Good news for Michaela Coel fans (AKA everyone) – the writer, producer, director, and actress is reportedly working on a new series for the BBC which could have ties to the universe of her acclaimed 2020 drama I May Destroy You.
The project was announced yesterday as one of several new BBC shows including a series from This is England creator Shane Meadows and an adaption of Dolly Alderton’s memoir Everything I Know About Love. The broadcaster’s drama controller Piers Wenger, however, said it was too soon to say anything specific about the new project.
“It’s truly in Michaela’s head and it’s not for me to second guess that too much at this point. It’s at relatively early stages, but I wanted to let the fans of I May Destroy You know that there is a new show coming along,” he told Deadline.
“What relationship that show will have with the original series, (is for Michaela to decide). There’s a relationship between Chewing Gum and I May Destroy You. There’s a through line to her thinking. I suspect there may be elements (of I May Destroy You) but it’s really too early to say anything specific.”
Released last year, I May Destroy You powerfully and unflinchingly explored issues of consent, race, and trauma, based on Coel’s own experience of sexual assault. Critically acclaimed, there was outrage when the series was snubbed by the Golden Globe Awards earlier this year.
“I May Destroy You was not only my favourite show of 2020, it’s my favourite show ever. It takes a complicated issue of a rape – I’m a sexual assault survivor myself – and infuses it with heart, humour, pathos, and a story constructed so well I had to watch it twice, just to understand how Coel did it,” wrote Emily in Paris writer Deborah Copaken in an op-ed for The Guardian describing her fury over the snub.
As well as working on this new series, Coel announced in April that she is publishing her debut book later this year. Misfits: A Personal Manifesto will see her recount personal anecdotes from her life and work, as well as chart her journey to reclaim her creativity and power as a survivor.
As we eagerly await both the book and upcoming series, tide yourself over with interviews from I May Destroy You’s Paapa Essiedu here and Weruche Opia here.