David Farnor | On 19, Dec 2018

Channel 4 is exploring a lesser-known form of OCD in its new drama, Pure, this January, and new pictures give us our first look at the show.

The honest, funny series about getting to know your mind and your mates follows 24 year old Marnie (newcomer Charly Clive), who has ‘bad’ thoughts all the time and can’t tell anyone. Her mind is XXX-rated and intrusive thoughts are piling up inside her head. It turns out she’s actually caught in the grip of an excruciating type of obsessive compulsive disorder – a form of OCD nicknamed ‘pure O’ – where her obsessions take the form of intrusive thoughts, often sexual, and the compulsions are unseen mental rituals that deeply affect her daily life.

Only, Marnie doesn’t know this yet – she just knows: Something. Has. Got. To. Give.

On the day of her parents’ 25th wedding anniversary in the Scottish Borders, things reach a peak and result in THE most shocking intrusive thoughts ever! At breaking point, she packs a bag and, with no plan, jumps on a coach to London. But in the capital, Marnie soon discovers she’s not the only one who’s lost.

Marnie finds a gang of new friends, all with their own foibles. She moves in with her deceptively cheery old school friend Shereen (Kiran Sonia Sawar; Murdered By My Father, Black Mirror). She befriends Charlie (BIFA-winning Joe Cole, A Prayer Before Dawn, Peaky Blinders), who is in recovery, having torpedoed his love and work life, due to his porn addiction. He’s now single, stuck with an old-school flip-phone and attending weekly Sex Addicts Anonymous meets. Queen among Marnie’s new gang is journalist and ladies-woman Amber (Niamh Algar, The Bisexual), who has been gaining a problematic rep for her promiscuity. Then there’s Amber’s housemate, the irresistible and unassuming Joe (Anthony Welsh; Black Mirror, Journeyman).

Writer Kirstie Swain’s first original series, based on Rose Cartwright’s acclaimed memoir, is a six-part exploration of one young woman’s search for herself and her very real struggle with mental health.

Rose Cartwright says: “When I wrote my memoir, Pure, my mental health condition was virtually unheard of, and my thoughts were deeply taboo. Now, to collaborate on its adaptation with such a talented, diligent, witty team, is an extraordinary validation and privilege.

“As my story is reimagined on-screen, we have a unique opportunity to reach untold thousands of people who have lived for years, as I did, in secrecy and shame. To humanise their darkest experiences, to empower them to change, and to give them new hope.”

Writer Kirstie Swain says: “When you have an anxiety disorder, life can feel like just a series of things to worry about. What to say, what to eat, how to be, who to be with. That’s why I wanted to write this show, because as a chronic over-thinker, I really identified with Rose’s account of what it’s like to constantly question yourself. Pure explores what happens when that doubt turns pathological and gives a female voice to the often silent story of mental health. I’m so proud to have made this show with Channel 4 and Drama Republic.|

Other members of the cast include Arabella Weir, Doon Mackichan Ewan Stewart, Olive Gray, Tori Allen-Martin, Jing Lusi and Jacob Collins-Levy. Here are the first pictures of the cast:

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