Channel 4The End of the F***ing World season two launches on All 4 tomorrow, November 4, which means fans of the Channel 4 and Netflix collab can look forward to more teenage angst, dark humour and, most probably, some more unconventional relationships.
Last month, the official trailer for the second instalment of the dark comedy dropped, showing Alyssa (Jessica Barden) looking over the dramatic season one cliffhanger that was her final moments with James (Alex Lawther), while wedding dress shopping with her mum.
The climactic ending saw James lying on the beach after being shot by police, while Alyssa is put in handcuffs and bundled off, unaware of her boyfriend’s fate.
Fans have no idea whether James will live to fight another day and return for season two. Meanwhile, Jessica has revealed season two is not at all what anyone would expect from her character.
‘When Charlie explained the whole series to me and what the story was going to be for Alyssa,’ Jessica told UNILAD, ‘knowing the Alyssa I played in the first series, I could actually see a tremendous benefit in playing the storyline Charlie had written for her.’
She continued:
Alyssa was the character people were so used to seeing as very outspoken, and the way she does things as different to other young women.
The actor feels ‘showing how people like [Alyssa] could respond to a really bad experience’ is beneficial, particularly when it comes to ‘how that can change somebody’s personality’ even if the response has gone ‘under the radar’ in a character you just presume will be fine.
Netflix/Channel 4The last we saw of Alyssa, she was in a relationship with self-confessed psychopath James while they were both on the run from killing a man in self-defence. However, as the trailer shows Alyssa in a wedding dress, fans are left questioning who she will tie the knot with.
‘I really loved that Charlie wrote something that was not at all what anybody would expect from her,’ Jessica explained. ‘I hope that it makes more sense as it goes on why we took that path, but I think it’s really important to show how an outgoing character who’s going to say everything that comes into their head and be able to protect themselves – sometimes those people struggle just as much as a quieter person might.’
After its release in 2017, The End of the F***ing World season one quickly became All 4’s most streamed series ever, which could be credited to the dark plot intertwined with humour throughout its eight episodes.
Channel 4/NetflixThis, Jessica says, is because she always tries to find humour in any role that she plays ‘because that’s real life.’
‘It’s the idea that everybody is funny to somebody,’ she explained. ‘There’s at least one person in your life that thinks you’re hilarious, and I think that lightens the more heavy stuff that we deal with.’
The 27-year-old continued, ‘I try and find humour in everything because it exists in life. It’s realistic to have humour alongside a lot of pain in a lot of people’s lives, and I think it’s an extremely British thing to have humour alongside really painful events – and I think that’s especially true in Alyssa.’
Series two of End of the F*cking World will land on All 4 on Monday, November 4.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.