Our cultural landscape is filled with sequels, remakes and attempts to squeeze every last drop out of established IP. So the prospect of a TV series based on David Nicholls’ 2009 weepy romance One Day was not the most exciting prospect. Not least because the novel had already been adapted for the screen, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in 2011, and had been met with decidedly mixed reviews.
But Netflix’s witty and heartstoppingly romantic series proved to be one of the year’s best and most moving shows. In lesser hands, the format could have come across as gimmicky – given its charting of two decades of the relationship of privileged cad Dexter (Leo Woodall) and working-class artistically inclined Emma (a star-making turn from the delightful Ambika Mod), with each episode set a year apart on 15 July, starting in 1988 when the two met at the University of Edinburgh. But with the team behind it including Nicholls and Three Girls’ Nicole Taylor, the material was handled with such care that the frequent needle drops on hits by the Verve, N-Trance and Cornershop – and even the more brazen nods to nostalgia (80s puffed sleeves, chunky Nokias, phone booths being used as more than public toilets) – came across as artful, joyous time stamping. Mod and Woodall’s performances were pitch-perfect and their rare chemistry had you hoping for a happily-ever-after every step of the way. Word of mouth spread like wildfire, and despite not having the star power of many Netflix properties, it became the most watched series on the platform the week after its release.
