‘No,” says Rosie Jones with a laugh. “I have never done any drug-related illegal activity, believe it or not. But I respect your attempt to try to get me to reveal I am an underground drug dealer. Sorry – not the world I live in!”
We’re having this conversation because Pushers, the comedian and actor’s new series about a disabled woman who turns to drug dealing when her benefits are stopped, kicks off this week on Channel 4. Jones wrote the script and stars as the main character, Emily. How much of it is influenced by her own life? There are, undoubtedly, similarities. “From the very beginning,” Jones says, referring to when she originally came up with the idea, back in 2018, “we knew my character would be northern, working class and disabled.” That was important for two reasons: firstly, Jones’s favourite sitcoms growing up all featured “gritty” northern characters; and secondly, those sitcoms lacked any representation of disability.
