Lizzie, to be played by Eleanor Worthington-Cox

 

Eleanor Worthington-Cox is an English actress who is currently starring as Cait in Amazon's historical fantasy drama, Britannia. At the age of 12, Eleanor won the 2012 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, playing Matilda in Matilda the Musical. In 2016, she received a nomination for a British Academy Television Award for playing Janet Hodgson in The Enfield Haunting  In 2019, Eleanor starred as the lead in the unsettling dark folk tale, Gwen and more recently (2022), Eleanor has been starring as Phaedra in Jez Butterworth's West End play, Jerusalem.

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Lizzie has just turned 18. She is fed up with her life in her hometown of Winby. But all of that is about to change as she's soon to be gone from this 'loser' family and her annoying mum. She will be the first woman in the Carmichael family to break the teen pregnancy cycle over the centuries, and follow her dreams. She cannot wait...until life brings her a surprise by way of a positive pregnancy stick. This is her worst nightmare as she vowed never to be like her mum - giving up her dream of making something of herself and spending the rest of her life in this horrible rundown seaside town.

Shona, to be played by Mia McKenna-Bruce

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Mia McKenna-Bruce currently stars as Tara in How to Have Sex, for which she was awarded Best Lead Performance at this year's BIFAs, nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards, and has been BAFTA nominated for the Rising Star Award. The film won Un Certain Regard at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival with Mia's performance creating a lot of buzz and one described by Variety as 'Star making' and The Guardian as 'career-making'. Most recently, she gave a standout performance as Anne's younger sister, Mary, in the Netflix adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Mia has recently been named as one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow 2023.

"McKenna-Bruce’s fearless lead is both emotionally exposing and very finely calibrated, slipping from exuberance to anxiety to desperation sometimes in a single shot." Financial Times.

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Shona is Lizzie’s best friend. They’ve known each other all their lives which is why the Carmichaels are like a second family to Shona and Shona is particularly fond of Sue. Shona is saddened by her own depressed mum who will not leave her continuous unfaithful father. She doesn’t want to ever be like her. Like Lizzie, she's excited to get the hell out of Winby. Shona’s very loud and opinionated, fearing to show her real vulnerability. Glamour and gossip are both important to her and she wants to be an 'influencer' one day. Shona can’t help falling for the older man, perhaps because her father is never around and she missed him. But because of this, she’s always unlucky in love. 

Sue, to be played by MyAnna Buring

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MyAnna Buring is known for her roles known in The Descent, Kill List, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and Part 2, Ripper Street, The Witcher and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine. 

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Sue is Lizzie’s mum. She’s lived in Winby all her life working at a dishevelled seaside hotel. At high school, Sue dated Francis (Mike’s dad) but was then swept off her feet by the romantic Dan. With aspirations to leave Winby and break the family curse of teen mum-hood, she gained a place at university. But one passionate night, she fell pregnant. No problem. She decided to delay uni for a couple of years to make a go of it. Besides she had Dan by her side.  One year soon ran into another and soon she realised university was just a childish dream. Sue vowed that this would never happen to her own daughter which is why she’s pushes her girls to do well and tells them to dream big. “If you focus hard enough, you’ll achieve your dreams.”  Now, many years later, she works at the same hotel she did at eighteen when she made that decision to stay. As for her and Dan, they were once madly in love, producing four daughters. But soon the reality and stress of life, made the magic disappear and these days they’re just trying to keep the girls from going down any wrong path. This isn’t going too well as Sue longs for Lizzie to confide in her but their relationship is falling apart. 

Dan, to be played by John Bradley

 

John is well known for his role as Samwell Tarley in the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones (2011-2019) having landed the role straight out of drama school. He has since been in many films including Jennifer Lopez's rom-com Marry Me, Roland Emmerich's new mega blockbuster Moonfall and The Railway Children Return - and he stars as Max Drummond in Paramounnt+ series, North Shore. He is currently filming Netflix's 3 Body Problem with The Game of Thrones' creators DB Weiss and David Benioff which will be on our screens in 2024.

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Dan is Lizzie’s Dad and Sue’s husband. Dan has a big heart, loves his girls including Sue. He can’t believe that they’re not together anymore, so he’s up all the time at the house fixing things as to him, it’s his job to be there for them all. However, he might not fix things properly so he can keep coming back and be there almost daily. He’s still madly in love with Sue, but thinks she’s fallen out of love with him. He feels he messed up their relationship but now it’s too late so he has to take what he can. He comes across as a bit bumbling but that’s because he’d do anything for these women in his life. 

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Mike (still to be cast)

 

Mike is Lizzie's boyfriend and the son of Francis. His mother left him with his dad when he was 8, ruining his father's dreams of having a life and ruining his own childhood, growing up without a mother. Mike has been constantly reminded about this which weighs on his mind heavily. He's bitter and has a huge ambition, to get out of the 'shithole' of Winby and to make his millions, there's no way he's going to be poor.  Mike is not ready to be a dad. He doesn't have the emotional bandwidth to do that and he wants more than anything to not be like his father. This desire of not becoming their parents he shares in common with Lizzie. But now, not only does Mike have to deal with the prospect of being a father,  he now has to deal with the return of his mum to Winby with her new husband and Mike's half brother. 

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Francis ( still to be cast) 

 

Francis is Mike’s Dad. Francis is a bitter 35 year old man who lost love in his life. He dated Sue at high school but she dumped him for Dan. This made him angry and jealous, and he’s never gotten over her. He then dated Sue’s best friend, Erin, and Erin had their baby. They stopped dating but he was a good Dad to Mike. He didn’t expect her to leave Mike with him and disappear out of their lives. One day she said she’d be back to pick him up, then she never returned. So Francis has brought up Mike. He never remarried, never trusting women again.  

Gan Gan (still to be cast) 

 

Gan Gan is Lizzie's great grandmother and Sue's nan. After the overdose of her daughter Carol, Gan Gan, became a mum again in her forties to toddler Sue. With Carol's death Gan Gan had to find her peace with life and that peace is transferred into her everyday life. She never gets heated, like Sue and is very quiet, just watches the world around her and pitches in with advice when she feels she must. She's very aware of the post partem depression that affected her daughter leading to a tragic conclusion and is worried about her great granddaughter going the same way. Even though she actually loves Dan, she's angry with him for not making her daughter happy and throwing away Sue's romance by not asking her to marry him. 

Sally (still to be cast)

 

Sally is the next eldest of the Carmichael siblings. She is as she is described, ‘a Microsoft engineer in waiting’. She’s studious, ambitious and extremely judgemental of all of her family, but particularly Lizzie. There’s huge competition there. Mainly because she wishes she was at that point of her life where she could go on her adventure - into the world of tech. She likes to make Lizzie’s life as miserable as possible, but deep down loves and admires Lizzie. 

Amanda and Hannah (still to be cast)

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Theses are Lizzie’s two younger sisters. They’re close in age to each other and constantly argue which leads often to physical fighting. Amanda is the elder one, very bubbly and not so bright it would seem. Hannah takes advantage of this as Hannah is extremely smart and quick witted. Amanda is often shocked at how mean Hannah can be. Both girls adore their sister Lizzie and are excited by her news, never even once contemplating the seriousness of the situation. Amanda fancies Mike like crazy and Hannah adores him like an older brother.