In Such Brave Girls, love isn’t soft or sentimental. In fact, displays of affection often come in the form of brutal insults or profanity, and usually take place in a cramped orange toilet. Because the characters in the BAFTA‑winning British sitcom aren’t designed to coddle or flatter each other. Quite the opposite. Created by comedian Kat Sadler, who stars alongside her actual sister, Lizzie Davidson, the series is the ugliest version of their very real experiences. It was born out of a phone conversation they had five years ago where Sadler confessed she’d been institutionalised, Davidson admitted to being in steep debt and all they could do was laugh. Across two seasons, Such Brave Girls follows twentysomething Josie (Sadler), her sister Billie (Davidson) and mum Deb (Louise Brealey), who are all raging narcissists. In the series, Sadler turns lived experience – her time in a psychiatric ward, financial precarity and the chaos of family dysfunction – into a corrosive comedy with heart.

SN: Do you consider making the show an act of bravery or catharsis? Or is it both?

KS: I feel like there’s catharsis in playing chicken with myself and seeing how much I’m going to stand by as a writer and what stresses me out. I remember the fear I had the day before the show went out. I was like, “Oh my God, what if it gets taken the wrong way? Am I going to get cancelled?” Because I’m dealing with some tough things and you need to be onside and to understand where we’re coming from to understand that we’re satirising real things that have happened to us. So it’s a huge relief that people took it the right way. I think I’m just a wuss, like down to my core. It’s funny that people call me brave and aren’t being sarcastic about it. Like, my mum would die. Whenever she describes me, she says, “This is Kat, she has fear in her bones.”

SN: The impulse to mine your life for material is true for so many writers. Have you ever had moments of existential angst where you question that impulse?

KS: I still am chaotic, but I know that through my twenties, it was like another level of chaotic. So I’m mostly – probably still – trying to process that. I think I’ve got a bit of a lag in trying to fit all that into a show and work out what I want to say. And I’ll probably need a few more years before I can deal with my early thirties, or make sense of it. But I do think as you become more comfortable with who you are, that impulse hopefully goes away. I’m still on the quest.

SN: Something that sets the show apart is its treatment of mental health, but more specifically, how awfully they talk to each other about their mental health. I interpreted that as a kind of intimacy between sisters and then also between them and their mum.

KS: Definitely. I feel like a lot of sisterhood and the mother-daughter relationship is how comfortable you are being as grotesque as possible with each other. My family certainly don’t say I love you to each other. We say, “Your head looks weird today” or “What, you’re wearing that out?” You can read that as I’m judging you, but you can also read it like, “I love you so much, I need to tell you to your face how you look.” There is a kind of rudeness that comes with love that I’m trying to capture. It’s sort of an aggressive love.

SN: You’re working on other projects now, too. Has it been easier to delve into stories that aren’t so close to home for you?

KS: I love authenticity and specificity in writing. As much as it was painful doing Such Brave Girls, there is a joy in digging back through and being able to paint such a strong picture because it’s what you went through, so you can really take people there. That’s kind of my next challenge: how do I build it out, but in a world I haven’t necessarily been in? It’s an interesting challenge and it’s a different muscle, so I’m enjoying exploring that and being less inside my own head.