Successful. Failure. Confident. Anxious. Settled. Restless. Turns out, the headlines never told the whole story. Here, Billie Piper writes exclusively for ELLE UK on what she’s learnt about herself, her mental health and why it’s all still a work in progress
Give me a familiar biscuit. I want to remember myself.
I want to be still. I want to feel safe. I want to eat my biscuit in this white room, while a nurse makes their checks and tells me I’m fine, for now at least. No questions, just statements. Soft, unthreatening, concise snippets: ‘I’ll be back in an hour.’ ‘I’ll bring some water.’ ‘Enjoy your biscuit.’
I will, I think. The stomach pain that landed me here is starting to pale into insignificance. My eyes and heart are turned by this ordinary, often-ignored British staple biscuit. It’s stealing me back, wrapped in blankets. ‘God, it’s good.’ I’m almost home. I could eat another. And another. And another.
You’re ill, I think. This must be what it’s like to lose your mind. Am I losing my mind?
I’m 34 but this feeling isn’t unfamiliar; this spiralling soothed by the strange comfort of a sterile white room. I felt the same thing when I was just 17, enduring another – albeit entirely different – physical crumpling. Awful, in many ways. But, my God, the enforced pause. That was welcome. Even more so now. Recently I’ve thought of poisonous mushrooms and oncoming traffic. The kind that just clips you but puts you down enough to enjoy an achingly slow passage of time, statements not questions, white rooms and malt biscuits.
Billie Piper has backed the Evening Standard’s campaign to highlight the mental health problems of young people and adolescents, saying it was very close to her heart in the wake of “this pandemic that has affected everyone in so many different and devastating ways”.
The award-winning actress, said she had been “profoundly moved” by reports in the Standard that mental health problems among children and young adults have risen wildly since national lockdowns were put in place.
Piper, who has been frank about her own mental health difficulties, said: “While we sadly cannot turn the clock back for some people, we can look forward and help those whose lives are being seriously impacted. Out of the 1.5 million children requiring mental health care, over a third are new cases and a direct repercussion of the Covid crisis.”
One of the solutions put forward that would “make a huge difference to these young lives”, said Piper, is the Standard’s Young London SOS campaign, launched last month. It followed our investigation which revealed that an additional 500,000 children will need mental health support this year, on top of the one in six children already identified by the NHS as experiencing a serious mental disorder.
Working with Place2Be, our campaign seeks to raise funds to place more counsellors in more schools, provide one-to-one sessions and help support staff and parents. It costs £33,000 to deliver the full Place2Be service to one school for a year. So far £135,000 has been donated.
The mother of three called for people and corporate giants to give generously. She said: “I know there are children already benefiting from Place2Be’s support, the impact is incredible and it makes a huge difference to young lives. But we need to reach many more children suffering from mental health issues and donating to the Standard campaign will go a long way. This is such an important campaign, one very close to my heart and I hope we can make it a huge success by placing support into the lives of as many vulnerable children as possible.”
Believe it or not, it’s been more than a decade since Lena Dunham broke out with her feature film, “Tiny Furniture.” And since then, she has yet to follow up with another feature film. However, that appears to be changing, as she begins casting the upcoming project, “Catherine, Called Birdy.”
According to dependable U.K. journalist Baz Bamigboye, Lena Dunham has cast the leads for her new film, “Catherine, Called Birdy.” The film will star “Game of Thrones” standout, Bella Ramsey, in the title role, as a young girl in Medieval England that does everything in her power to avoid the arranged marriages that her parents are supporting. Joining Ramsey in the cast are Billie Piper and Andrew Scott, who will play the young girl’s parents.
“Catherine, Called Birdy” is reportedly a passion project for Dunham, who has been a fan of the 1994 book of the same name from author Karen Cushman. Apparently, the filmmaker has been working since 2014 to get this film into production. She was close to getting it filmed last year, but the pandemic forced her to delay the filming until this spring. ‘Catherine’ is expected to film between March and May of this year.
Sky has renewed I Hate Suzie, its comedy drama co-created by Succession writer Lucy Prebble and produced by His Dark Materials outfit Bad Wolf.
Starring and co-created by former Doctor Who actress Billie Piper, a second season will begin filming next year. Sky tweeted the announcement after the show was nominated for a Broadcasting Press Guild Award.
The eight-part series followed a famous woman (Piper) whose life is upended when her phone is hacked and graphic pictures are published of her extra-marital affair.
Each episode followed her through the stages of shock, denial, fear, shame, bargaining, guilt, anger, and acceptance as Suzie and her best friend and manager Naomi try to hold her life, career, and marriage together.
I Hate Suzie was acquired by HBO Max in the U.S. It is sold internationally by NBCUniversal Global Distribution on behalf of Sky Studios.
Filming is expected to begin Spring 2022.