Sharon Rooney

In this painfully edgy teen angst comedy drama, Rae Earl (Sharon Rooney) is an overweight 16-year-old stranded in Lincolnshire in the mid-1990s. Just released from a residential stint in a psychiatric ward, back home she's still emotionally crippled by fears about what people think of her. Lucky for her that she stumbles across a bunch of understanding mates - but donning a swimming costume at a pool party puts her fledgling confidence to the test.

Anyone who's ever been an angst-ridden adolescent (ie everyone) will be torn between wanting to chortle and hug the heroine of this new teen drama. It's based on the published diaries of the real Rae Earl but has transplanted her trials and tribulations from the 80s to 1996 - hence the stonking Brit-pop soundtrack.

We meet 16-year-old Rae on the day she's discharged from psychiatric hospital and returns home to an unsympathetic mum, who'd rather canoodle with her illegal immigrant boyfriend than spend time with her stroppy daughter. All the latter wants in life is to be as popular as her effortlessly cool mate Chloe and to snog a boy.

At times Rae (Glaswegian comic Sharon Rooney) rivals the Inbetweeners boys for lewdness, crudeness and wince-inducing hilarity. Keep a cushion handy for the swimming pool scene.

As if being 16 years old, 16-and-a-half stone and a resident of smalltown Lincolnshire wasn't bad enough, Rae (Sharon Rooney) has just spent four months in a psychiatric ward. So it's understandable that she might fancy a new start, under the watchful eyes of her clued-up doctor (Ian Hart) and erratic mother (Claire Rushbrook). But can she hide her past from her new friends and overcome her issues to make the most of teenage life in the Britpop era? Based on writer Rae Earl's real-life diaries, E4's latest series is shaping up to be a triumph to file alongside Skins and Misfits, while being entirely different to both and a tougher sell (neither as on-trend as the former nor as high concept as the latter) than either.

Key to its success is Rooney's empathetic, guileless lead performance, while the comedy and tragedy inherent in the premise is deftly handled. An appealing, confident opener.

My Mad Fat Diary: review

There are some nice performances notably Claire Rushbrook and Ian Hart as the token adults and new comer Sharon Rooney leads the production with humour and personal charm. However, like much 'comedy drama', I feel that My Mad Fat Diary lacks that the emotional punch to be a drama or the gags or wit to be a comedy; and we will end up with little more than another soap opera for adolescents.

Sharon Rooney: nice to see normal-looking people on TV

The star of E4's My Mad Fat Diary talks role models and teenage insecurities.

Nicely done adaptation of Rae Earl's real 1990s teenage diaries. Earl was an unstable, overweight teenager in Lincolnshire when she was sent to an institution for four months during a nervous breakdown, while her mum told everyone she was in France. Sharon Rooney is outstanding as the girl desperate to fit in, have sex and escape her unhelpful mother. It is funny, features all the 90s indie you could want, and the direction really is exquisite. The bit when a sausage thwangs slowly into someone's cheek is worth the budget alone.

My Mad Fat Diary is both realistic and frothy. Based on the teenage diaries of writer Rae Earl - who, unlike most of us, had something genuinely dramatic to agonise over, having been taken into a psychiatric hospital - it portrays its 1990s heroine (young Scots actress Sharon Rooney) in all her gawky, unglamorous, stroppy non-glory. But this is far from a grim expose of mental health, because Rae is far less interested in that than in boys - or BOYS!!! as her diary would have it.

It's an odd tonal mixture, lurching from touching moments to overegged stereotypes, with plenty that both young and older viewers will groan to recognise. It's all played a bit safe though: I wish they'd let out more of the madness.

Based on Rae Earl's real-life book about an overweight, funny, boy-mad teenager - with mental health issues - growing up in Lincolnshire in the mid-Nineties, this comedy drama has a lot going for it. Rae is nicely played by Sharon Rooney. Claire Rushbrook plays her unreliable mum and Ian Hart her therapist. The opener sees Rae discharged from a psychiatric hospital and hooking up with childhood friend Chloe (Jodie Comer).

Sharon Rooney interview

Rising talent Sharon Rooney hopes her new role as a self-harming psychiatric patient will save teen fans from suffering in silence.

Sharon Rooney: no rules or law on what size you are

The size 16 comic Sharon Rooney is about to make her British telly breakthrough as the star of E4's drama, My Mad Fat Diary, which deals with the issues facing plus-size teenage girls.