C4 has confirmed that acclaimed comedy drama The Bisexual will be broadcast this autumn.
Fresh from winning the Grand Jury prize at Sundance, Desiree Akhavan (The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Appropriate Behaviour) co-writes (with long-term collaborator Cecilia Frugiuele), directs and stars in The Bisexual, a new comedy drama which offers a raw, funny and unapologetic take on the “last taboo” - bisexuality - and the prejudices, shame and comic misconceptions that surround it. With Desiree’s trademark dry wit, the series takes a candid look at people’s approach to love and sex, and what the love and sex they’re drawn to reveals about them.
New Yorker Leila (Desiree Akhavan) is feeling lost in London having decided to go on a ‘break’ from her 10-year relationship with girlfriend and business partner Sadie (BAFTA-nominated Maxine Peake). Moving out of their shared flat but still faced with the fresh hell of seeing her ex every day at their joint tech company, Leila ends up renting a room from neurotic novelist Gabe (Brian Gleeson), a Hackney-dwelling 30-something dwarfed by the success of his debut novel which came out years ago and has long been forgotten.
Leila begins sleeping with men but struggles to come out as bisexual to her gay friends, most importantly her best mate, the near un-shockable Deniz (Saskia Chana). She finds an unlikely wingman in the form of Gabe. He helps her navigate a new life dating men and women – and Leila, in return, introduces wide-eyed Gabe to the London lesbian scene, whilst doing her best to help him decipher his unreadable, sort-of-girlfriend, sort-of student Francisca (Michelle Guillot). As Leila makes changes, so does Sadie - changes that take her in a very different direction.
Skewering stereotypes and unpicking them The Bisexual explores the difference between dating men and women from the perspective of someone who finds herself – for the first time - doing both, whilst examining the funny, painful, complexities of realising that the one you love, and the life you need, may be two very different things.
Launching their autumn schedules C4 has also coonfirmed that police procedural No Offence is returning. Paul Abbott’s outrageous, critically-acclaimed, hugely popular, RTS Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated series returns for a third series. Mayoral hustings in Cinderly, an inner-city area of Manchester, is a tinderbox ready to ignite. Fuelling the chaos in the community is leader of the extreme Far Right group Albion, Dennis Caddy (Neil Maskell), his outspoken girlfriend Bonnie (Tamara Lawrance) and his mouthy sister Faye (Sharon Rooney).
Viv (Joanna Scanlan) and Friday Street find themselves pawns in a political chess match, which is the last thing they need as incidents of hate crime soar in the city. Clashing once more with the underworld and the upper brass alike, Viv's never had it so tough and finds she must deploy every weapon in her arsenal to keep her team together and restore peace to a community wracked with political and xenophobic uncertainty.
