Big Mood: Q&A with the Team Behind the Series

Channel 4’s brand new audacious comedy series Big Mood, written and created by Camilla Whitehill, is a vivacious and rebellious portrayal of female friendship when infiltrated by the complexities of a serious mental illness.

Best friends Maggie and Eddie played by Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton, Derry Girls) and Lydia West (It’s A Sin, Inside Man) have lived in each other’s pockets for ten years, through thick, thin, and multiple challenging eyebrow trends. But with the rest of their lives looming, careers hanging in the balance, and Maggie’s bipolar disorder making an unwelcome return to form, Eddie begins to question whether this friendship is really in their best interests. It’s a pivotal point in both their lives, bringing to the surface those all-important questions – could sleeping with your former History teacher be the key to happiness? Is a basement Rat Hotel a functional alternative to pest control? With their twenties behind them, Maggie and Eddie’s relationship faces the future – can it survive?

Join WFTV for a conversation with some of the team behind the series, creator and writer Camilla Whitehill, director Rebecca Asher and Commissioning Editor, Comedy at Channel 4, Laura Riseam. Hosted by Ashanti Omkar, the panel will be offering a behind the scenes insight to the making of the series from idea to screen.

Big Mood is available to watch on Channel 4 now.

Panel

Laura Riseam, Commissioning Editor for Comedy, Channel 4

Laura has worked at Channel 4 for 17 years. She began her career at Channel 4 as an assistant in the then Entertainment and Comedy commissioning team. Prior to this, Laura worked in various roles in the production sector. Laura is now Commissioning Editor for Comedy at Channel 4 and commissions scripted comedy, working with high-profile established stars and brand new talent on-and-off screen. Laura has commissioned some of Channel 4’s biggest comedies including the multi award-winning Derry Girls, the critically-acclaimed We Are Lady Parts as well as the ground-breaking comedy series, The Change and most recently Big Mood,  the vivacious and rebellious comedy about the portrayal of female friendship starring Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West. Laura also commissioned Rosie Jones’s first comedy sitcom series titled Disability Benefits and series two of the hugely successful Everyone Else Burns with Simon Bird, both coming soon to Channel 4.

Rebecca Asher, Director

Rebecca Asher started working in television as a script supervisor, hoping it would lead to directing. She script-supervised movies and television shows like Donnie Darko, Anchorman, Knocked Up, Undeclared and Arrested Development. In the third season of Arrested Development Mitchell Hurwitz gave her an episode to direct. From there she’s continued directing on Happy Endings, Raising Hope, Grace and Frankie, Brooklyn 99, The Good Place, This is Us, Shrill, and Dead to Me, among others. Rebecca recently directed Channel 4’s brand new comedy series Big Mood in the UK and upon returning from London she worked on the second season of Unstable and the upcoming Mike Schur show, A Perfect Spy.

Camilla Whitehill, Creator and writer of Big Mood

Camilla Whitehill originally trained as an actor at the Birmingham School of Acting. Although her career was tragically cut short when she realised she hated being looked at, being on stage, and acting. She worked for close to a decade as a fringe theatre writer with little success, and is a graduate of the Channel 4 4Screenwriting Programme. Big Mood is her first TV series.

Host, Ashanti Omkar

Film, TV, culture critic & Broadcaster, Ashanti Omkar is a full BAFTA, BPG & Hollywood Critics' Choice Member, Industry & culture influencer based in Greenwich, London, UK. Seen on BBC TV, ITV, C4 & C5 News, Sky News, heard on BBC Sounds, Times Radio, Monocle Radio, Contributor to TimeOut London, The Guardian, Curator & Programmer for The London Action Festival.

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