Daisy May Cooper on her new comedy, her marriage breakdown and Emmy dreams

Daisy May Cooper says, "It’s about friendships and how they can turn toxic. On paper Nic seems to have a brilliant life. She doesn’t really need to work, she’s got a funny husband, a great relationship with her son Ollie, a lovely house but she is still feeling completely lost. She’s lacking any meaningful connection and then Jen rocks up into her life and it’s like some sort of romance begins."

"I’m going to talk openly here and say I was having a tough time in lockdown. My marriage (to husband Will Weston) was starting to implode, I was at home with the kids, I was miserable and Selin, who's been a friend since we met at drama school was going through a similar thing. We got back in touch and thought wouldn’t it be great to write something that started off with a kind of Mumsnet post saying, “I’m really unhappy in my marriage.’” 

"I remember my husband got me to do this neonatal class with a load of women I just had nothing in common with. All they wanted to do was talk about weaning their kids off milk and mashing up avocados. I was desperate because I was struggling and I just wanted to see the cracks in somebody else so I could go, ‘Me too! I feel rubbish and I’ve completely lost my sense of self!’ "

"In the show Nic and Jen are drawn to each other like moths to a flame because they’re both equally damaged. You realise everyone is putting on a front and in fact everyone is struggling."

"Too right! I’d be devastated if it was a success and somebody else was playing me. I don’t know how Phoebe Waller-Bridge gave that part in Killing Eve to someone else (actor Jodie Comer played the lead, Villanelle). I’d be so resentful!"

"I hated Selin to start with. She had got into RADA when she was 18 whereas it had taken me a few years. At first I thought, ‘She can’t be my friend because I’m the funny working class one in this group. She can’t replace me!’  But she was the only person who made me laugh so much. She’s what got me through drama school." 

"I’ve got to be honest and say kid actors are very hit and miss. It’s not their fault but when we got sent a video that Lenny had done, he just blew us all away. He’s such an extraordinary talent and the improvising he did in some scenes was amazing."

"My daughter, who is only four, came to watch us film one day and was devastated Lenny was playing my son and spending more time with me than she was. She’s too young to understand. She thinks mummy just wears silly clothes and prances about."

"Yes, a big part of our writing process was ruling things out. We’d be like, ‘So what would people be expecting to happen next?’ and then we’d say, ‘Right, we can’t have that then!’ We wanted to make it genre-less. Writers  like Michaela Cole and Phoebe Waller-Bridge are massive inspirations to us. I want the States to be interested in this. I’ve got a BAFTA, now I want to get an Emmy!"