Little Disasters, based on my psychological thriller about the darkest reaches of motherhood, drops on Paramount+ today and I could not be more thrilled.

Starring Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds, Troy) as Jess, and Jo Joyner (The Wives, Stay Close, Shakespeare & Hathaway) as Liz, it feels true to my 2020 novel and yet distinct from it. A storyline set in the Eighties has been stripped away and each of the four mothers has a more fully realised narrative. And as for the ending? Well, you’ll just have to watch to see…

One of the reasons I feel so proud of it is because, like Anatomy of a Scandal, Little Disasters feels so personal: based on a novel inspired by my own experience after having my second baby, although obviously exaggerated massively since I needed to ratchet up the jeopardy. It’s a very female-led show, with four very different women divided by the moral dilemma at its heart. A six-part series about motherhood and judgment, and more specifically maternal mental health, shouldn’t feel extraordinary – and yet, in an environment in which the pandemic and writers’ strikes have had a massive impact on the number of TV shows being made, it very much does. 

Little Disasters focuses on a decades-long friendship between Jess, Liz, Mel and Charlotte: four mothers who meet at an antenatal class and remain in one another’s lives, despite having little in common but their due dates. But when seemingly perfect Jess turns up at an A&E department on Friday night with a baby with a bang to the back of her head and a story that doesn’t add up, those friendships are strained. Liz is the paediatric registrar on call and her decision to bring in social services and the police sets in motion a chain of events that fractures and nearly destroys not just Jess’s family but the entire friendship group.

I’m so grateful to the independent production company Roughcut TV for championing this psychological drama with a mystery at its heart, not least the women driving it, producers Marianna Abbotts and Myf Hopkins and director Eva Sigurdardottir; the screenwriters, Ruth Fowler and Amanda Duke; and the actors, Diane Kruger, Jo Joyner, Emily Taaffe (War and Peace), who plays Mel, and Shelley Conn, Charlotte (Alex Rider, Bridgerton). And then there are the husbands: JJ Feild (Ed), Ben Bailey-Smith (Nick), Stephen Campbell Moore (Rob), and Patrick Baladi (Andrew), not to mention the various Betseys (a newborn, a two-week old, and a ten-month-old), and seven other children. Special mention must go to eight-year-old Frankie (Jax James.)

As I write this, the day before transmission, I’m excited and just a little nervous. The screening of the first episode, at the Charlotte St hotel last week, was met with a superb response: both laughter at moments of black humour and gasps at the suspense, including from my editor, who knows the story but was still taken by surprise. The previews in the weekend’s press have been excellent, with the Times praising Kruger’s performance as “superb”, and the Telegraph saying the same of Joyner in this “thorny six-part drama” that’s being compared to Made Up Stories’ superb Big Little Lies, and variously described as “addictive”, “intriguing”, and something that “grips”.

“This is a powerhouse cast,” declaimed the Sunday Times. “Pulls you in with the tensions of the opening then keeps you there with the promise of secrets to be revealed,” added the Daily Mail, which chose it as its streamer pick of the week. “Addictive,” said the Mail on Sunday”. “An intriguing premise with a great cast”, according to Heat, which dubbed it “unmissable”; “Gripping from the off with great performances and revelations that will keep you guessing”, TV Times; “well-structured and acted”, Radio Times. Pick of the Day for the Observer, and a pick for the i.

There’s been extensive press, including a cover for Diane Kruger and 10-page fashion feature in Grazia; appearances on BBC 1’s The One Show and ITV’s Good Morning Britain; the Sunday Times culture, and coming up, a piece I’ve written for The Times.

And the stars have engaged with it, too, not only bonding on set in Budapest (it was shot there for seven weeks and a further eight back in south-west London) but bringing their own experience of parenting to their roles. 

As Diane Kruger has said, while promoting it, “Women put a lot of pressure on themselves and can be their own harshest critics. Whether it's breastfeeding – how long do you do it for? What if you can’? is it affecting my kids? – or the judgement from other mothers on how you are raising your children, it can all be very intense. So, I think the more we tell stories that show the struggles people go through, the better.

“When this script was presented to me, I felt very strongly I had to do it,” Jo Joyner added. “These topics are particularly important, and I really feel we’ve done them justice.”