The interactions between women whose children go to the same school are a rich source of black humour – just look at Sharon Horgan’s excruciating sitcom Motherland. Now it’s This Country co-creator and star Daisy May Cooper’s turn to explore the joys and tensions of friendships between mothers in her new BBC series Am I Being Unreasonable? She stars as Nic, who lives in an English village with her nice but disengaged husband and their young son Ollie – profoundly lonely, her isolation is underpinned by a secret she can’t tell anyone. But when she meets Jen (Cooper’s real-life best mate Seline Hizli, who also co-wrote the series), a cool, kind and witty new mum at Ollie’s school, Nic’s ability to suppress the truth is tested.
“It’s a cliche to compare a dark, female-led sitcom to Fleabag, but I don’t think I’ve watched something since that swings so devastatingly between laugh-out-loud comedy and gut-punch heartbreak,” says Stylist contributor Moya Crockett. “Cooper is nothing short of brilliant as Nic: bawdy, fond of reality TV and falling apart inside. Like Fleabag, AIBU? gradually reveals its protagonist’s secret through agonising flashbacks – creating genuinely sinister, thriller-style suspense as you start to question whether Jen can be trusted. But it’s hilarious, too, with a perfectly observed script and not one dud performance (Lenny Rush as Ollie and Juliet Cowan as Nic’s cleaner Viv are particular supporting standouts). A triumph.” 9:50pm tonight, BBC One and BBC iPlayer