Back to Life (TV series)

Back to Life
Genre	Comedy-drama Dark comedy
Written by	Laura Solon Daisy Haggard
Directed by	Christopher Sweeney
Starring	Daisy Haggard Geraldine James Richard Durden Adeel Akhtar Jo Martin Jamie Michie Christine Bottomley Liam Williams
Composer	Solomon Grey
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producers	Sarah Hammond Harry Williams Jack Williams
Producers	Debbie Pisani
Cinematography	Ben Wheeler
Editor	Gavin Buckley
Running time	23–25 minutes
Production company	Two Brothers Pictures
Distributor	All3Media
Release
Original network	BBC Three BBC One
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	15 April 2019 (2019-04-15) – present
External links
Production website

Back to Life is a British dark comedy-drama co-written by Laura Solon and Daisy Haggard and starring Haggard and Adeel Akhtar that premiered on BBC One on 15 April 2019.^[1] On 10 November 2019, the series premiered in the United States on Showtime.^[2] The first series received critical acclaim with many reviews highly praising the performance and writing of Haggard. On 19 November 2019, Back to Life was renewed for a second series which later premiered on 31 August 2021 to similar positive reviews.^[3]

Plot[]

Miri Matteson has just returned home to Hythe, Kent, after serving an 18-year prison sentence. As Miri attempts to rebuild her life, she forms a friendship with Billy, who cares for the elderly woman next door.

Cast[]

• Daisy Haggard as Miri Matteson
• Geraldine James as Caroline Matteson, Miri's mother
• Richard Durden as Oscar Matteson, Miri's father
• Adeel Akhtar as Billy, Miri's budding love interest
• Jo Martin as Janice, Miri's parole officer
• Jamie Michie as Dom, Miri's now married pre-prison boyfriend and Caroline's secret affair
• Christine Bottomley as Mandy, Miri's now married pre-prison best friend
• Juliet Cowan as Tina, local policewoman who was Miri’s childhood enemy
• Imogen Gurney as Lara, Miri's former best friend
• Liam Williams as Nathan, Miri's boss at the fish and chip shop (series 1)
• Souad Adel Faress as Anna, Billy's wife (series 1)
• Frank Feys as Samuel, a private investigator (series 1)
• Ade Edmondson as John Boback, Lara’s father (series 2)
• Lizzy McInnerny as Norah Boback, Lara’s mother (series 2)

Episodes[]

Series 1[]

Series 2[]

Production[]

Harry and Jack Williams are the executive producers of Back to Life with Sarah Hammond. They previously produced the BBC show Fleabag.^[6] It was filmed in Kent, including Hythe and Dungeness and at The Britannia Inn pub in Dungeness.^[7] Filming also took place at Lade car park in Lydd-on-Sea, where various scenes were filmed around the fish and chip van, as well as in Streatham Common, London. Production for Back to Life also visited sound mirror in Dover, on the top of the White Cliffs.^[8]

Release[]

Back to Life was launched as a boxset on BBC iPlayer on 15 April 2019, and was shown weekly on BBC One from 15 April 2019.

Reception[]

The show has received critical acclaim. For the first series, review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.4/10, based on 26 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Driven by the marvelous Daisy Haggard, Back to Life questions what it means to be a person with humor, heart, and a genuine sense of surprise."^[9] The first series was also compared positively to critically acclaimed tragicomedy Fleabag with which it shares producers. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 88 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[10]

For the second series, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.8/10, based on 5 critic reviews.^[11] Metacritic assigned a score of 87 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[12]

Home media[]

References[]

External links[]

• Back to Life at BBC Online
• Back to Life at IMDb