Channel 4 has released the first-look images from It Gets Worse, a new six-part comedy created, written by and starring Leo Reich. Produced by A24, the series follows three university best friends attempting to survive their twenties in London, with Emily Fairn and Olive Gray starring alongside Reich as dysfunctional roommates Abi and Sam.

The new images also reveal some of the guest stars appearing across the series, including Lena Dunham, Blake Harrison, Amelia Dimoldenberg and Vicki Pepperdine. It Gets Worse will receive its premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday, 14 October before airing on Channel 4 next year.

What Is It Gets Worse About?

Reich plays Ethan, who lives with his university best friends Abi and Sam after the three finally managed to move to London a year earlier. Unfortunately, very little has gone according to plan. Their jobs are miserable, their love lives are not going particularly well and now their landlord is selling the flat, leaving them facing life apart across a city they are still trying to work out.

The series follows the friends as they attempt to keep their relationship together, find somewhere to live and generally make some kind of progress with their lives. Channel 4 describes them as beginning to wonder whether adulthood is ever actually going to improve, before rather cheerfully answering that question with: “Spoiler alert! It doesn’t.”

Who Is in the It Gets Worse Cast?

Leo Reich stars as Ethan alongside Emily Fairn as Abi and Olive Gray as Sam, with Sean Delaney, Dane Williams, India Mullen and comedian John Tothill also joining the ensemble. The series will be narrated by author Zadie Smith.

There is also a pretty impressive guest cast. Andrew Scott, Arian Nik, Lena Dunham, Safia Oakley-Green, Blake Harrison, Nicole Sadie Sawyerr, Phil Zimmerman, Billy Rilot, Kirsty Bloom, Clayton Pettet, Luca Kamleh-Chapman, Vicki Pepperdine and Amelia Dimoldenberg will all appear, with Emmeline Downie making her debut. The newly released images include Dunham as Greta, Dimoldenberg as Emily, Harrison as Roger, Pepperdine as Sarah and Pettet as Freddy.

When Will It Gets Worse Be Released?

It Gets Worse will premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday, 14 October, with Channel 4 confirming that the six-part series will air in 2027. An exact television release date has not yet been announced.

The comedy is produced by A24, with Mounia Akl directing and Sam Pinnell producing. Matthew Lewis serves as director of photography, and each of the six episodes will run for 30 minutes. In Canada, the series will stream exclusively on Crave.

For CultureCues, It Gets Worse already sounds painfully relatable in the best way. Three friends trying to make London work while their jobs, housing and love lives all seem determined to make things difficult gives the series plenty of material, and Leo Reich’s sense of humour seems very well suited to it. The cast is stacked too, with some brilliant names popping up across the guest roles, so we are definitely looking forward to seeing how much worse things can actually get.

It Gets Worse premieres at the BFI London Film Festival on 14 October and comes to Channel 4 in 2027.

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