‘Big Mood’ on a big high as the hit show set to return

This series finds the comedy in Maggie and Eddie both living in denial, and explores whether friendships can truly recover after a major falling out.

Fri, 10 Apr, 2026 - 02:00

For Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West, the depiction of mental health, particularly bipolar disorder, can come across as preachy.

It’s why Derry Girls and Bridgerton star Coughlan, and It’s A Sin actress West are still surprised by the passionate response they received from audiences after the first series of Big Mood premiered in 2024.

As the comedy drama — created by screenwriter Camilla Whitehill — returns for its second series, Eddie, played by West, and Maggie, played by Coughlan, re-enter each other’s lives after nearly a year of not speaking.

This series finds the comedy in Maggie and Eddie both living in denial, and explores whether friendships can truly recover after a major falling out.

Ahead of the release, Coughlan and West open up about the responsibilities that come with working on a show like Big Mood.

The show treats bipolar disorder with real nuance — it’s funny and serious in equal measure. How did you find that balance?

Nicola Coughlan : I think a lot of that’s in the writing. We were never making an issues-based show — it’s like Maggie happens to have bipolar disorder. It affects her life, but it isn’t, deep down, who she is.

We always felt like we were leading with the story of their friendship, and this is something that gets in the way of it. I think anxiety and depression are quite palatable topics now, but when you get in to bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, people get a lot more uncomfortable.

Nicola Coughlan as Maggie in Big Mood. Picture Channel 4.

Those conversations about how it can make things difficult for your friends and family, how it’s not straightforward to manage — that’s still quite taboo.

But the writing explores it in such an honest way. And, in this series, you really see Maggie trying to do her best, which is a very difficult thing.

Medicating bipolar disorder is infamously hard, because it’s about striking a balance; it’s not like you’re depressed and put on uppers. It’s a very tricky balance that people can struggle for years to get right.

Do you feel ‘big mood’ helped open up conversations surrounding bipolar disorder?

Lydia West : I think so, I hope so. Sometimes, it gets lost that it is a show about that, but, really, the friendship is just so strong that the mental illness element actually plays in the background.

But a lot of the arc of series one is actually about Maggie being on lithium and having lithium poisoning, and how that affected their relationship and all of Maggie’s decision-making.

Series two finds Maggie in a much more stable place: She’s found the right medication that works for her. So, at some point, it does just become about their friendship and navigating their present life by avoiding what happened in the last year.

It feels very true to the experience of mental health; the ebbs and the flows. And I love being part of something where it’s normal to have a discussion about bipolar disorder and anti-psychotic drugs.

These are the kinds of conversations I have with my friends and people I know, so it just feels really cool.

What do you hope audiences will most enjoy about ‘big mood’ series two?

Nicola Coughlan: You always hope that people will see themselves in it and feel reflected; see their friendships in it and think, ‘It’s OK that my friendship with so-and-so isn’t perfect right now. It’s just going through a stage of life’.

And also to open up conversations about the difficulties of mental health, to go, ‘This can make you kind of a bad friend sometimes, but that’s OK. I’m still here. All of that stuff. But, also, you just want people to feel things. You want them to laugh and to cry. That’s the only reason you ever really make anything.

Lydia West: I hope they feel seen and heard again, and that they root for the friendship, because, to me, it really is a love story: Their friendship is a love story. And I hope they feel that.