Putting on a brave face: Kat Sadler tells us about season two of ‘Such Brave Girls’

July sees the arrival of series two of Such Brave Girls, the deliciously dark comedy that came from the mind and experiences of Kat Sadler. It follows the dysfunctional Johnson family, who make their problems worse through their own self-sabotage. Sadler plays Jodie, a continually spiralling daughter whose trauma has become her personality. Lizzie Davidson plays her sister Billie, who goes to extreme lengths to keep her on-off boyfriend; while Louise Brealey is their nightmare mother Deb, who teaches them to push down their feelings and go along with whatever money saving scheme she’s cooking.

Series one was irreverent, shocking, and very funny. The twisted sitcom is now also a BAFTA winner, with Sadler taking home the Best Scripted Comedy and Emerging Talent awards last year. It’s the one time during our conversation that the cheerful writer’s smile threatens to fade. “Have you seen the clip of us winning?” she asks, wincing slightly. “You can tell my soul has just left my body. I remember thinking ‘I have the distance from the chair to the stage to think of something to say’”. 

While being delighted at the idea that the show has “found people who get it”, she admits the success created some pressure for the second series. “I have them by my bed, the BAFTAs, and they watch me while I sleep” she says with a chuckle. “I think, ‘oh my God, how am I going to try and make something that’s the same or if not better’, because obviously you always want to be better as a writer”.

Conversely, it has also emboldened her for the series’ return. “It’s made me feel like I can go even further,” she says, “I can turn the dial up even more and it’s made me feel more excited and like maybe a bit more confident”. Coming from a place where she admits she didn’t let herself think about a second series, she’s now excited to show people where the Johnson girls can go next.

“I’ve given Billie, Josie and Deb worse challenges to face” she beams, although some things will always stay the same. “I always want to keep the stress of money in the house” she explains. “At the forefront of the story is this backdrop of this debt and money. So, I’ve carried that through”.

The validation has created an understanding with the BBC, who show the series in the UK, and US network Hulu. “There was definitely fear (at first)” she explains of the show that tackles the risky topics of abortion, death, and mental illness. “(But now) I think that people are more trusting that our audience understands where we’re coming from, and why we can make the jokes that we make, and they go along with our story”.

While heightened fiction, the show and its characters were inspired by Sadler’s own issues with mental health, as well as her real-life sister Davidson’s troubles with money during lockdown. Given it came from such a personal space, she admits to being surprised at how strongly fans have related, and to what plot points. 

“There are some things where it knocked me sideways a little bit that people have connected with, because there’s some things that I put that I thought maybe might just be a me thing” she explains, pointing to a subplot in series one where the closeted Josie makes a ‘sex pact’ with her boyfriend Seb (Freddie Meredith) to avoid sleeping with him. 

“I have had messages about people being like, ‘oh my God, I totally have been through the same experience’” she recalls. “That’s been fascinating to hear about. Josie feels all this pressure to have sex with him, and the kind of themes that I run through with that character, they have resonated with a lot of people”.

While the reception has been unexpected, Sadler admits to having big plans for the future. “I’ve got a few things, I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about any of them” she laughs. “I’m thinking about trying to make something in a bigger scale somewhere. I started writing a film that I’m working on. But the show takes up a big chunk of the year. So, I guess I don’t know what next, but it’s exciting to think about”.

Finally, the character of Josie Johnson was born from a different time in Kat Sadler’s life. Several years and victories later, how does the writer feel about her creation now? “I have really taken the worst bits of my perception of myself and put them on screen so it is hard” she replies, “but I do find more sympathy for her now. I look back through diaries and blogs and stuff and it is nice to stand as the writer and look at my past self, who I’ve drawn a lot of experience from, and try and help myself grow I suppose”.

Season Two of Such Brave Girls airs from July 3 on BBC.