Scripted programmes, Autumn 2018

The Bisexual

Fresh from winning the Grand Jury prize at Sundance, Desiree Akhavan (The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Appropriate Behaviour) co-writes (with long-term collaborator Cecilia Frugiuele), directs and stars in The Bisexual, a new comedy drama which offers a raw, funny and unapologetic take on the “last taboo” - bisexuality - and the prejudices, shame and comic misconceptions that surround it. With Desiree’s trademark dry wit, the series takes a candid look at people’s approach to love and sex, and what the love and sex they’re drawn to reveals about them.

New Yorker Leila (Desiree Akhavan) is feeling lost in London having decided to go on a ‘break’ from her 10-year relationship with girlfriend and business partner Sadie (BAFTA-nominated Maxine Peake). Moving out of their shared flat but still faced with the fresh hell of seeing her ex every day at their joint tech company, Leila ends up renting a room from neurotic novelist Gabe (Brian Gleeson), a Hackney-dwelling 30-something dwarfed by the success of his debut novel which came out years ago and has long been forgotten.

Leila begins sleeping with men but struggles to come out as bisexual to her gay friends, most importantly her best mate, the near un-shockable Deniz (Saskia Chana). She finds an unlikely wingman in the form of Gabe. He helps her navigate a new life dating men and women – and Leila, in return, introduces wide-eyed Gabe to the London lesbian scene, whilst doing her best to help him decipher his unreadable, sort-of-girlfriend, sort-of student Francisca (Michelle Guillot). As Leila makes changes, so does Sadie - changes that take her in a very different direction.

Skewering stereotypes and unpicking them The Bisexual explores the difference between dating men and women from the perspective of someone who finds herself – for the first time - doing both, whilst examining the funny, painful, complexities of realising that the one you love, and the life you need, may be two very different things.

Production company: Hootenanny (a Sister Pictures company)