Wicked Little Letters, starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, has landed a new streaming home. The period comedy, which was released in 2023, is now available to watch on Channel 4’s streaming service for free.
The film is based on a true story, known as the Littlehampton libels, a poison pen letters case from the 1920s. Coleman stars as Edith Swan, a woman who begins receiving obscene letters in the post, full of swearing and filthy accusations.
Studiocanal
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Swan believes the letters have been sent by her former friend and next door neighbour Rose Gooding (Buckley), an Irish immigrant and single mother with a reputation for being loud and foul-mouthed.
However the case isn’t as cut and dried as Swan would like to believe and it takes just one female police office with a hunch to expose what’s really going on between the two women.
The film was praised by critics upon its release and currently holds an 80% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The New York Times said the film was “full of goofy side characters and one-liners, yet elevated occasionally to genuine complexity by Colman and Buckley, who are consistently the best thing about any movie they’re in”.
ABC News described it as “mean tweets 1920 style”, adding: “The incomparable Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley turn a flimsy script about poison pen letters that turn friends against each other into irresistible fun. Any resemblance to today’s internet trolling is purely intentional.”
Parisa Taghizadeh/Studiocanal
Related: Wicked Little Letters true story: The real-life poison pen scandal explained
While FilmWeek called it “a very funny little British comedy that I cannot believe was inspired by a true story”.
Viewers also found Wicked Little Letters to be a fun watch, with one IMDB user calling it “an incredibly funny, cheeky, and punchy film that will be sure to put a smile on your face”.
Another viewer called it “a brilliantly entertaining, bawdy (and true) tale of how class, sex, religion, repression and societal expectations affect a bunch of women’s lives in the small English town of Littlehampton”.
Wicked Little Letters is now streaming on Channel 4.
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Stephanie is a freelance news writer, who previously covered WWE and AEW for Digital Spy.
After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.
Outside of her work at Digital Spy, she writes about pop culture, with a special focus towards Irish media and how it intersects with politics.
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