The First Look at Nicôle Lecky's New Drama 'Wild Cherry' Is Luxe

Though Nicôle Lecky‘s Mood — a musical drama about a budding singer trying to make it with the odds stacked against her — failed to garner much attention in the U.S. (buried as it was on the seemingly continually struggling BBC America), the show was kind of a big deal in the U.K, where it garnered rave reviews.

The series beat out critical darling This is Going to Hurt for Best Mini-Series at the 2023 BAFTA TV Awards, and made everyone suddenly very interested in what its creator Lecky was going to do next. We now have our first look at the answer: Wild Cherry. Her second drama for the BBC is described as a complicated look at mother/daughter relationships in the age of social media, apps, and peer pressure. 

The series takes place in a fictional community called Richford Lake (an extremely unsubtle nod to the sort of people this show is about), where everyone is not only wealthy and privileged but protected, insulated from the consequences of their actions in a way that most people in England (or at least those who are not directly connected to the royal family) could never dream of. (To put it another way: The Big Little Lies vibes here are strong.)

“I used to drive through a gated community in Surrey and I would look at these mansions and think, ‘Gosh who lives there?’,” Lecky told Deadline about her inspiration for the show. “It had such a strong sense of an England that I hadn’t seen before. I knew I wanted to set something there.”

Wild Cherry stars the powerhouse duo of Eve Best (MaryLand) and Carmen Ejogo (True Detective: Night Country) as a pair of women from two very different backgrounds who both live in Richford Lake, a posh gated community for the well-to-do. Ejogo plays Lorna, a self-made businesswoman who has worked hard for the success she's achieved and the life she's built for her family. 

Best is Juliet, Lorna's BFF, and a woman born into the sort of privilege her friend has had to fight to achieve. Their daughters are also best friends, growing up in the uber comfort of a lifestyle that most teens their age can only see on Instagram. But when the girls are implicated in a scandal at their exclusive school, it throws Lorna and Juliet's friendship — as well as their idyllic community — into chaos when everyone is forced to take sides.

“After House of the Dragon, I wanted to plunge into something and someone very different from who I’d just been playing," Best said when the series was announced. "Nicôle’s brilliantly dark script really keeps me on my toes, which I love.”

Here's the series' synopsis.

Meet Lorna, a self-made, successful, mixed black businesswoman from North West London who has worked hard to be where she is – and best friend Juliet, a woman born into the privileged gated community they both call home. Daughters Grace and Allegra are BFFs and live a life other teenagers can only dream of. A safe haven for the superrich and their little darlings, Richford Lake is a place where bad things never happen…

Until, that is, Grace and Allegra are implicated in a shocking scandal at their exclusive private school and Juliet and Lorna are forced to take sides, pushing their friendship to breaking point. As toxic secrets and lies ripple through the idyllic town, the facade starts to fracture, threatening to reveal the deep-seated elitism and ugliness lurking beneath.

Alongside Best and Ejogo, Wild Cherry also stars Imogen Faires (Marcella), and newcomer Amelia May as daughters Grace and Allegra.

The ensemble cast includes Sophie Winkleman (Sanditon), Daniel Lapaine (The Marlow Murder Club), Hayat Kamille (Vikings: Valhalla), Isabelle Allen (Les Miserables), James Murray (Geek Girl), Jason York (Dreaming Whilst Black), Katrina Cas (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan), Nathaniel Martello-White (The Winter King), Sonita Henry (Black Cake), Will Bagnall (A Thousand Blows), and Hugh Quarshie (The Return), and Tara Webb.

The six-part series is written and created by Lecky, with Toby MacDonald (Extraordinary) directing. Both Lecky and McDonald are also executive producers, alongside Elizabeth Kilgarriff and Craig Holleworth for Firebird Pictures, Lisa Walters, and Lucy Richer for the BBC. The producer is Ado Yoshizaki Cassuto. 

Wild Cherry is currently filming in Surrey. It doesn't have a release date on either side of the pond just yet, but BBC Studios will be distributing the series internationally.