Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan is Virtually Unrecognizable in New Drama

While Bridgerton Season 3 is taking forever to premiere, its stars are rocking the British acting scene with their new projects. Thus, Channel 4 has just released first-look photos from their new miniseries Big Mood, starring Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan.

It's clear from these photos alone that Coughlan's role in this project is as far as it gets from Penelope Featherington.

Big Mood's Story

The series is set to premiere on Channel 4 sometime in 2024 and has the Bridgerton star playing Maggie, a thirty-something woman struggling with life in general and, more specifically, with her decades-long friendship with Eddie, portrayed by Lydia West(Inside Man, It's A Sin).

The two women have been very close for years, but life just keeps throwing them one challenge after another. Their decisions are questionable, their work situations – terrible, their personal lives – chaotic, and what's worse – Maggie is suffering from a relapse of her bipolar disorder.

All of these issues are putting a lot of pressure on Eddie, so much so, in fact, that Maggie begins to wonder if the two of them would be better off apart. Now, the question is whether their friendship can weather the pressures of life and if the two women can find a way out of the mess they've landed in.

That's the show's premises in a nutshell.

Nothing Like Coughlan’s Past Roles

From the description and the first-look photos, it is easy to see how different Maggie and Penelope Featherington are. Taking on this role would certainly have presented a major challenge for Nicola Coughlan.

Since the 36-year-old looks very young on screen, her most popular previous characters were teenagers. Penelope is just 18 in the first season of Bridgerton, and Clare Devlin in Derry Girls was 16 when 31-year-old Nicola was cast in that role.

But Maggie is a thirty-year-old woman with a troubled past and a painful history of serious mental illness. She is also a comic character because, despite its dark themes, Big Mood is a comedy. That is a huge departure from Coughlan's usual roles and, potentially, a huge growth opportunity for her as an actor.

So it's no surprise that given this drastic image change, Coughlan is almost unrecognizable in some of the first-look images. The still from a costume party shows her character seemingly depressed but sporting a hilarious octopus costume.

And a shot of what appears to be a very emotional moment between the two friends shows that our favorite Bridgerton star can play anyone. The romantic Bridgerton heroine is nowhere to be found in this broken, troubled woman.