TV shows we love: One Day

On the last day at university, Dev and Em meet each other at a leaving ball. From different worlds, they work their way through a bottle of champagne and wind up back at Em’s rundown digs.

This is the start of a lifelong relationship that sees their two very different worlds collide, go their separate ways and collide again as they move from strangers, to friends to partners. One Day (a 14-part series on Netflix) is the latest journey through time following a 2011 film also based on a novel of the same name by David Nicholls.

After their initial meeting Dexter (Leo Woodall, familiar from his not so charmed role in White Lotus) joins the rest of the Marlborough set in France while Emma (Ambika Mod, This is Going to Hurt) heads off round the country with a right on play about the Suffragettes. Nice guy Dex, or is that the most obnoxious man on television?, quickly starts making his dream of being rich and famous come true. And while the lovely Emma Morley ditches her plan to change the world to take up teaching she falls into similar traps to Dev.

We see how their lives pan out, together and apart, through the lens of a single day, July 15, each year for 20 years.

Woodall and Mod brilliantly play the two extremes of life in the UK, Woodall whose parents were able to give him everything (including the most stunning home according to the show’s location scouts) and Mod’s down to earth northern simplicity. The highs, lows and devastating final moments also take in a holiday to an enchanting looking Greece and the gay streets of Paris.

The emotion will draw you in and as much as you don’t like Dev and his type you still end up rooting for him. And as abrupt as Em can be you will wish her well.

As with most UK shows, the episodes come in short, sharp segments so no fear of getting bogged down. It is also refreshing that not all the same old faces are included.

For anyone who graduated in or around 1988, the music in this series will form a familiar backdrop. For those from a different time, it is worth a listen.