One Day stars defend "shocking" twist: "I think it's necessary"
Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall address the story's most controversial and unexpected moment.
WARNING: One Day spoilers ahead.
For those of you who have read David Nicholls's One Day or watched the 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, you would have been primed and ready for what happens in the penultimate episode of the Netflix series – although prior warning doesn't make it any less distressing or cruel.
For those who hadn't, well, you're probably still processing what you've just witnessed.
Newcomers to the story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, two vastly different individuals who meet on the evening they graduate from university and become a fundamental part of one another's lives, will likely have a bone to pick with Nicholls, also.
Be warned - major One Day spoilers ahead.
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On 15th July 2002, Emma and Dexter begin that particular St Swithin's Day with an argument after she discovers that she's not pregnant.
But eventually, after some pointed back and forth, their squabble peters out, and they go about their days as normal - Dexter heading to the café while Emma sits down at her laptop to write.
Unable to concentrate, she rings Tilly to vent further, before taking herself to the local lido, where she's able to shake off her disappointment, for the time being at least.
Emma then cycles to meet Dexter at the property they've arranged to view – the next big milestone in their life together.
But she doesn't arrive.
While Dexter waits for her on the doorstop, having not long listened to the voicemail she'd left, tragedy strikes when Emma is struck by a car en route and dies.
"It is quite shocking," Ambika Mod (Emma) said to RadioTimes.com of the controversial moment.
"I think also especially in that period, and that chapter of the book and that episode, you're sort of lulled into a false sense of security, so it does come as a bit of a shock. I know it does make a lot of people angry."
Leo Woodall, who stars as Dexter, added, "But it ends so wholesomely that I don't think people will feel too robbed," with Mod going on to say that it's "necessary for Dexter's arc and the way the story ends".
"It starts with her story and it ends with his, which I think is a really beautiful progression," she explained.
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Unlike the book's first adaptation, which wraps up in a fairly breezy 1 hour 47 minutes, the Netflix series has a hefty 14 parts, which Mod described as "a much bigger challenge" than projects she's worked on previously.
"Just the scope and the breadth and the length of the series," she added. "And how much stuff we would have to do, and ageing up characters over 20 years, and the stuff they go through, definitely felt like a much bigger challenge than what I've done before.
"So that was exciting and terrifying in equal measure."
Woodall added: "We both knew it was a mountain to climb. But it’s such a beautiful story, and we both auditioned four or five times, so by the time we'd started filming, we were so immersed in it already. So it was a lovely new challenge."
Read more:
- One Day's Leo Woodall had to ditch the gym for role after White Lotus
- One Day soundtrack: Full tracklist for Netflix drama
- Leo Woodall on One Day, The White Lotus and exceeding expectations
- One Day star Ambika Mod says Netflix series will cover more of book
- One Day cast: Meet the characters in the Netflix series
- Ambika Mod on modernising One Day: "I'm very different to Anne Hathaway"
One Day is available to stream now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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