Channel 4's 'disturbing' new series I Am Helen left cast needing therapy after 'completely improvised' scenes

Channel 4’s newest show I Am Helen stars Joe Cole and Nicola Coughlan in an uncomfortable yet powerful story about toxic masculinity told via a woman who is stuck in a relationship with a man who begins taking out his struggles with life on her.

The TV series has already made waves before it was even released after it was revealed that the Channel 4 show would be debuting a trigger warning ahead of the opening scene of the show, which is said to be a disturbing watch.

Coughlan stars as Helen, a woman whose boyfriend Steve begins consuming ‘manosphere’ content and whose relationship begins to bear the brunt of this.

The opening scene is said to tackle the topic of strangulation during sex, a topic that has been hotly debated amidst the UK Government’s decision to ban the portrayal of this in porn.

Coughlan has spoken about how the series is ‘entirely improvised’. This fact, combined with the difficult topic of the series, meant that the cast were offered and ultimately ‘needed’ therapy during filming.

Coughlan says she initially turned down therapy, but ultimately took it up after filming a distressing scene

The series is a tough watch, but was even tougher to film (Channel 4)

The Derry Girls star has revealed in multiple interviews that filming for the series was ‘intense’, with producers on the series reportedly being ‘conscious’ of duty of care to the actors.

She stated in an interview with Grazia that she was offered therapy throughout, explaining: “On day two, I was like, ‘I’m fine.’ And then by day four it was, ‘Oh no, this is actually very heavy.’

Coughlan explained that there were several crying scenes and ones where her co-star Cole had to ‘smash up’ the apartment, explaining: “You know, logically, that it’s not real, but your nervous system is going, ‘That’s quite scary to be around.’ I was drained and speaking to a therapist was essential.”

Navigating how to portray the sex scenes in the show was particularly difficult and required an intimacy co-ordinator, with Coughlan stating that it was ‘very different’ to Bridgerton where she knew exactly what they were doing before they filmed a scene.

Due to I Am Helen being largely improvised, they instead had to establish what each character was comfortable with and ‘go from there’.

I Am Helen is ‘semi-improvised’ with a loose structure to follow

In an interview on The Graham Norton Show Coughlan called the series ‘completely improvised’, however in a further interview with Deadline she called it ‘semi-improvised’ as the creator Dominic Savage had a clear story he wanted to tell.

Cole researched manosphere influencers to understand his character better (Channel 4)

Speaking to Deadline Joe Cole explained that it was very hard as, whilst Coughlan’s ‘belief system’ is similar to that of her character, he was improvising as someone totally different to himself.

He said: “I figured this out as I went… Nicola brings a lot of energy and asks a lot of questions; she contributes so much to the scenes [as Helen]. Steve can’t always articulate himself as well, so that yin and yang worked really well.”

Coughlan told Deadline: “It was terrifying because you’re really hoping you don’t have an off day.

Coughlan has been widely praised for her performance in the show (Channel 4)

“As actors, we rely on the dialog writers give us as an anchor, and you think, ‘If I can’t improvize well today, is this just going to be terrible?’ At the same time, it was incredibly freeing.

“The process was very different. The crew was tiny so everyone was involved.”

I Am Helen debuts on Channel 4 on 16 November, 2026.