Big Mood on Channel 4 takes an amusing look at a friendship that is threatened as one pal struggles with being bipolar. It stars Derry Girls and Bridgerton actress Nicola Coughlan and Inside Man’s Lydia West as best freinds Maggie and Eddie. They’ve been pals for a decade, through thick and thin, but when Maggie’s bipolar disorder makes an unwelcome comeback, Eddie starts to question whether the relationship should come to an end. With their 20s behind them, is it time to move on, alone..?
Here’s everything you need to know about the Channel 4 series Big Mood…
Big Mood release date
Big Mood is a six-part comedy series that goes out in weekly double bills on Channel 4 starting on Thursday March 28 2024 at 10pm and 10.30pm. All episodes are available now as a box set on Channel 4 stream. We'll let you know here which US channel Big Mood comes to plus its international air date.
How to watch Big Mood online and from anywhere
Is there a trailer for Big Mood?
Yes there's a trailer for Big Mood released by Channel which begins with Maggie riding through London on an electric scooter and visiting Eddie in her bar! Do take a look below....
Big Mood plot
Big Mood is set in East London an follows friends Maggie (Nicola Coughlan) and Eddie (Lydia West) who’ve lived in one another’s pockets for 10 years, through ‘multiple eyebrow trends’. Maggie, an aspiring playwright, is buzzing with excitement about returning to her former secondary school to give a talk to the pupils. Meanwhile, Eddie, who runs a bar called Wet Mouth that she’s inherited from her late father, has alarm bells ringing when it becomes clear that Maggie has stopped taking her bipolar medication.
As the rest of their lives loom and their careers struggle, Maggie’s bipolar disorder returns with a vengeance. This brings them both to ponder life’s big questions, including whether sleeping with your former history teacher is a good idea, whether a rat hotel in the basement is a sound choice and whether their friendship can withstand mental illness.
Niamh Cusack (The Tower 2) plays Maggie’s mother and Joanna Page who guest stars as herself in episode two when Eddie throws a Love Actually-themed party for Maggie’s 30th birthday and Page, who starred in the 2003 movie, is the special guest.
Big Mood cast — Nicola Coughlan on playing Maggie
Nicola Coughlan plays Maggie, a young woman battling mental health issues.
She says: "Maggie and Eddie realising that stuff that was fine in their 20s really isn’t flying any more and they can no longer get away with it. Maggie, who is bipolar, is particularly struggling to manage her mental health. Getting a diagnosis is one thing but actually learning how to manage it is a lot more complicated. Maggie has convinced herself that her old history teacher, Mr Wilson [Tim Downie], is the love of her life. She wants to go back and hook up with him.
"I think Maggie and Eddie truly love each other, but I think it can often happen in a dynamic where two people are not actually doing the best by one another, they’ve fallen into a pattern of behaving and treating one another and that's actually not benefiting either, but it's difficult because they have a real love and respect for one another. I spoke to Camilla about it a lot, everyone else in their lives is kind of incidental because you see Maggie have these moments with men but it's not really important to her. Eddie is centre of her universe, she doesn't have a mega close relationship with her mum and definitely doesn't have one with her dad but Eddie is everything to her. It shows how dangerous it is to put every pressure in your life and every hope and every dream onto one single person, it’s a dangerous thing even if you truly love someone because there's a chance that at one point or another one of you is not going to be able to give that back to that person.
"In episode 2, the pair throw a Love Actually themed party (see picture above), which Joanna Page turns up to as herself. "Having everyone dressed as Love Actually characters was so much fun. Niamh was dressed as Martine McCutcheon’s character,’ says Nicola. "We had a great time, though I have a terrible rat phobia and unfortunately rats end up featuring quite heavily at the party. Eddie has a rodent problem in her basement and has created a 'rat hotel' rather than get an exterminator. Unfortunately, they escape in the middle of the party and Maggie ends up holding one!
"I think Maggie is so different to me in so many ways. I've never played a character like her before, someone that has so little self-doubt, I often play quite bookish characters and people that stand in the background and Maggie is front and centre. It was really liberating to play her because there were scenes in which I was like, ‘I would never do this’, she’s so bold and so front footed. I loved playing her."
* Nicola Coughlan is a familiar face on our screens thanks to her roles as Clare Devlin in Derry Girls and Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton. Nicola has also starred in the Barbie movie and Harlots. She voiced the Playroom Fairy in the Apple TV Plus movie The Velveteen Rabbit.
Lydia West on playing Eddie in Big Mood
Lydia West plays Maggie’s best friend, Eddie, who is close by as her pal struggles with mental illness.
Lydia explains: "Eddie is in her 30’s, living in London, she’s taken over her dad's bar who recently passed away and is best friends with Maggie. Eddie is going through her own kind of things with managing her anger and bad relationships - toxic relationships with men. Maggie has bipolar disorder and is trying to deal with these mental health issues. Eddie’s issues are almost overshadowed by Maggie’s. She's trying to be there for her and support her through her stuff, but it means all of Eddie’s issues go under the radar and aren’t really discussed. She's not good at talking about what she needs until much later in the series. She's trying to make it work, living in London, not much money, not much idea of what she wants to be or do, and she has this love story with Maggie who is her best friend. They have very similar interests. They really are each other's rock.
"They have a complicated friendship. Eddie is like Maggie’s safety blanket, she’s the care-giver, but Eddie’s got her own issues with self-worth and self-esteem. The two of them are very co-dependent. This is like a platonic love story. What happens when you’ve gone through a traumatic time in your 20s and come out of it. What’s next?
"Eddie is very different from me, but I can understand that part of living in London in your 30s, for me, it was a bit younger, but trying to find the right friendship group, trying to find your click and find your people and realise what you want. It was a lot about going out, drinking, dating men, I think I could have related to her in the past for that. What I found challenging and exciting was playing how angry Eddie is and how grief is affecting her."
* Lydia West stole our hearts playing Jill Baxter in the smash hit series It’s A Sin. She’s also had roles in Years and Years, Dracula, Suspicion, Gray, Inside Man and the movies Love Again, Coffee Wars and People You May Know.
Who else is starring in Big Mood?
Big Mood also stars Sally Phillips as a medical professional (see pictured below), Niamh Cusack as Maggie’s mother, Joanna Page guest stars as herself (see more on that above) and Tim Downie is playing Maggie's former history teacher Mr Wilson who she has a big crush on. Kate Fleetwood, Ukweli Roach, Robert Gilbert and Eamon Farren also star.
Behind the scenes and more on Big Mood
Big Mood is produced by Fremantle’s Dancing Ledge Productions and written by Camilla Whitehill. It was directed by Rebecca Asher (Dead to Me, Brooklyn Nine Nine), executive produced by Lotte Beasley Mestriner (The Young Offenders) and produced by Georgie Fallon (The Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies). Laurence Bowen (The Salisbury Poisonings, The Responder) and Chris Carey (Crossfire, Wedding Season) executive produce for Dancing Ledge Productions. The casting director is Lauren Evans (Sex Education).
Fremantle will handle global distribution for the series. Big Mood was commissioned for Channel 4 by Commissioning Editor, Laura Riseam.
