Pasties, Mental Health and Fabulous Women

Why I’m head over heels for
the emotional stodge of
Alma’s Not Normal 

Kate, suprisingly not a designer, encapsulates BBC’s Alma’s Not Normal via the magic of Canva

I’ve written this blog post for fun, alongside donating to a serious cause, Refuge, for women and children, against domestic violence. Here’s a link if you’d also like to donate.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who discovered the fabulous Alma’s Not Normal when the second series scooted its way onto BBC iPlayer last October. 

Always late to any party (except actual-real life parties, when I’m annoyingly prompt) I kicked myself for not having watched it when the first series started back in 2020 – but then I was thankful for the joy that is modern TV, where you can catch up on back catalogues any time you goddam please. Woo! 

Pasties, mental health and fabulous women 

As you might be able to tell, if you’ve found me bollocking on both here and on LinkedIn before, this TV programme ticks all my boxes… 

And, as tomorrow is International Women’s Day (8th March), this week is British Pie Week (3rd-9th March) and because every day is Mental Health Day in my house, here’s why I fuckin’ love Alma and her abnormal life.

(It’s in a list, coz I also love lists.)

It’s fabulous, intit? 

Who doesn’t love neon pink coats, lime green tops and a lot of leopard print? Ha, well, I don’t love them usually, but the technicolour style of the show is all rather fabulous, especially against the grey backdrops of Bolton, poverty, addiction and the mental health/ care system. 

This aesthetic has no doubt been deliberately and expertly painted by creator and writer Sophie Willan, to show her mainly-autobiographical character, Alma, as being optimistic to a fault when all around her seems… a bit bleak. 

Shit, man, the perspective! 

Let’s face it, we all have our crosses to bear: those moments we dramatically quote as defining in our lives, the people we wished loved us more, the times we felt utterly stabbed in the heart. 

Well, Alma has so many of those, it’s amazing she’s not sucked constantly into a vortex of hate, anger and tears that spits her out every morning with not so much as a trajectory of flob and a, ‘good luck, love’. 

For example, Alma’s mum, Lin, could never give her daughter as much attention as she could heroin; then, after years of scrounging for hydration in discarded cider bottles at her mother’s house, Alma ended up spending time in foster care; also, she didn’t start school till she was seven; and to boot, one of her only allies, her Grandma Joan, often called her vindictive and manipulative for trying to satisfy the most basic of needs, such as food. 

And, although I know from hearing her interviews that Sophie Willan has done a LO-HOT of work through things like therapy, she portrays her experiences through Alma who is always optimistic, self-aware, realistic, empathetic and funny. I can’t imagine how she did it but it’s admirable and inspirational. 

Northern loveliness 

Alma and her writer, Sophie, are from Bolton and the city is as much a character as the humans are. I have family who live just down the road from Bolton, in Bury and Radcliffe, so the strong accents in this show make me think of the big-bosomy warmth of Lancashire family parties in the 80s. 

Despite being a Midlands woman who only realised recently that I’ve lived in the South for longer than I’ve lived anywhere, because of these family connections, I think of the North West – particularly Greater Manchester – as a spiritual home. If you’ve never been to Manchester, go now. Tell them ‘hiya’ from me.  

Pasties are also a character in the show! Woo!

Alma says she has a pasty every day from her local bakery, the real-life Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe, so therefore she’s a carb-based, pastry-loving, comfort-food eater just like me. Yesss. Not only is that a great little detail, but showing women on TV loving food and it not having some massively overblown meaning is quite refreshing. 

Now, I’d never heard of Bolton’s Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe before this show, but according to the shop’s blurb: “the shop opened on December 7, 1898, although the building itself has been around since 1667. The shop [serves] delicious baked goods and renowned pasties to customers. It has even achieved international fame, with pasties being […] eaten by well-known stars such as Sir Alex Ferguson and Peter Kay.” 

I think they need to update that last bit, don’t you?

Just amazing writing

Sophie Willan squeezes so many elements into the show – sex work, mental health, drugs, death, cancer, family, friendship, pasties, Bolton, acting, writing, stand-up comedy and shitloads more – but to me, it never feels forced or ‘too much’ (that said, she has got the right to make it a bit ‘too much’ IMHO).

My ambition as a human and as a writer is to take life seriously and then laugh in its face. I think Alma does this beautifully in just 12 half-hour episodes of mainstream TV. 

Newsflash: women are flawed, strong and funny 

And the final charm that makes me love any drama – things like Fleabag, anything written by Victoria Wood, even Bridget-bloody-Jones – is when women are not patronisingly portrayed as perfect (something that I think was a well-meaning reaction to women previously being watery, secondary characters). 

In Alma’s Not Normal, the women are front and centre of the show. They are all at once selfish, headstrong, stubborn, smart, their own worst enemy, self-distructive, petty, funny, witty, ballsy, sexy, hungry, vulnerable and driven. 

I could write a whole other blog about Alma’s mum, Lin, touchingly played by Siobhan Finneran and who is infuriating, vulnerable, funny, clever, misunderstood, and a truly talented artist (that poem at the end of the second series, man…). 

And I adore animal print loving, topless sunbather Grandma Joan, played by Lorraine Ashbourne, with whom Alma has an unusual relationship, in that they talk quite openly about sex between eating spam and smoking fags together.

It’s just a wonderful thing to see women being silly, being wrong, being strong – but we mustn’t forget that they are all these things despite, and because of, continuing expectations, societal bias, prejudice and sometimes downright abuse. 

Alma’s Not Normal. And thank god she isn’t. 

If you’ve not watched it yet, I suggest you at least give the pilot a try (just that episode won Sophie Willan a BAFTA).

Hi, I’m Kate, a freelance copywriter who lives in Sussex and loves to prattle on about food and mental health. If you liked anything in this blog or if it made you feel something, we might be a good match! 

Maybe I could help you sell your fabulous pasties, wonderful pink coats or scintillating leopard print jumpsuits? If that sounds good, click the button above, love.