Teenage siblings Tiana and Tionne and their nine-year-old sister Tanika – are determined to stay together, but can they stop the authorities from sticking their nibs in and splitting them up?
Just Act Normal is a six-part comedy drama which has been created and written by Janice Okoh and is based on her award-winning 2011 play Three Birds.
"I wanted to explore how kids would live without a parental figure at home, and how they would survive," says Okoh.
"That was the inspiration for the play, which was funny, but dark and much bleaker. Just Act Normal is still dark, but more madcap-funny. I think it’s very uplifting, joyous and happy."
Although the play was set in South London, the series is based in and around Birmingham and features a host of new characters while some aspects of the story have been fleshed-out and new storylines have been added.
"Episode one is basically the play", adds Janice. "So, I had to come up with the rest of the series, which meant going back to the play and mining what was there to make it into the story, but there was just so much story that I wanted to put in. It was difficult to keep it all to six episodes."
Newcomers Chenée Taylor, Akins Subair and Kaydrah Walker-Wilkie make impressive debuts as the kids in a cast that also includes Vigil’s Romola Garai, Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe, singer and actor Jamelia and The Hardacres’ Adam Little.
Just Act Normal release date
The first two episodes of the six-part series air on BBC3 on Wednesday, April 16 at 9pm.
It will also be available as a box-set on BBC iPlayer from Wednesday, 16 April.
Just Act Normal plot
Tianna and her brother Tionne are teenagers who appear to have been left to fend for themselves, along with their nine-year-old sister Tanika, by their mum Jackie.
But as the story unfolds, we discover that they are hiding a dark and terrible secret…
Determined to stay together as a family, the kids resolve to hide the truth from the authorities and anyone else who tries to stick their beak in.
With Jackie seeming to have gone AWOL, her absence soon causes all sorts of problems for the kids.
With their estranged dad Leo is keen for Jackie to sign their divorce papers, and Tanika’s concerned teacher Miss Jenkins also eager to speak to the kids’ mum, will they be able to stop the truth from coming out?
Luckily, they get some unexpected help from Jackie’s drug dealer Dr Feelgood, and together they enlist the services of ‘Fake Jackie’, who poses as the kids’ mum to appease the concerns of Miss Jenkins.
Just Act Normal - cast
Tiana, Tionne and Tanika are played by newcomers Chenée Taylor, Akins Subair and Kaydrah Walker-Wilkie.
Playing the siblings’ dad Leo is Ivanno Jeremiah, who’s appeared in C4’s AI robot drama Humans, the Netflix supernatural thriller Lockwood & Co and A Discovery of Witches on Sky Max.
Meanwhile, Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe, who’s best known for playing Mercedes McQueen in the C4 soap, plays Leo’s fiancée Candy.
Dr Feelgood is played by Sam Buchanan, whose previous credits include romantic drama My Fault: London on Prime Video and C4 crime thriller Get Millie Black.
Miss Jenkins is played by Romola Garai, the BAFTA-winning actress who’s known for her roles in 1950s newsroom drama The Hour on BBC2 and C4’s historical drama Becoming Elizabeth. She also played Eliza Russell in the second series of BBC1 thriller Vigil.
Also starring are Adam Little, who played Joe Hardacre in Channel 5’s hit saga The Hardacres, as Tiana’s love interest Jamie, while the role of ‘Fake Jackie’ is played by singer and former Hollyoaks star Jamelia, who played Sharon Bailey in the C4 soap.
Just Act Normal – Interview with Jennifer Metcalfe
How would you sum up Just Act Normal?
"It's about three siblings who in a desperate attempt to all stay together, fight through blood, sweat and tears. It's funny, dramatic, heartbreaking and beautiful. When I was sent the scripts, I couldn't wait to read the next episode. I think I read all six in an hour. I was just addicted. It's amazing."
Tell us about your character, Candy…
"She’s the fiancée of Leo (Ivanno Jeremiah), who’s the estranged father of the three children. She's cold, hard-faced and a little bit of a witch! The kids hate her, so she’s the wicked stepmother. They are just an inconvenience to her and she finds them annoying. She'd really rather not have them around because she wants Leo to herself."
In Hollyoaks, Mercedes has quite a bold in-your-face fashion sense. What is Candy’s look like?
"She looks high class, sassy and sexy. It’s the sort of look that says you care about yourself way too much and more than you're ever going to care about anyone else."
How have you found the filming? Is it very different to working on Hollyoaks?
"On Hollyoaks, we’re churning out scenes and moving at a really fast pace. I love that and I think I've adapted really well to learning the scripts so quickly and doing so many scenes. On Just Act Normal, it’s more laidback and there’s more time to digest the scripts and get to know the character, and I enjoy that too. It’s just a very different ball game."
The series has a mostly young cast led by newcomers Chenée Taylor (Tiana), Akins Subair (Tionne) and Kaydrah Walker-Wilkie (Tanika). What was it like working with them?
"For some of them, it’s their first TV job or their first big job, and I'm like, ‘Are you for real?’ Their acting is on a different level. They were amazing and it was an honour to work alongside them. They’re brilliant."
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