More surprises in Am I Being Unreasonable?

What would you say if you could work on a brilliant project with your best friend?

If you’re real-life BFFs Selin Hizli and Daisy May Cooper, you jump at the chance, and this darkly comic thriller, executive-produced by His Dark Materials’ Jack Thorne, is the result.

Daisy explains: “I always wanted to write something with Selin because I think she’s the most talented person I’ve ever met, I mean second to me. I am massively talented but there’s nobody on this planet who makes me laugh like her.”

She said the idea behind the series first surfaced in a phone conversation during lockdown about doing a show that was “based on female friendships, toxic friendships and how many toxic friendships I’ve had in my life”.

So, what’s the story behind Am I Being Unreasonable? Daisy plays Nic, an unfulfilled woman who is “stuck in this rut of going through the motions: getting her son to school, chatting to her husband after work. Everything is sort of a bit grey for her”.

Then, into her life walks Jen (Selin), and suddenly her world is turned upside down. Selin says: “It’s almost like a love story between them. When you have a friend you make a connection with, you just fall head over heels in love with each other.”

This week, Nic launches a hunt for her missing coat after a strange dream, but instead makes a shocking discovery in Ollie’s bedroom.

Things get really weird when she sees Jen wearing her coat, leading to an ugly, very public confrontation at the school gates, and more nasty surprises lie in store.

When asked what drew these women together, Daisy replies: “They’ve got very masculine energies like Selin and I have. They are both very funny, they are both extremely vulnerable and not afraid to admit that.”

Selin chimes in: “There’s an honesty I think that really draws them together because that’s the thing. They’ll make a joke about themselves before anyone else can get in there, so they can make it and judge themselves.

“I think that especially when there’s kids involved, it’s so easy to get so worked up about what people are thinking about how you’re parenting your child. When you find a parent that doesn’t care in the same way that you don’t care about certain things, it’s really attractive.”

Am I Being Unreasonable? includes improvised scenes, something both leading women thought was important.

“That is real life,” says Daisy. “You talk over each other, it makes you react. When you say the same lines over and over again the scene can become stale and you know what that person is going to say.”

Selin adds: “I think for the other actors in it as well, we’re not writing something and then it’s like a test to see if someone can do what we’ve imagined in our head. We want people to own it and bring their own experiences and their own lives to it.

“Then that’s when it’s truthful and that’s when it’s real and that’s when you get those surprises. You get those exciting moments that we might not have thought of if we just said those lines.”