Sophie Winkleman has described being a teenager - and a parent - as "a different planet" to 20 years ago and says social media is a "horror film" we need to keep children safe from. The actress, who is back on our screens this week in BBC drama Wild Cherry, has long campaigned to protect children and teenagers from the threat of smartphones and Big Tech, so the plot about toxic relationships and social media struck a chord with her.
Written by and starring the BAFTA Award-winning Nicôle Lecky, the six-part series follows the drama surrounding best friends Lorna and Juliet, played by Carmen Ejogo and Eve Best. Their teenage daughters – pupils at a private school – are implicated in a scandal, shining a light on mother-daughter relationships, peer pressure and the glare of social media.
"I think the show highlights brilliantly what a horror film we're letting our young teens stumble into: being online 24/7, winding up their classmates into frenzies, meeting all sorts of crazy strangers," says Sophie, who campaigns against smartphones, social media and constant screen use in the classroom for children – something that Prince William recently revealed had become a "tense issue" in his own household.
Classroom politics
"I think most women with daughters will relate to the show, because we're growing up in an age where you can't really keep children safe any more. Plus classroom politics snap, crackle and pop 24/7 because of WhatsApp, Snapchat and every other group platform. I just think that every child has a right to be protected, and that has to come from the government."
"If social media had existed when I was at school, I think I would have left"
Sophie became Lady Frederick Windsor when she married Lord Frederick Windsor, son of the late Queen Elizabeth’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent, in 2009. The couple have two daughters, Maud, 12, and Isabella, nine, and Sophie thinks that being a teenager – and a mother – is harder than it used to be.
"I think every parent now with young children and teens would agree; it's a different planet to 20 years ago," she says. "We were so lucky when I was growing up, when in your late teens, you just got a basic flip phone that could text and call [someone] to say a plan had changed.
Noisy parent
"That was magnificent, because you were free from judgment, exposure and competition; relationships were individual and weird strangers couldn’t get in touch with you. There was no camera, so people were present in the moment, and you could have relaxed, authentic fun with each other."
"If social media had existed when I was at school, I think I would have left," she says. "And before smartphones and iPads in classrooms were an issue, I was totally silent on school WhatApp groups. Having had a bad time at a girls’ school, I was quite nervous of large groups of women in general, in any form. But ever since there's been this threat to children in the form of Big Tech and EdTech, I've turned into one of those noisy parents who have asked the parents in my girls’ classes to get involved. Luckily, most of the mums have been very supportive and proactive."
Curtain twitcher
Best known for her recurring role as Big Suze in the Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, and as Ashton Kutcher’s on-screen girlfriend, Zoey, in the US sitcom Two and a Half Men, Sophie, 45, has starred more recently in Sanditon and Belgravia: The Next Chapter. She says playing busybody mother Frances in Wild Cherry is one of her favourite roles yet.
"She's a curtain-twitching gossip and the worst kind of WhatsApp classroom-group nightmare. She’s meddling, judgmental and smug," she says. "It was really fun playing someone that annoying, because I've had a few years of playing very gracious, civil, good-hearted ladies. It was fabulous to play someone who’s a pain. All the cast and crew were excited to be doing something with such a great writer. She addresses a lot of themes: peer pressure, peer loyalty and if your loyalty is to your friends or your parents. It was a total joy from start to finish."
Wild Cherry is on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer now
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