Whilst the tumultuous years of adolescence are likely enough for a narrative in itself, series creator Nicôle Lecky digs deep into the affluent world of Richford Lake to examine mother-daughter relationships, privilege and the ever-haunting world of social media.
Wild Cherry is "another world beyond Mood," Lecky beams when we speak and reveals that she actually pitched Wild Cherry whilst she was making Mood. "I have so much respect and brilliant collaborators at the BBC ... I clearly wanted to keep working with them. It's a bigger world, lots more characters. I just have so much fun collaborating with the BBC and they really did want me to create something else."
As much as the location of a gated community played an integral part in Lecky's ideation process for Wild Cherry, so did the chilling nature of real life events.
"It really made me think about when I was at school – at our school – what I would have been like if I'd have had social media as a teenage girl. I think that's quite a different experience," she says.
I remark that the thought of growing up in an age that feels as though you're constantly being surveilled and recorded online is unimaginable for me, with Lecky agreeing.
"I'm sure there will be some benefits to it, but I definitely felt perhaps more sheltered because I knew what was going on in my borough and I didn't really know what teenagers were up to in Calabasas or something. It feels like a really different time."
Another notable influence on Lecky's writing process were the "sexting scandals that have come out" which led to plenty of articles and the creation of Everyone's Invited, with Lecky wanting to examine all of that through a British lens.
Ultimately, though, it's also about creating a series that is entertaining. "It was about unpicking a world of tensions with lies and secrets. It felt like women – we can sometimes keep these secrets and we have that duality to our personality," she says.
Lecky admits that she didn't always know she would play Gigi, saying that it was a decision that came later in the development process, but that she wanted Gigi to end up being the narrative voice of the town.
While Gigi's narration reminded me of shows like Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars, Lecky admits that her inspiration for that narrative style was born out of an admiration for seminal drama, Desperate Housewives. "That was a show that I felt like [voiceover] worked really well in. I wanted to look at these thorny subjects and themes, but I wanted it to be elevated and have that glossiness to it, which we don't always do in British drama," she says.
I had a feeling that Lecky is the songstress we hear in the sequence and she smiles, reminiscing about the process of creating that song with series composer Rotem Frimer. "It was always my intention, actually, I should say, to do the title music. I thought that was quite fun. Rotem and I got into a studio and we created the song – and that became the title track."
When it comes to the cast of Wild Cherry, as well as being made up of rising talent, it also includes plenty of notable names likes Eve Best, Carmen Ejogo, Hugh Quarshie and Nathaniel Martello-White. Getting a window into those complicated adult lives and relationships is part of the fun of the series, but there are nuances to Ejogo and Martello-White's family story that show the differences in how they choose to raise Grace versus how Juliet has raised Allegra.
"You can't ever get away from what you look like, how somebody else might choose to perceive you. I think often your race is put on to you a lot of the time when you're just existing," Lecky says. "Lorna and Steven are just trying to live in this world, they're not walking around every day going, 'Oh, I'm Black or I'm mixed'. But I think once things start to go wrong in the world – it's not that they're not aware of it, but they see how, 'Okay, we're really being targeted here'.
She adds: "I think that the difference for Lorna and Juliet is probably as much about class as it is race. Juliet was born into wealth and she has this safety net that Lorna just doesn't have because she's self-made and she's not from the area. If things go badly, she won't be able to afford her house, schooling and all the rest of it."
"For me, it was particularly important to see her background, her humble beginnings, where she came from and as she enters this very corporate world, which is quite overwhelming and can be very overwhelming for somebody from that background. It helps explain why she's so hard on Grace and the fears that she has for Grace, even just with regards to her sexuality," Lecky says.
"I think I'm always in the moment and I was just writing this part of the story. But yeah, I could definitely see where there is unfinished business. So I think I'd say watch this space."
It was recently reported that Lecky is heading up a Netflix adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons and whilst she admits that it is all very early days right now, she remains understandably tight-lipped about details.
Lecky admits that she's really been enjoying acting recently (with an upcoming role in George Clooney's Jay Kelly on the cards) and says that's what she'd love to continue doing, potentially even returning to the stage.
"I think that my main feeling is still probably at the role I'm in as an exec, showrunner, mixed-Black, working class woman – I still don't see very much of myself at the top, quote unquote. So I think I just say that alone, there's probably a lot more that needs to be done."
"You have to, ultimately, be passionate about what you want to make and be pretty dogged really, like really fixated on if that is the story you want to tell. Because I think ultimately, your voice is so unique and distinctive. So, you can't second guess what you think somebody will want from you. You have to really double down on 'Who are you?', what do you want to say and and try and take it to the right ears that are open to listen to it or read it.
"That's probably what I did in terms of when I finally wrote Superhoe. I'd written stuff before but perhaps I was always trying to figure out, 'Oh, might somebody want this or might somebody want to put this on?'. Actually, when I just sat down and wrote Superhoe, nobody asked for it. It was just something I wanted to do and that really did open a lot of doors for me. So, I think realising that being authentic is probably the best thing you you can do."
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