My Mad Fat Diary

Review: Sharon Rooney is brilliant in the final episode

Whilst watching the final episode of this series of My Mad Fat Diary I was left wondering if there would be a series three. I'm certainly sure that fans of the programme, including myself, would be up for another run of this thoroughly enjoyable comedy drama.

Episode six of eight in the second series based on Rae Earl's teenage diaries. Rae (Sharon Rooney) is having a tough time, with therapist Kester drawing "boundaries"; Finn is out of the picture, and her newfound relationship with dad Victor (Keith Allen) is proving a disappointment. In an unexpected twist, this week takes us into the sex, lies and dark secrets that best mate Chloe's journal holds. Complete with tunes from Blur and Portishead, this surreal, serious slice of 90s teenagedom gets better each week.

Review: A beautifully tragic episode

Tonight's episode of My Mad Fat Diary was definitely Jodie Comer's time to shine and she did so spectacularly with a performance to rival Sharon Rooney's.

Nico Mirallegro: Sex scenes with Sharon Rooney were fun

My Mad Fat Diary star Nico Mirallegro has revealed how co-star Sharon Rooney broke the tension during their sex scenes.

Sharon Rooney shines in an incredibly moving episode

I could just copy and paste the phrase 'Sharon Rooney was fantastic in this episode' but it wouldn't do justice to such a brave performance.

Have you been watching ... My Mad Fat Diary?

This E4 teen drama, currently in its second season, has appeal way beyond the characters' own demographic - full, as it is, of universal struggles in love, mental health and self-image.

Sharon Rooney continues to shine in a mediocre episode

I do feel I might be a little harsh on My Mad Fat Diary and that's primarily due to the fact that I judge it by a higher standard than I do other programmes.

Radio Times review

Rae crosses over to the dark side this week, ingratiating herself with college Queen Bee Stacey and her subservient posse. It's a welcome relief from her loneliness, but acceptance into the sanctum comes at a price; Rae must wear designer clothes, swap rock albums for the Backstreet Boys (it is 1996 after all) and poke fun at the school "losers".

"I'm a phoney," confesses an angsty voiceover as cartoon ink scrawls the words "Who are you kidding?" across the screen. Frank, affecting and superbly acted.

My Mad Fat Diary review

Sharon Rooney gives a magnificent performance in another great episode.

The comedy drama My Mad Fat Diary brings us back to find Rae (Sharon Rooney) feeling better now that she has her new group of friends and is loved up with Finn (Nico Mirallegro). However, her therapist Kester (Ian Hart) believes that she is lying her to herself and that she isn't as well as she thinks she is. Indeed, as the episode draws on Rae starts to question her romance with Finn and in particular why someone like him would date someone like her. Events come to a head when the gang start college and Rae finally realises that her new relationships still can't prepare her for being around large groups of people. When the new series of My Mad Fat Diary began I did worry slightly that it dwelt too much on the comedic side of things and that it had lost the balance of light and shade that made it one of my favourite programmes of 2013. Even though some of the comic exchanges made me laugh out loud, particularly the line about Finn developing gills, the dark side seemed to have slipped away.

The turning point for me was the word association game that Kester and Rae played followed by Rae's beliefs about the way she and Finn were perceived as a couple. Writer Tom Bidwell really has a knack for presenting Rae's illness as a condition that she has to live with rather than something that hampers her on a scene by scene basis. Once again, the mid-1990s setting allows Bidwell to play around with previous references, namely one character getting excited after purchasing a TV with a built-in VCR. But at the heart of My Mad Fat Diary is the superb central performance from Sharon Rooney who deserves to at least be nominated for a TV Bafta. She proves herself to be both adept at delivering comic dialogue as she is in connecting with the audience on a more personal level. Even though I don't think I'm exactly the target market for My Mad Fat Diary I don't think it should just appeal to people in a similar situation to Rae's. Instead, I think anybody who has ever felt like an outcast will be able to identify with the programme in some way and ultimately the programme deals with these feeling in a funny, stylish and relatable way.