{"id":45726,"date":"2024-02-12T18:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T17:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1990987"},"modified":"2024-02-12T18:51:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T17:51:35","slug":"is-one-day-based-on-a-true-story-inspiration-behind-netflix-series","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-one-day-based-on-a-true-story-inspiration-behind-netflix-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Is One Day based on a true story? Inspiration behind Netflix series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are Emma and Dexter based on real people? <\/p>

By Molly Moss\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 12 February 2024 at 17:00 PM<\/p>

\n\n

With Valentine\u2019s Day around the corner, Netflix has released a new series, One Day<\/a>, about a decade-long relationship, snapshots of which are revealed on the same day each year.<\/span><\/p>\n

We follow an unlikely couple<\/a>: Emma Morley (Ambika Mod)<\/a>, a working-class girl from Leeds with a double first in English and History, and <\/span>Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall<\/a>), an upper middle-class boy from Oxfordshire with a 2:2 in Anthropology.<\/span><\/p>\n

After meeting at their University of Edinburgh graduation ball, their almost-romance blossoms into an unlikely friendship seemingly destined to be something more.<\/span><\/p>\n

But is One Day<\/a> based on a true story? Read on for everything you need to know about the inspiration behind the series.<\/p>\n

Is One Day based on a true story?<\/strong><\/h2>\nNo. One Day<\/a> is based on David Nicholl\u2019s best-selling fictional novel of the same name<\/strong>, <\/span>which was previously turned into a <\/span>film adaptation<\/span><\/a> starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.<\/span><\/p>\n
Having said that, Nicholls has previously opened up about taking inspiration from his own life.<\/span><\/p>\n
Like Mod\u2019s character Emma, Nicholls studied English and Drama at University and, after working as an actor for a brief period, he turned to writing and publishing novels.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d had my fair share of false starts and blind alleys,\u201d he told The Guardian<\/a> in 2021. \u201cEmma\u2019s terrible Tex-Mex restaurant was my Fulham bistro chain, her avocado bathroom came from my bedsit in Battersea.\u201d<\/span><\/p>
But what about Dexter? \u201cA lot of my male friends had quite a wild, hedonistic time in London in the \u201990s, and that\u2019s gone into Dexter\u2019s character,\u201d Nicholls told the\u00a0Midlife at the Oasis book blog<\/a> in 2010.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The<\/a> Guardian<\/a> in 2011, Nicholls said of Dexter: \u201cWhen I was an actor, I worked with lots of men who had a bit of success early on, who were very good looking, who suddenly made a bit of money and who felt no embarrassment \u2013 and nor should they have done \u2013 about having a good time. I think there are probably bits of them in Dexter.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the same interview, Nicholls revealed that the idea for the novel first came to him in the mid \u201980s while he was studying Tess of the D\u2019Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy for his A-Levels, which made him consider the significance of a single date.<\/span><\/p>\n
In the novel, <\/span>Tess \u201cnoted dates as they came past in the revolution of the year\u201d and realised that there was another date which was of greater significance than all those \u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u201ca day which lay sly and unseen \u2026 that of her own death \u2026 giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Speaking to The Guardian, Nicholls revealed that he was struck by inspiration again twenty years later while adapting <\/span>Tess of the D\u2019Urbervilles<\/span> for the BBC, once again <\/span>becoming interested by the idea that an ordinary day can turn out to be not so ordinary at all.<\/p>\n
But what date would be appropriate? <\/span>Eventually, Nicholls decided to set his book around St Swithin\u2019s Day, which falls every year on 15th July, and is connected to graduation season and the start of a new journey for students.<\/span><\/p>\n
$\"Dexter$ \n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>