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The Girl Before begins with Emma (Jessica Plummer) moving into a minimalist house with Simon (Ben Hardy), but while the building would be Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs‘ wet dream, there’s a number of catches – basically having to leave it as minimalist as ever, and basically unliveable, since you can’t put anything on the floor, you can’t decorate it as you’d like to, and it also has playlists. It also looks like a corrugated iron mess on he outside.
It doesn’t even have bannisters on the stairs, which caused rather than issue for Keeley Hawes’ husband in Finding Alice.
Oh, and you can’t even have a TV! This really is the most impractical abode I’ve ever come across. It would never do for Homes Under The Hammer.
On the plus side, you only need to pay for it what you think you can afford. However, it’s crazy-restrictive as to how you can behave within it – as well as the place getting regular visits from the agents who sell it. Break the rules, and the building’s architect, Edward Monkford (David Oyelowo), gets to be told.
At the same time, we’re shown that Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is also moving in. But you can’t have two households living within at the same time, so these are millennials in two separate timelines, with Emma being, titular, ‘the girl before’, and we’re given the inference that something unpleasant went down, although it’s one of those dramas which drip-feeds the information to you as it goes.
What I soon noticed is that the two lead actresses have a very similar look to each other, which made me first think that it was the same actress playing both parts.
The Girl Before also has a fair bit of mumbling, and so even though I have access to episode 2 of this as well, and given that all episodes are on the iPlayer after episode 1 airs, I think I’ll wait for those. Or, given that it’s on over four nights at 9pm each time, it may just be easier to watch live.
UPDATE Episode 2:
Well, I tried watching episode 2 when broadcast – even though it’s all available to stream now, but I managed 15 minutes because the main characters are all so up themselves, and there’s not a single likeable character in this. Plus, it’s the most ridiculous house ever. No-one sane would live there. I’m out.
The Girl Before begins on Sunday December 19th on BBC1 at 9pm, and runs for four consecutive nights at the same time. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
After episode 1 is broadcast, the whole series will be on the BBC iPlayer.
Episode 1: 4/10
Director: Lisa Brühlmann
Producer: Rhonda Smith
Writer: JP Delaney
Cast:
Jane: Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Edward: David Oyelowo
Emma: Jessica Plummer
Simon: Ben Hardy
Carol: Amanda Drew
Saul: Mark Stanley
Mia: Rakhee Thakrar
DI James Clarke: Ian Conningham
Peter Creed: Ben Addis
Leona: Natasha Atherton
Belinda: Anna Leong Brophy
Alyssia: Antonia Clarke
Brian: Jonny Magnanti
Charlie: Sam Hoare
Camilla: Francesca Knight
DS Liz Willan: Kayla Meikle
Mark: David Mumeni
Paul Ellis: Luke Norris
Richard: Marc Ozall
Amanda: Daniela Pasquini
Yuna: Kirsty Rider
Rachel: Lucy Russell
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.