The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary is my favorite romcom novel and today it got adapted into a television series!! So, of course, we are here to discuss all the differences, the similarities, and if the show does the book justice.
I love love love the book The Flatshare. It is delightfully silly and cute and brings fresh elements into the very predictable romcom formula. The story follows Tiffy and Leon in alternating chapters from their first-person perspectives. The writing of the character's voices is one of the best parts of the novel. Tiffy is verbose and Leon barely uses full sentences. When Tiffy's boyfriend breaks up with her, she finds the only option within her budget is a flat share wherein she gets the flat from 8pm to 8am and weekends and Leon, a nurse working the night shift, gets the flat from 8am to 8pm. The pair communicates solely via post-it notes for a good chunk of the book, but eventually, their lives begin to overlap and they realize that they could be more than just flatmates.
When I found out they were adapting this novel to screen, I was both excited and nervous, because an adaptation can be amazing, or it can absolutely suck. This adaptation definitely leans towards amazing, though.
The first thing I want to talk about is the casting of Jessica Brown Findlay as Tiffy. Jessica Brown Findlay is a tall and slim actress. I read Tiffy as a mid or plus-sized woman. There are numerous bits of the book that mention that she is large or that there is a lot of her. This character is large but unafraid to take up space. She wears bright colors and has big hair. She is chaotic and boisterous. The show got those aspects of her character right, but I am a bit disappointed that they didn't take the opportunity to give us a fat heroine. This change solidifies a problem we see too often in adaptation of slimming down fat character for the screen, implying that it is find to read a fat character as long as no one has to look at them. This is an obviously detrimental trend and I hope to see better size representation in the future. That being said, Jessica Brown Findlay's performance as Tiffy is excellent. Within the first three minutes, I was complete bought in to her as Tiffy. She has the perfect facial expressions and comedic timing.
They also took Leon in a direction I didn't entirely expect with the casting of Anthony Welsh. Leon is described as being lanky with brown skin and I pictured him as being ethnically Indian. This casting makes a lot of sense, though, because it makes it clear that Leon's brother, Richie's wrongful imprisonment is a racially-based injustice. It clarifies the conversation that the story is trying to touch on. I also really appreciated Anthony Welsh's portrayal of Leon. Leon is a man of few words and I can't imagine he would be an easy character to take on, but Welsh gave him the perfect balance of reserved, kind, and determined.
Another key change in the screen version is Tiffy's job. In the book, Tiffy works in publishing. She is an editor of craft books and works closely with a writer/crafter who brings about numerous fun and quirky situations. In the show, Tiffy is a journalist for an online magazine. This adds some cohesion to the story. She writes an article about Richie rather than just trying to help him randomly. This adds a bit of tension when Tiffy's article is edited and published without her consent and Leon reads it before being told about it. The shift in jobs also means that instead of being at an author event during the horrid proposal, Tiffy is receiving an award. I think that the change works well for the plot, but changes Tiffy's character a bit. In the book she is a pushover. She loves what she does even though she doesn't get paid enough to do it. She is crafty and creative. In the show she is in a competitive role that she doesn't seem to actually enjoy at all. She is more chaotic than creative and is generally all over the place. I don't prefer either iteration of Tiffy, but I do think that the change makes sense for the purpose of the series.
I really love the casting of all of the secondary characters. Justin is horrifically accurate and Bart Edwards does an impeccable job of making me hate him. Maia and Mo have adorable chemistry and we get to see a tiny bit more into their relationship than we do in the book which I really enjoyed. Also, side note, I might be in love with Mo, but that's not relevant. I just needed to declare my love. "Mean Rachel from work" is honestly such a good character. She is both mean and supportive. She looks out for Tiffy but messes with her work. She isn't a one-dimensional character even though she isn't a lead. All of the characters at the hospital are also excellently portrayed, but Mr. Prior's excellent knitting is cut out along with Tiffy's crafting books. Don't worry, though, Leon and Tiffy still go to Brighton to find Johnny White.
One of the notes that I made on almost every episode are the simple words "Justin sucks." Somehow, even though I have read the book and know what he does, watching it was so much worse. I think the show isn't clear enough about how much Justin's manipulation affects Tiffy. In the books we see her being really shaken up after he shows up at the flat, but in the show, he shows up and leaves fairly quickly and Tiffy is incredibly sure and strong the whole time. She goes from having a panic attack at the award ceremony to getting a cab home and being entirely calm, cool, and collected. I appreciate having a strong female lead, but I think that in trying to make Tiffy stronger, they made her a weaker character. Book Tiffy isn't a fighter. She goes with the flow and wants to help people and Justin has been manipulating her for years. She is not simply fine when he shows up at the flat and bangs on the door for ages. But thats ok. She has been through something awful and is getting out of an emotionally abusive relationship. She doesn't need to be ok. Book Tiffy shows us that it can be really hard to leave an abusive partner, even if you know it is the best thing to do. Show Tiffy goes from having seemingly crazy flashes of him everywhere (which are also not explained in the show. In the book, he has been stalking her and she has actually seen him.) to telling him to leave with confidence and conviction. It just doesn't quite fit.
Overall, I really like this adaptation. I think it hit the heart of the story really well, bringing the really fun energy of the romance and balancing it with the somber moments and themes, without taking away from either. It keeps a lot of the iconic scenes from the book (the shower situation, the ankle mishap, the horrid proposal), and it makes all of the changes work really well. As a stand alone piece of media, I love this show. I think its super cute and fun and well done. As an adaptation of the book, I think I came in with really low standards and was pleasantly surprised. I am a big fan of The Flatshare as a series and I whole-heartedly support any future adaptations of Beth O'Leary's work.
Tropes: only one bed, care/hurt,
Content Warnings: death of named character, hospitals, manipulative partner, panic attacks,
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