The only thing that can come between two loving, committed sisters is a man. It's a tale as old as time, and yet, when that tale is told right (with wholly fleshed-out, nuanced women characters), it can feel fresh, even hilarious.
Playwright Matilda Curtis (daughter of Downton Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern and producer-director Simon Curtis), and Ashley Storrie have created a family comedy that brings all the guffaws while never undermining the complexities of young women’s lives. Kat Ronney as Evie, and Ashley Storrie as Nina are going to be new faces for many viewers. The producers behind Dinosaur also brought us Fleabag, and it's really refreshing to see young female talent who are still finding their voice on screen with the sort of liberated spirit that made Fleabag so surprising and thrilling. In Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag and Sian Clifford’s Claire, the truth of how disastrous and divine sisterhood can be was portrayed in all its colourful wonder. Indeed, sisterhood was the heart of Fleabag, and the true love story at the core of the series.
And so it is in Dinosaur.
Paleontologist Nina (Ashley Storrie) embraces her love of dinosaurs. Credit: Two Brothers Pictures / All3Media International
Filmed in the coastal Scottish town of Rothesay, the series is based on an original idea from Curtis, and it provided her friend and co-creator Storrie with a vehicle to explore her own autism diagnosis through the character of paleontologist (and dinosaur enthusiast) Nina. In Storrie's debut TV acting role, she found liberation. Storrie, best known in her homeland as the comedian host of The Ashley Storrie Show on Radio Scotland, : "The good thing about being Nina is she’s an unmasked autistic person so a lot of the things that take a lot of pressure for me to do every day, to just behave like a normal person, I didn’t have to do. I would love to be able to just be how my brain wants to be without having to apologise for it or ask permission but that is not the world we live in. It was good for the brief time we filmed Dinosaur, and that was so nice."
Ranesh (Danny Ashok) is the interloper who threatens to topple Nina (Ashley Storrie) from her position as Evie's (Kat Ronney) number one confidant and beloved best friend. Amongst Ranesh's many deplorable qualities - including the fact he doesn't seem to be going away - is his pretentious, snooty demeanour. Nina has definitely found her nemesis.
Ranesh (Danny Ashok) and Evie (Kat Ronney). Credit: Two Brothers Pictures / All3Media International
Fortunately for Nina, there are clumsy characters aplenty in their social circles and they're entirely likely to sabotage Evie's happy-ever-after plans without much effort. First and foremost, their brother Bo (David Carlyle), who can't keep a secret and seemingly has no concept of personal space nor how to respect it. Then there's the fearfully intense Sachin (Sanjeev Kohli), Ranesh's father, who struggles to reconcile that his son is marrying a woman he only met six weeks ago. But, perhaps it is the wonderfully wicked bridesmaid Amber (Sabrina Sandhu) who really takes the cake. Her conspiring with Evie to spice up their hen's do with a few sneaky pills threatens to implode the whole marital idyll before it's even gotten near the chapel.
Amber (Sabrina Sandhu). Credit: Two Brothers Pictures / All3Media International
The terrain of love and romance is never smooth, thankfully. Where would we be without the schadenfreude of fictional love failures to ease our own flaws and major flops in the game of romance? While Evie and Ranesh confront one dilemma after another, including a major moment of disloyalty, Nina is pursuing her own burgeoning relationship with Lee (Lorn Macdonald), the barista at her local cafe. With a job offer that would take Nina out of Glasgow, can Lee invest in a love affair that might be cut short any day now?
In her debut role, Storrie has more than proven her mettle as a screen star. It's not surprising, since she's been performing stand-up comedy on stage since the age of 11. Indeed, her comic timing and delivery scored her the 2020 Scottish Comedy Award for Best Radio Comic.
Just as Fleabag delivered plenty of LOLs and plenty of pathos, Dinosaur gives us flawed, relatable, fabulous women who are just trying to navigate the world that exists somewhere between the lives they imagine and the lives and loves they have. These sisters may become your favourite new antiheroines.
Double episodes of Dinosaur airs Monday nights 10.15pm on SBS VICELAND from 22 July. All episodes are also streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Dinosaur
