Alma's Not Normal is a British sitcom first broadcast as a pilot episode on BBC Two in April 2020. The series follows the eponymous Alma, from Bolton, as she tries to give her life meaning and the "fabulous" outcome she has always dreamed of, while coping with the strained relationships of her family that saw her spend time in care, something else which she is trying to reconcile. The series is written by and stars Sophie Willan, and is inspired by her own experiences of the care system.
Willan won the 2021 BAFTA Television award for best comedy writer for the pilot episode.[1] A full six episode series was commissioned for broadcast in 2021. A second series was commissioned in 2022,[2] which premiered on 7 October 2024.[3]
Willan has hinted that series 2 will be the last, stating that the final episode is a wrap up of Alma's story.
Background
Willan wrote the first draft around 2014 on the back of the austerity measures of the Cameron Government, that Willan says "felt really negative for welfare recipients, mental health [care] and social services recipients – people like my mother, people who’ve had difficulties."[1] As Laura Minor argues, "Alma's Not Normal provides commentary on the gendered and classed impacts of austerity in the North."[4]
Willan won the BBC's Caroline Aherne Bursary in 2017 which awarded her £5,000 to develop her ideas along with mentorship from the BBC's Comedy Commissioning Editor, Kate Daughton, to develop a script.[5] The script was performed as a rehearsed reading in front of an invited audience including Controller of BBC Two, Patrick Holland. Willan was given a commission for a pilot on the spot.[6] Willan wrote the script for the first series of the show during the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Cast and characters
Sophie Willan as Alma Nuthall: Alma is a working-class aspiring actress in her thirties who has recently been through a break-up. She spent some of her childhood in care and works as an escort, having left school without qualifications
Jayde Adams as Leanne, Alma's confident and sexually promiscuous best friend from Bristol and main confidant of the series. Alma describes Leanne as having the “raw sex appeal of Debbie Harry but the mannerisms of a truck driver.”
Siobhan Finneran as Lin Nuthall: Alma's mother. Lin struggles with mental health issues and a heroin addiction that meant she was unable to look after Alma during childhood, and she has a troubled relationship with Alma in adulthood.
Lorraine Ashbourne as Joan Nuthall: Joan is Lin's mother and Alma's grandmother. She raised Alma as a child when Lin was unable to. Alma regularly visits Joan as an adult.
James Baxter as Anthony, Alma's ex-boyfriend (Series 1)
Alma cycles to a job centre where she wishes to seek employment but is specific about the type of job she wants to do. Carol the job centre worker forces her to apply for sandwich shop Sub'N'Go but Alma is less than keen. Alma visits her friend Leanne at the cafe to discuss her ex-boyfriend Anthony owing her money and leaving her for a younger girlfriend. Alma plans to visit Anthony to get money off him but they end up having sex. Alma visits her heroin addict mum Lin and convinces her grandmother Joan to reconnect with her after five years. Alma decides to apply for an escort agency.
2
2
"Ruby"
Andrew Chaplin
Sophie Willan
13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)
20 September 2021
N/A
Alma's job at Sub'n'Go doesn't work out and she begins work as an escort.
3
3
"The Richard Gere"
Andrew Chaplin
Sophie Willan
13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)
27 September 2021
N/A
Alma attempts to reconcile Lin and Joan at an upmarket restaurant.
4
4
"Boom and Bust"
Andrew Chaplin
Sophie Willan
13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)
4 October 2021
N/A
Joan reluctantly lets Lin move back in with her as her section has ended.
5
5
"On Record"
Andrew Chaplin
Sophie Willan
13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)
11 October 2021
N/A
Alma receives her care records from the council, and wins an acting part after a successful audition.
6
6
"Sticking With You"
Andrew Chaplin
Sophie Willan
13 September 2021 (2021-09-13)
18 October 2021
N/A
Lin runs away from Joan and Alma and back to heroin. Alma decides to follow her dreams as an actress.
In her four star review of the pilot episode broadcast in 2020, Lucy Mangan in The Guardian praised the fine cast and the "swiftly and surely drawn characters" and commented on the episode's "emotional undertow, that, with perfect timing, surfaces to punch the viewer in the stomach and leave them breathless with sorrow". The episode was summed up as a bleak, brilliant comedy that was far from ordinary.[9]
Writing in Chortle, Steve Bennett praised the episode for the way that it introduced "a cast of intriguing, sympathetic characters we’d like to hear more from" praising them for being "complex, authentic people portrayed in a way we don’t usually see on television". He praised the "universally strong performances" of the cast and the humanity of the characters bringing lightness to what could have been a bleak set of subject matter.[10]
Ben Dowell of The Times said, ‘Willan's writing is skilled and clearly very personal...uplifting and strangely enchanting’.[12]
Awards
In April 2021, Willan won the Comedy Writer BAFTA for the pilot episode.[13] The 2021 series won the award for best comedy programme at the Royal Television Society North West Awards.[14]
