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Critics call 'Back to Life' new 'Fleabag'

Actress and writer Daisy Haggard must be pretty happy this week. Her clever, insightful sitcom, Back to Life, has landed on the BBC – and both viewers and critics alike are loving it. In fact, they’re hailing it as the next Fleabag.

Read more: New Comedy From ‘Fleabag’ Producers Sets Cast, Starts Production

The sitcom follows Miri Matteson (Haggard), who has recently been released from prison after an 18-year sentence. She moves back in with her parents – played by Utopia‘s Geraldine James and Harlots Richard Durden – in the seaside town where she grew up (and committed her crome) and tries to kickstart her life, with very mixed results.

Living next door is Adeel Akhtar (Les Miserables) and a slow friendship forms. Just don’t expect her crime to reveal her crime to anyone from the beginning.

The drama also stars The Tunnel‘s Christine Bottomley as an old friend, Liam Williams as her new boss and Game of Thrones‘ Jamie Michie, as the teenage boyfriend she left behind.

The Radio Times, said Haggard’s new sadcom “is filling the Fleabag-shaped hole in people’s lives,” while The Guardian called it a “darkly comic gem” which “is an ideal Fleabag replacement.”

The comedy co-written by Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon is produced by the team behind Fleabag.

The cast of The Importance Of Being Earnest, (left to right; Rebecca Night and Daisy Haggard) during a photocall at the Vaudeville Theatre, The Strand, London.
The cast of The Importance Of Being Earnest, (left to right; Rebecca Night and Daisy Haggard) during a photocall at the Vaudeville Theatre, The Strand, London.

Haggard describes Miri as a “an optimist and a fighter”. Adding, “it’s an exciting time for women but I hope it gets more exciting and continues this way.

“We need to be getting excellent parts and if we need to write them ourselves then we’ll do that.”

Read more: Back To Life’s Daisy Haggard: Women are judged more harshly than men

The entire series box set was made available last Monday and comedy fans have been bingeing their way through the episodes. New episodes are shown on Monday nights on BBC One at 10.35pm.