One Day: Is the 2011 romantic drama and Netflix series inspired by true events?

Like the film with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, the recent series with Ambika Maude and Leo Woodall has been very successful, already reaching the top 10 of the most watched content on the fiction streaming platform. But behind these film adaptations that mix romance and tragedy, did the love story between Emma and Dexter really exist?

One Day: The Book Behind the Movie

Literature lovers might already know this, but one day This is not an ordinary film or series written directly by screenwriters: it is actually a book written by a British novelist david nicholsPublished in 2009. In this work, as in the film made two years later and the 2024 series, we discover the lives through the years of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, two students who are diametrically opposed but who will become friends, and who Will meet on the same date every year for 20 years.

But between love and friendship, it is sometimes difficult to establish the boundary… Over several decades, the author introduces us to two characters damaged by life, but who, despite the different paths of their destinies, will always depend on each other. can trust. , But is this song of friendship and romance just the plot of a novel imagined by David Nicholls, or is the scenario based on real events?

Is the movie One Day based on a true story?

romantic drama characteristic of Anne Hathaway And Jim SturgessBut it also resulted in a Netflix event series driven by actors. Ambika ModSeen in the BBC drama This Is Going to Hurt, and leo woodallFamous for his role in The White Lotus, the film is actually based on the real life of David Nicholls. The author actually based himself on his own memories to write those journals.

If he is not inspired by any of his romantic encounters, for example, he projects his difficulties in starting a working life onto Emma, ​​a character with whom he also shares similar studies: English and dramatic arts, as That he says. Said this in an interview given to Guardian In 2021. As for the idea of ​​turning friendships into annual reunions, a kind of “hidden birthday”, it came to the English author’s mind when he was in high school and studied the adventures of Tess d’Urberville in Thomas Was. Hardy’s novel.

The location central to the plot of One Day is also another important similarity between the film and the novelist’s life. Although David Nicholls has never actually lived in Edinburgh, growing up near Bristol and currently living in London, he stayed there for the summer in 1988, and fell in love with it, he said. British media were told daily Record in 2011.

In the film, one place in Edinburgh is particularly highlighted: arthur’s seat, a hill famous for locals that offers a spectacular view of the capital. But if there is Dexter and Emma in the feature film, there never was a David Nicholls. But since the success of the 2011 cult romantic film, many Scots go there every 15 July to pay tribute.love story Unforgettable based on several true events that unite the two heroes.