4 September 2023

Nolly S1

Two-time Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown) stars in Nolly, the new series from BAFTA winner Russell T Davies (It’s a Sin, Years and Years, A Very English Scandal).

As flame-haired widow Meg Richardson in the long-running UK soap opera Crossroads, inimitable star Noele Gordon (Nolly to her friends) was one of the most famous people in Britain. Then in 1981, at the height of the show’s success and the peak of Nolly’s fame, she was axed without ceremony, without warning and with no explanation. With the boss’s words “all good things must come to an end” ringing in her ears, Noele found herself thrown out of the show that had been her life for over 18 years.

Nolly is a bold exploration of how the establishment turns on women who refuse to play by the rules, the women it cannot understand and the women it fears. A love letter to a legend of TV – and to the madcap soap she starred in – Nolly is an outrageously fun and wildly entertaining ride through Noele Gordon’s most tumultuous years, and a sharp, affectionate and heart-breaking portrait of a forgotten icon.

Directed by BAFTA-winner Peter Hoar (The Last of Us, It’s A Sin, The Umbrella Academy), the three-part series has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Guardian saying, “Helena Bonham Carter is brilliantly camp in Russell T Davies’s impeccable drama… It’s a joy to watch this warm, thoughtful tribute to soaps, fabulous older women – and showbiz itself.”

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