Pure
- TV comedy drama
- Channel 4
- 2019
- 6 episodes (1 series)
Comedy drama about one woman's mental illness and attempts to find herself after running away to London. Stars Charly Clive, Anthony Welsh, Niamh Algar, Joe Cole, Kiran Sonia Sawar and more.
Press clippings Page 2
Pure, Channel 4's latest thing to set cats among pigeons, can lay claim to being rather taboo-busting, and is bound to win plaudits. Rightly so, in many ways: it's the interpretation of a book about mental illness - specifically, a form of OCD designated "pure", as the symptoms occur not physically but as mental obsessions, often savagely debilitating. Poor 24-year-old Marnie just happens to see tonguing, furry, sweaty, awful porn-sex between whichever people she's looking at whenever it kicks in. She hates it - knowing something's slightly off with her brain - and she loves it - being 24 in London, and ditto.
It addresses serious, really serious, issues; I just don't know whether they quite mesh yet with the other stated intent: comedy. Newcomer Charly Clive as Marnie is wonderful - surely an instant hit - with her perfect(ly fake) Scots accent and dry jibes, but so far this straddles an uneasy chasm between wryness and horror, and threatens to unseat both pegs.
Euan Ferguson, The Guardian, 3rd February 2019Interview: Charly Clive
"I can relate to the feeling of not understanding your brain"
Emily Harrison, The National Student, 1st February 2019Pure, Channel 4 review - sex, OCD and the single girl
Tormenting thoughts: a triumphant drama series that tackles mental health taboos.
Markie Robson-Scott, The Arts Desk, 31st January 2019"I saw sex, vaginas and naked bodies everywhere"
Rose Carter was eventually diagnosed with OCD and her story has inspired new comedy drama, Pure.
Jane Lavender, The Mirror, 31st January 2019A new brand of confessional comedy-drama for millennials arrives in the form of this series based on the memoir by Rose Cartwright. It follows 24-year-old Scot Marnie, who is plagued by intrusive sexual thoughts in the form of an OCD nicknamed "Pure O". As it opens, she boards a bus to London determined to change her life.
Mike Bradley, The Guardian, 30th January 2019Kirstie Swain: "You can't be a little bit OCD."
The writer of coming-of-age comedy drama Pure, starting tonight on C4, talks to us about depictions of mental illness and sex on TV...
Louisa Mellor, Den Of Geek, 30th January 2019Pure review
Has the potential to deepen our understanding of mental health.
Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent, 30th January 2019Pure, Channel 4, review
A startlingly bold and very funny comedy about mental health.
Sarah Carson, i Newspaper, 30th January 2019Pure review - masterly comedy about sex & mental health
Marnie has a form of OCD called Pure O, which manifests as constant invasive thoughts about sex. But this comedy-drama never resorts to cheap laughs. It is brave, bold and barely short of a miracle.
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian, 30th January 2019Pure episode 1 review: frank, funny & boundary-pushing
Channel 4's Pure is a bold comedy-drama led by shock, laughs and a compelling lead performance.
Louisa Mellor, Den Of Geek, 30th January 2019