Netflix has released the first trailer for its highly anticipated new series One Day, based on David Nicholls's bestselling 2009 book.
Starring Ambika Mod (This Is Going to Hurt) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) as university friends Emma and Dexter, the new 14-part series promises to be a faithful adaptation of Nicholls' original love story, which returned to its protagonists on exactly the same day – July 15, St Swithin’s Day – over a 20 year period.
Twenty years, two people. This is the much loved story of Emma and Dex, told over 14 episodes.
— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) January 8, 2024
One Day, coming to Netflix 8 February. pic.twitter.com/UYPeDcSlW3
"It's one of the great cosmic mysteries," says Mod's Emma as the trailer opens, setting the scene for the upcoming tearjerker. "How is it that someone can go from being a total stranger to being the most important person in your life?"
The trailer then shows scenes of the pair having fun together as students, intercut with snippets of them meeting as they get older, with different jobs and partners facing the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Sometimes they are closer, sometimes even romantically linked; other times they are almost total strangers.
"It’s July 15, 1988 and graduation night for Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew," says Netflix's synopsis. "Although uni’s coming to an end, the two students speak for the very first time that day and go their separate ways the following morning. Where will they be on this one ordinary day the next year, and the year after that, and every year that follows?"
In 2011, Nicholls's award-winning third book was turned into a film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. though it was not a hit with critics or fans of the book.
Hathaway's casting (and her careering Yorkshire accent) were criticised and in some quarters it was deemed too soppy, saccharine and unbelievable. The film still proved a financial success costing $15m to make and raking in $59m worldwide.
Now the story is getting a major update from filmmaker Molly Manners, the director of the second BBC 3 series of In My Skin (2022) and the short film Here Boy (2016). Novelist Nicholls was as an executive producer on the new series.
Mod, 28, is best-known for her leading role in this Is Going To Hurt (2022), the BBC's adaptation of Adam Kay's book, and for featuring in I Hate Suzie Too (2022) the Billie Piper-starring series about an actress whose phone gets hacked. The 27-year-old Leo Woodall also burst onto our screens last year, winning a SAG award for his role in the second series of The White Lotus.
