Chewing Gum
- TV sitcom
- E4
- 2015 - 2017
- 12 episodes (2 series)
Comedy starring singer, poet and award-winning playwright Michaela Coel as an innocent 22 year-old who is learning to grow up. Also features Robert Lonsdale, Danielle Isaie, Susan Wokoma, Shola Adewusi, Maggie Steed and more.
Streaming rank this week: 2,597
Episode menu
Series 2, Episode 1 - WTF Happened?
Further details
Tracey's return to the Pensbourne Estate doesn't quite go as she would have liked. Best friend Candice isn't happy to see her and mum Joy won't let her in. But at least she's back at work at Deepak's Delectables. Tracey discovers ex-boyfriend Connor has a new relationship, and ropes Ola into helping her convince Connor she has moved on. Meanwhile, Connor tells a few lies of his own in order to get Tracey to talk about what actually happened between them.
Broadcast details
- Date
- Thursday 12th January 2017
- Time
- 10pm
- Channel
- E4
- Length
- 30 minutes
Cast & crew
| Michaela Coel | Tracey Gordon |
| Robert Lonsdale | Connor Jones |
| Danielle Isaie (as Danielle Walters) | Candice |
| Shola Adewusi | Joy |
| Maggie Steed | Esther |
| Olisa Odele | Ola |
| Kadiff Kirwan | Aaron |
| Nicholas Asbury | Keys |
| Jean Ellwood | Jean (Customer) |
| Jade Anouka | Danny |
| Michael Omari (as Stormzy) | Self |
| Michaela Coel | Writer |
| Tom Marshall | Director |
| Simon Neal | Director |
| John Pocock | Producer |
| Michaela Coel | Producer |
| Jon Rolph | Executive Producer |
| Nana Hughes | Executive Producer |
| Gareth Heal | Editor |
| Lucy Spink | Production Designer |
| Nadira Seecoomar | Casting Director |
| Lynsey Moore | Costume Designer |
| Luke Bryant | Director of Photography |
| Pippa Woods | Make-up Designer |
| Shakka Philip | Composer |
| Michaela Coel | Composer |
| Alexa Seabourne | Make-up Designer |
| Kas Braganza | 1st Assistant Director |
Video
Tracey's pretend boyfriend
Tracey has convinced Connor that Stormzy is her new boyfriend, but she didn't actually know he would show up!
Featuring: Michaela Coel (Tracey Gordon), Robert Lonsdale (Connor Jones), Olisa Odele (Ola) & Stormzy.
Press
Chewing Gum was gamey meat indeed. Michaela Coel sassed and swore her way to a clutch of deserved awards in 2015, and returns with a second series that certainly doesn't rely on lazy stereotypes. Her character, Tracey, is - I'm fairly sure this is unique - an exuberantly dysfunctional twentysomething, ex-religious, black, mouthy virgin with a great line in backchat and an endless capacity for self-deception. Its relentless energy leaves one's limbs akimbo on the sofa, pebble-dashed with loud, flirty vomit. First watching, I hated it. Second, I loved it, and got it. Third - who's to know? A constant blithering surprise, and thus to be truly cherished in TV-land.
Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 15th January 2017TV review: Chewing Gum, E4
It's good to have Chewing Gum back. It's very different to any other series I've seen recently, while at the same time it has echoes of the BBC hit Fleabag, which it preceded. If that programme was all Phoebe Waller-Bridge's idea about contemporary attitudes to sex, then Chewing Gum is very much Michaela Coel's view of modern romance.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 14th January 2017Chewing Gum deserves our attention - review
If life were a sitcom, the scenario would happen in a corner shop just after you've accidentally scrawled pen on your forehead, as happens in the opening episode of series two of the cult hit Chewing Gum (E4).
Catherine Gee, The Telegraph, 13th January 2017Chewing Gum review
A slice of working-class urban life is shoved rudely, and gloriously, in your face.
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 13th January 2017A very welcome return for Michaela Coel's warm and brilliantly funny comedy, full of outlandish yet relatable dramas, and helmed by a black, British, working-class hero, played by Coel herself. This opener is called WTF Happened?, a question viewers will surely ponder: lovebirds Tracey and Connor have broken up for reasons neither are entirely clear on, and Connor's already moved on. Cue a characteristically ill-thought-out bit of scheming from Trace.
Hannah J Davies, The Guardian, 12th January 2017Why we need more of young Queen Coel
Chewing Gum returns to E4 this week. Hannah Dunleavy tells us why we all need a bit of Michaela Coel in our lives.
Hannah Dunleavy, Standard Issue, 11th January 2017Chewing Gum is as rude, tender and funny as ever
This half-hour episode is wrought with such care, attention and emotional nuance it could have been expanded into a play (let's not forget that the germ of the series came from Coel's National Theatre hit, Chewing Gum Dreams); there really is not a line out of place.
Ben Dowell, Radio Times, 9th January 2017