![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/theguardian.jpg\")
Sundus Abdi
Thursday May 21, 2026<\/p>\n
Sundus Abdi
Thursday May 21, 2026<\/p>\n
Proper Ladies is being compared to Derry Girls for its portrayal of a wild but relatable girl gang. Its creator opens up about trying to reshape the way Black and Muslim characters are used in TV<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s not every comedy that dares to feature a character trying to strangle herself with her own hijab. Yet the BBC\u2019s Proper Ladies has caused a storm on social media thanks to its chaotic energy and sharply observed teenage dynamics, drawing comparisons to shows such as Derry Girls and Some Girls. \u201cWe saw our first fan edit and it had 100,000 likes,\u201d says writer Sabrina Ali. \u201cIt feels like we made it.\u201d<\/p>\n Set in a faith school, Proper Ladies is a 10-minute short that follows four schoolgirls in detention, where friendships, rivalries and acts of rebellion unfold. Absurd, quick-witted and fast, it leans into the heightened logic of teenage life \u2013 where the smallest things escalate quickly and everything feels urgent. In one scene, a student delivers a dramatic monologue about setting off the fire alarm to conceal the fact that she used the staff toilets to defecate.<\/p>\n Created by Ali and based on her award-winning stage play Dugsi Dayz, it\u2019s an attempt to make TV that\u2019s \u201cmessy, chaotic, and funny\u201d. It follows Salma, a model student and prefect played by first-time actor Samira Tahlil, who tries, and mostly fails, to keep order among her misbehaving peers \u2013 whose antics include slipping laxatives into their teacher\u2019s (Lisa McGrillis). Detention and trips to see the headteacher (Mark Silcox) follow, resulting in Salma spotting that he wears a toupee, and inadvertently informing the whole school.<\/p>\n Ali plays the character of Munira, who runs an underground energy drink business from inside the school. She\u2019s joined by Yasmin, played by Ebada Hassan (Brides), a fashion-focused \u201cit girl\u201d, and Hani, played by Kosar Ali (Muna, Rocks), an aloof, emo-leaning student who secretly writes Harry Styles fan fiction.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many girls I knew were into fan fiction,\u201d says Kosar, reflecting on the script, which the cast say draws heavily on lived experience of school life. \u201cIt was a real form of escapism. And every teenage girl goes through some kind of emo phase.\u201d<\/p>\n Together, the four form a tight-knit ensemble built around recognisable teenage archetypes, filtered through the contained world of a secondary school. The pilot is in development with the potential to become a full series, following a four-year journey from stage to screen.<\/p>\n Dugsi Dayz, which premiered in October 2022, established Ali as a writer working with Somali British stories on stage. She began adapting the material for television later that year, with backing from executive producers including Michaela Coel. Ali had met Coel at a press night where she shared the idea for the play, and later developed her early draft in Coel\u2019s River Library, a writing sanctuary for women of colour in her home. \u201cHaving her backing feels full circle,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s given me the confidence to develop my writing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ali says the shift from theatre to television didn\u2019t change the show\u2019s perspective. \u201cWhat I didn\u2019t want to lose was seeing the world through the girls\u2019 lens,\u201d she says. \u201cNot being guided through it. Just peeking into their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n An open casting callout, circulated across Instagram and TikTok, invited applicants with little to no acting experience, drawing in young people who might not otherwise have considered the industry. For many, it was their first audition. \u201cMost of the time, people don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s access, so they don\u2019t even pursue it,\u201d Ali says. To combat this, she felt it was important to make the process \u201cmore open and less intimidating\u201d.<\/p>\n Ali hopes that her comedic approach reshapes how Black and Muslim characters are often positioned in British television. \u201cSometimes, when characters look like us, there\u2019s an expectation to disarm audiences,\u201d she says. \u201cEspecially with Muslim characters. It becomes: \u2018Show us why you deserve to be here.\u2019 I didn\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, she argues, comedy allows for recognition without instruction. \u201cAs soon as you laugh at a character, you recognise something human in them.\u201d<\/p>\n Alongside growing attention, however, the cast have also faced a wave of racist and Islamophobic abuse online since the short aired. Some have stepped back from social media as a result.<\/p>\n \u201cIf us simply existing causes this level of abuse, it shows how rarely people like us are seen on British television,\u201d Ali says. \u201cBut it also shows why shows like this need to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides, she adds: \u201cFor every hateful message, there\u2019s been an outpouring of love. And those messages matter more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0Proper Ladies is available to stream on BBC iPlayer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sundus AbdiThursday May 21, 2026 Proper Ladies is being compared to Derry Girls for its portrayal of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":976220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3937],"tags":[48883,271917,2197,77,46356,271918,58362,271916,9203,271919,11320,5598,382,16,15],"class_list":["post-976219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-about","tag-chaotic","tag-comedy","tag-entertainment","tag-funny","tag-hilarious","tag-inside","tag-messy","tag-muslim","tag-schoolgirls","tag-teen","tag-the","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116614410382742888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/976220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\u2018Messy,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779346618Screenshot2026-05-21095636.png\")
L-R: Kosar Ali (Hani), Sabrina Ali (Munira), Ebada Hassan (Yasmin) and Samira Tahlil (Salma) in Proper Ladies. Photograph: Dan Fearon\/BBC<\/p>\n![\"\u2018Messy,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779346709Screenshot2026-05-21095801.png\")
\u2018As soon as you laugh at a character, you recognise something human in them\u2019 \u2026 Sabrina Ali as Munira. Photograph: Dan Fearon\/BBC<\/p>\n