Such Brave Girls

Such Brave Girls is a British sitcom about a dysfunctional single-parent family created by Kat Sadler for BBC Three. It stars Sadler, with Louise Brealey and Lizzie Davidson. It is directed by Simon Bird and produced by A24 with Various Artists Ltd. The first series ran from 22 November 2023. It was renewed for a second series in May 2024.

Synopsis
Sadler has described the series as being a “family sitcom about trauma”, but that it’s also about “being narcissistic losers who are pathetically obsessed with what people think about us.”

Cast

 * Kat Sadler as Josie Johnson
 * Louise Brealey as Deb Johnson
 * Lizzie Davidson as Billie Johnson
 * Freddie Meredith as Seb
 * Paul Bazely as Dev Wilson
 * Jude Mack as Sid
 * Sam Buchanan as Nicky
 * Carla Woodcock as Bianca
 * Amy Trigg as Claire

Production
The series was created and written by Kat Sadler, who also stars. It is directed by Simon Bird and was produced for Various Artists Ltd and A24 by Catherine Gosling Fuller, with Phil Clarke, Jack Bayles, Piers Wenger and Sadler as executive producers. It was commissioned after a successful 2021 pilot episode.

Sadler appears in the series alongside her real life sister Lizzie Davidson, and they play sisters on the show. Sadler told The Times that Davidson read the drafts and acted as her “sense check … telling me if I’ve gone too mad”. She described their characters of Josie and Billie as “not us, but they are certainly inspired by bits of us … we have taken some of the worst aspects of ourselves”. She said that their own mother had seen it “and laughed in all the right places”.

Bird wrote to Sadler asking to direct the series after watching the 2021 pilot episode, with Sadler and Bird agreeing to keep the series as a comedy rather than veer towards comedy-drama.

A second six-part series was commissioned in May 2024.

Filming
Filming began in May 2023.

Filming took place across Merseyside with filming locations including The Wirral and Knowsley.

Featured Locations

 * Linghams Booksellers, Heswall - Series 1
 * Mini Monster's Funhouse, Gayton - Series 1
 * West Kirby bar “The Wild Inn” - Series 1: episode 2
 * The Mediterranean Kitchen, Higher Bebington - Series 1: Episode 3
 * Wirral Country Park, Thurstaston - Series 1: Episode 4
 * St Michael's Church, Shotwick - Series 1: Episode 4
 * Heswall Hall - Series 1, Episode 5
 * Heswall United Reformed Church, Heswall, Merseyside - Series 1: Episode 6
 * Hooton Hand Car Wash - Series 1: Episode 6

Broadcast
The series started airing in the United Kingdom on BBC Three on 22 November 2023, with all episodes released on BBC iPlayer the same day. It was available in the United States on Hulu from 15 December 2023.

Critical reception
Lucy Mangan in The Guardian described the show as “properly brutal and properly funny”, saying that she found “particular joy in seeing a woman-led, female-written show that doesn’t pull its punches”. She added that it was “brave – singular, fresh, scabrous and unflinching – but still – or, rather, as a result – hilarious.” Steve Bennett for Chortle gave the show four stars commenting that “elements of pure sitcom” combine with an “earthy, nuanced realism of the dysfunctional characters” with Sadler’s “unique comic sensibilities” combining with an “admirable reluctance to take serious issues seriously” which “makes for an impressively different series.”

Accolades
In February 2024, it was nominated in the Best TV Show category at the Chortle Awards. The series was nominated for Best Scripted Comedy and Sadler and Meredith were nominated in the Best Comedy Performance categories at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards. In May 2024, the series won in the scripted comedy category at the 2024 British Academy Television Awards. The series was nominated for Best Comedy at the 2024 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards.