life and imagine how different its course would have been. Think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold; of thorns, of flowers that would never have bound you, but for the formation of that memorable day.”
One Day is streaming now on Netflix.
