Wubi News

'Better dead than single': The dark comedy inspired by 'bleak' dating scene

2025-06-30 16:00:22

Approaching a follow-up was "nerve-wracking", Sadler admits, explaining how the two bronze awards on her bedside table now seem to loom over her. "I feel like they're judging me," she says.

However, Davidson feels the success has helped them get away with more this time around and Sadler agrees, adding: "I've really put the characters through the wringer this year. It's more depressing, but maybe more funny."

Davidson says the series is influenced by their upbringing: "Growing up in an all-woman household, it was just us two and Mum, I think that's the way we see life, like scheming in the bathroom."

Much of the action in the show takes place in the lavatory, with the women plotting to make money or manipulate their partners.

While their characters are cutting in the way they speak to each other, off-screen the sisters are far more earnest, with Sadler explaining how Davidson's off-hand comments have helped her work through plot points that she's been stuck on for months.

Sadler adds that she feels lucky to have her sister in the show. "She's the funniest person in the world," she says.

Taken aback and slightly teary, Davidson explains how she'll read early drafts of the script from Sadler under her covers, laughing and jealous of her sister's talent.

"I hate her. I hate her. I wish it was me. It's so brilliant how nuanced the writing is," she says smiling.

After Sadler won her awards, her mother made Davidson a paper Bafta so she didn't feel left out

The siblings' dynamic is not the only thing influencing the comedy, with Sadler explaining their mum will often send her ideas for plots. "She's really invested," Sadler says.

Ahead of series one, she ran through the prospective storylines with her mum.

"It's not her, but it's definitely inspired by stories that happened to us. So I wanted her to be happy with it," Sadler adds.

"She signed off everything - she's got the darkest sense of humour of all of us."

Sadler says a lot of her writing is fuelled by the things she sees online and in the news, like the "bleak" dating scene.

In the new series, mum Deb says the girls are "better dead than single" - a sentiment that runs through the series as the sisters try to cling on to their relationships.

Sadler says she became interested in the idea of being intentionally single, after seeing it all over her TikTok feed.

She feels this has become more common and adds that a lot of her friends are single.

One recent report found that the four most popular dating apps in the UK - Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Grindr - had all lost UK users between May 2023 and May 2024.

The writer says that while there's lots of empowering things about being single, "it's also very lonely" and she wanted to satirise this idea in her show by having it be the girls' "worst nightmare."

With the new series, Sadler wants to continue to "skewer" topical issues and taboo subjects. She says she's particularly proud of how they handled Billie's abortion storyline in series one.

"I'm so sick of seeing stories about pregnancy and that maternal instinct immediately kicking," Sadler says, adding, "that's not reality for a lot of people. It's not how I feel."