We may still have a few months to go, but it looks the BBC has already thrown 2025’s best programme into our TV schedule, and fans cannot wait.
Four years after I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel is returning to the broadcaster with a new drama.
This time, the 36-year-old actress and writer is teaming up Succession creator Jesse Armstrong for a show about a British novelist that returns to her family’s home country of Ghana.
Michaela, who was born in East London to Ghanaian parents, won a Bafta for best female comedy performance for both sexual consent series I May Destroy You and sitcom Chewing Gum.
She’s now starring in 10-part series First Day on Earth, as well as writing and serving as executive producer.
It follows Michaela’s character Henri going through relationship and work issues when she decides to take a job on a film in Ghana, where her parents are from.
Henri also sees it as a place where she can connect with her estranged father as well as her heritage, but her new sense of identity could ‘break her’ or ‘leave her stronger’.
The Black Earth Rising star said: ‘I am delighted to be working with VAL, the BBC and HBO again, and to partner with A24; thanks to all of their combined taste, care and expertise, I feel our show is in great hands.
‘The process of creating FDOE thus far has been a beautifully intimate experience, and I am excited to embark on the next phase to eventually offer this as another televisual gift for anyone willing to accompany Henri on what will be a wild odyssey!’
The synopsis teases: ‘British novelist Henri (Michaela Coel) is stuck. Work has dried up, her relationship is going nowhere.
‘So when she’s offered a job on a film in Ghana, West Africa – her parents’ homeland, where her estranged father lives – she can’t resist the chance to reconnect with him and the country of her heritage.
‘But when she arrives neither the job nor her father turn out the way she expected, and soon Henri has to deal with danger and hypocrisy, form new friendships, lose her illusions, and create a new sense of identity – one that might leave her stronger, but could also break her.’
Fans can’t wait, with @diekhumalo writing on X: ‘Her track record is impeccable, very excited to watch this!!!’
‘I have been ITCHING for a Michaela Coel project,’ @lexdoingmybest said, as @MullinsMartin praised: ‘She is so phenomenally talented.’
‘A masterpiece already,’ @UlisesNorza said.
‘Michaela Coel done picked up a pen again?????? Oh! I’m so seated, I think my butt’s gonna light up the chair. It’s About Time!!!!!!!’ @SherLtan added.
‘I’m going to hyperventilate omg omg omg, another HBO show written by Michaela Coel???? I’m not crying, YOURE crying,’ @jesuiszemarcuis wrote on Instagram.
‘Doing my happy dance,’ @cjcunningham87 added.
Announcing the series ahead of the Edinburgh TV Festival on Tuesday, Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, said: ‘Michaela is one of those exceptional talents whose work I have long admired.
‘I May Destroy You is one of the reasons I wanted to join the BBC. In First Day on Earth, Michaela has created another unmissable series – truly original, heartfelt, hilarious, poetic storytelling and told in a way that only Michaela can. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.’
Executive producers joining Jesse and Michaela, Phil Clarke and Roberto Troni, added: ‘Yet again, Michaela delivers a highly original, singular story that explores the relationship between England and Ghana via a second generation British-Ghanaian woman who takes up the opportunity to return to the homeland of her parents and finds herself encountering a cast of memorable characters and experiences that force her to face some painful home truths.
‘As ever with Michaela, it is by turns shocking, funny and unforgettable, and done in her inimitable style.’
Filming is due to begin later this year.
Michaela rose to fame on Chewing Gum, which first aired in 2015, before finding critical acclaim for I May Destroy You, which was inspired by her personal experience.
Following the success of I May Destroy You, Michaela said her next project may be less exposing and personal saying: ‘If-slash-when I do that, I think it would involve this mysterious thing called ‘the writers’ room’ that I’ve heard about, where other people are also doing [the writing].’
She added to RadioTimes that she was due to shadow ‘absolute legend’ Jesse before the pandemic, saying: ‘I am so curious, so the minute I get a chance I’m gonna be like a little mouse on Jesse Armstrong’s shoulders, listening in, trying to experience how it happens. Because I’ve never been in one. But that would be the next phase.’
She is also known for dark anthology series Black Mirror, musical romance Been So Long and superhero movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
In 2022, she was honoured for ‘fearless’ advocacy through her work, both on and off camera with the Jane Fonda Humanitarian Award at an Women In Film (WIF) event.
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I May Destroy You is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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