--- title: "Alma's Not Normal" year: 2020 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/almas-not-normal" fi1m_id: "almas-not-normal" imdb_id: "tt12106710" tmdb_id: 106161 wikidata_id: "Q108532525" fi1m_score: 84 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-10-07T19:35:22.473522+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T19:35:54.573015+00:00" region: "SK" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Alma's Not Normal (2020) Created by Sophie Willan · 29m · Comedy ## Identity Alma's Not Normal - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/almas-not-normal - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** almas-not-normal - **IMDb ID:** tt12106710 - **TMDB ID:** 106161 - **Wikidata ID:** Q108532525 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12106710/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/106161, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q108532525 **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* The funniest series we know about a woman visiting her mother on a psychiatric ward > Sophie Willan’s comedy about a Bolton woman with no job, no qualifications and a mother on a psychiatric ward is the rare series that is as funny as it is sad. A few episodes tie up too neatly; the performances never do. ## Synopsis Bolton, now. Alma (Sophie Willan) is in her thirties, has no job, no qualifications and no fixed idea of how she will pay the rent, and has just been dropped by her boyfriend Anthony (James Baxter). What she wants is to act. What stands in the way is everything else: her mother Lin (Siobhan Finneran), a heroin addict in and out of psychiatric care; her grandmother Joan (Lorraine Ashbourne), who smokes, drinks and raised Alma when nobody else would; and a childhood spent in the care system. Her best friend Leanne (Jayde Adams) is the one person who does not want anything from her. Short of money, Alma signs up with an escort agency, tells herself it is research, and goes to visit her mum on the ward. ## Review Sophie Willan writes *Alma’s Not Normal* and plays Alma, a woman in Bolton who wants to be an actress and has nothing she could put on a form to support the idea. Her mother is an addict, her grandmother raised her between fag breaks, and she grew up partly in care. Willan’s bet is that all of this can be the stuff of a half-hour comedy without the comedy being at anyone’s expense, and that the jokes should come from the people rather than from the writer standing behind them. Six episodes of 29 minutes, first shown in 2020; a second series of six followed in 2024. The bet pays out, and our verdict is a warm one. The reason it works is that nobody in it is pitied. Alma is vain, broke and a liar when it suits her, and she is also the most alive person on screen. Joan swears at the television, at the doctors and at Alma, and loves her granddaughter in a way the series never once has to announce. The humour is the humour of people who have had a bad time and decided to be entertaining about it, which is a different thing from a sitcom about poverty. Siobhan Finneran’s Lin is where the series stops being merely good. She plays a woman who has been ill for most of her adult life as somebody still there, still quick, still able to wound and be wounded. There is a scene on the ward, early on, where Alma tries to keep things light and Lin will not let her, and we were caught off guard by how much it hurt: Finneran does nothing with her face and everything with the pauses. Lorraine Ashbourne’s Joan is the opposite, all noise and cardigan and bad advice, and the two of them together make the family feel like one that has existed for forty years. Jayde Adams’s Leanne is quieter and looks, at first, like a sidekick; by the end of the series she has earned her own trouble and her own laughs. Andrew Chaplin directs plainly, which is the right call. He shoots Bolton as it is, in flat daylight on real streets, and lets the longer conversations run without cutting away to tell us when to laugh. There is no music nudging us toward the sad bits. Gill Isles produces, and the whole thing has the feel of a programme made for little money by people who knew what the money was for. It has faults, and they are worth naming. Several episodes tidy themselves up in the last five minutes with a reconciliation that the previous twenty-four did not quite build. Alma’s acting ambition, which is supposed to be the engine, goes missing for stretches while the escort work and the family take over, and we sometimes forgot what she was meant to want. James Baxter’s Anthony is a thin part, there to be left. And the swing from a joke to something awful and back inside one scene, which is the series’ signature, occasionally feels like the jokes are covering for the writer as well as for Alma. Against the British comedies it will be compared to, it sits well. It is closer to [*The Royle Family*](https://film.one/tv/the-royle-family) than to *Shameless*: the characters are poor and the poverty is never the punchline. Where it goes further than either is in putting mental illness at the centre and refusing to make it either tragic or cute. Lin is not a lesson. She is Alma’s mum. Watch it in order, because the family only makes sense once you have seen each of them lose an argument. Six episodes is an evening and a half, and we would give it both. *Fi1m score 84, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Alma's Not Normal worth watching?** *Alma's Not Normal* is worth watching for anyone who wants a comedy that is as funny as it is sad, and we scored it 84. Sophie Willan's series about a broke Bolton woman with a mother on a psychiatric ward never pities its people, and Siobhan Finneran's Lin is where it stops being merely good. Some episodes tie up too neatly in their last five minutes. **How long is Alma's Not Normal, and what is it rated?** *Alma's Not Normal* has episodes of about 29m. It is a comedy series. **Where can I watch Alma's Not Normal in Slovakia?** *Alma's Not Normal* is not on any streaming or rental service in Slovakia at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **What should I watch after Alma's Not Normal?** After *Alma's Not Normal*, try [*The Royle Family*](https://film.one/tv/the-royle-family) (1998, Fi1m 85): A Manchester family on a sofa, saying nothing much, and every line is exact. Then [*Fleabag*](https://film.one/tv/fleabag) (2016, Fi1m 90): A woman performing cheerfulness at the camera while her life comes apart behind her. ### Reviews we read (2) - **The Guardian**, Lucy Mangan (90/100, inferred): Mangan finds the series bleak, brilliant, and far from ordinary, praising how it entwines comedy with emotional pain. She singles out the powerful central performances and the loving, complicated bond between Alma and her grandmother. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/apr/07/almas-not-normal-review-comedy-sophie-willan) - **The i Paper**, Emily Baker (90/100, inferred): Baker calls the comedy a delight and finds it bright, joyful and ultimately hopeful. She singles out its vivid details and unvarnished portrait of Bolton as particular strengths. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/almas-not-normal-bbc2-review-sophie-willans-comedy-is-a-joyful-portrait-of-the-north-we-rarely-see-on-tv-1197168) ## Details - **Created by:** Sophie Willan - **Creator:** Sophie Willan - **Director:** Andrew Chaplin - **Writer:** Sophie Willan - **Producer:** Gill Isles - **Cast:** Sophie Willan as Alma; Jayde Adams as Leanne; Lorraine Ashbourne as Joan; Siobhan Finneran as Lin; James Baxter as Anthony; Nicholas Asbury as Jim; Lemn Sissay as Jerry; Adam Woolley as Rob - **Runtime:** 29m - **Release (Slovakia):** 7 April 2020 - **Genres:** Comedy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOeMeLqq3K8 ## Where to watch in Slovakia Not streaming, renting or buying in Slovakia at the last check. Also available in: AU, GB. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Mum* (2016): Lesley Manville in a suburban kitchen, grieving quietly while her family talks over her - *The Royle Family* (1998), Fi1m 85: A Manchester family on a sofa, saying nothing much, and every line is exact — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-royle-family.md) - *Rita* (2012): A Danish teacher who smokes, swears and is right, which nobody around her enjoys - *Fleabag* (2016), Fi1m 90: A woman performing cheerfulness at the camera while her life comes apart behind her — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/fleabag.md) - *Raised by Wolves* (2013): Caitlin Moran’s Wolverhampton childhood, home-schooled, overcrowded and funnier than it has any right to be --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/almas-not-normal