What To Expect From Sweetpea

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Sky’s coming of ‘rage’ drama has a brand new trailer

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If you’ve tuned into Sky or NOW recently, you’ve probably seen a teaser trailer for Sweetpea, a brand new original series coming to the broadcaster this autumn. Starring Fallout and Yellowjackets’ Ella Purnell in the leading role and coming from the production company behind Slow Horses and Heartstopper, here’s exactly what to expect from the series.

Sweetpea TV Series: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

Ella Purnell in Sweetpea (© Sky)

What Is Sweetpea About?

Described as a ‘coming of rage’ thriller, Sweetpea centres on Rhiannon Lewis, a quiet wallflower of an office worker who tires of being constantly overlooked. She doesn’t make an impression when people pass her on the street, she’s always overlooked for a promotion at work, the guy she likes won’t commit to her… Add her dad’s terrible sickness to this, and life is looking pretty bleak. And then everything in life turns upside down – and Rhiannon finally snaps. The wallflower is gone and a vengeful killer emerges. As she steps into her new life and persona, Rhiannon feels intoxicatingly powerful – but can she keep her killer secret?

Intrigued? Get a sense of the series with the trailer below.

Cast Of Sweetpea

Ella Purnell as Rhiannon Lewis
Nicôle Lecky as Julia, Rhiannon’s childhood bully
Jon Pointing as Craig
Calam Lynch as AJ, Rhiannon’s co-worker
Leah Harvey as Marina, a junior detective
Jeremy Swift as Norman, Rhiannon’s boss
Dustin Demri-Burns as Jeff, another of Rhiannon’s co-workers
Dino Kelly as Marcus, Julia’s husband
Ingrid Oliver as D.I. Diana St John
Luke McGibney

Ella Purnell as Rhiannon in Sweetpea. (© Sky UK Limited)

What Else Has Ella Purnell Starred In?

You might recognise the lead of Sweetpea from a few recent buzzy TV shows, including Paramount’s Yellowjackets and Prime Video’s Fallout. But Purnell’s career stretches right back to 2008 when she starred in Oliver! on the West End, aged only 12. Born and raised in London, Purnell also had small roles in Never Let Me Go (2010) and Kick-Ass 2 (2013), but her breakout role came in 2016 when she appeared as Emma Bloom in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, a bucket list moment for the young star who always longed to work with Tim Burton.

In 2020, Purnell became familiar face on British TV screens thanks to her role in miniseries Belgravia, but success came across the Atlantic in 2021 thanks to her role in gory Lord of the Flies retelling, Yellowjackets. In 2024, she was again at the centre of the conversation thanks to her leading role in Fallout, bringing us right up to today and her starring role in Sweetpea.

‘She’s a television queen,’ says Sweetpea’s director and executive producer Ella Jones. ‘As Rhiannon, she manages to be sweet and vulnerable but also terrifying. It’s incredible what she can do.’

Leah Harvey as Marina in Sweetpea. (© Sky UK Limited)

Is Sweetpea Based On A Book?

Yes, Sweetpea is based on CJ Skuse’s 2017 novel of the same name, the first in a series of five books: In Bloom (2018), Dead Head (2021), Thorn in My Side (2023), The Bad Seeds (coming October 2024). The series centres on Rhiannon, an editorial assistant who hasn’t killed anyone for three years. In the novel, Rhiannon’s origin story comes to light alongside the events, while the TV series focusses more on those early days of murder.

‘The author has been so supportive,’ says Kirstie Swaine, writer and executive producer of Sweetpea. ‘Whenever there’s an adaptation of a book, there’s almost a ceremonial handing over of the source material to the next creative making another version of it, and CJ has been amazing giving us the freedom to take her amazing characters and world and just build on them.’

So how does the book stack up with the series? ‘The book is really cool, but it’s quite different to the series,’ says director Jones. ‘In a sense, the book is perhaps our Rhiannon in the future. Series one is almost like a prequel to how Rhiannon becomes the Rhiannon in the book, where she is a much more fully-former killer a la American Psycho. We wanted to lure the audience in a little more gently by staring from a place where you really identify and empathise with Rhiannon.’

Will There Be Sweetpea Season 2?

It sounds like a second season of Sweetpea is very likely, based on director Ella Jones’ comments on the series and the fact that series one functions ‘almost like a prequel to […] the book’ by CJ Skuse. With five novels in the series to go off, there’s also plenty of material for the series creators to adapt for the screen. That all said, there’s no official news from Sky just yet, and we think we will be waiting a little longer for word.

Where Was It Filmed?

Sweetpea was filmed in Southend-on-Sea in Essex in November and December 2023, which stands in for the fictional town of Carnsham. Specific spots you might recognise include Southend Observation Tower, Western Esplanade’s Cliff Lift and the Adventure Island theme park.

‘We all united under this concept of “shit Britishness”,’ says director Jones. ‘I’ve seen a lot of British shows recently use a kind of ‘70s Americana effectively, but I wanted to do something that owed a bit more to a kind of nostalgic ‘90s Britishness, cinematic in its mundanity and small-town feel. You’ve got your shopping centres, car parks and brutalist municipal architecture.

‘It was really important to us that the show wasn’t set in London or any other recognisable big city,’ adds Jones. ‘So we created Carnsham – kind of shit British “any town”. We wanted it to feel like it was a place where nothing much happens and then when something does happen, it’s a big deal and also there is scope to see the same characters again. It’s using our very recognisable small-town British landscape in a dialled up way. It could be anywhere and I also like that it slightly parallels Rhiannon where it’s almost like she could be all of us.’