As The Passions sang, "I'm in love with a German film star" — and hey, we've all had our celebrity crushes, right?
Take the 'German' out of the equation, and you've got the basic premise of the BBC and HBO's rom-com serial, Starstruck. The first season of New Zealand comic Rose Matafeo's rib-tickler saw her embark on a surprising fling with Nikesh Patel's Tom, a pretty standard love story on the face of things. But here's the Notting Hill esque twist: as she would find out after the first hook up, after waking up next to him, Tom is a famous movie star. Rose's character, Jessie, very much is not.
Then comes all the usual stuff you'd expect with a delightful comic twist: will-they-won't-theys, meet-cutes, misunderstandings n'all. Well, at the end of the last season, with the love of Tom and Jessie as turbulent as always, she planned on leaving the country — but, as the newly released trailer confirms, she decided to stay in the country because of him. (Audience cue card: say aaaawh.) She quit her job, she moved out of her flat, but hey: that's love!
Minnie Driver is back, excitingly, as Tom's agent, while British fave Russell Tovey also joins the cast for the new season, as was announced way-back-when last year when the second season was announced (ahead, even, of the pilot's June premiere). Matafeo played it pretty cool and wry at the time, saying: "I'm thrilled that Starstruck will be returning to the BBC Three for a second series, because I left my water bottle on set last year and I would love to get it back."
Jennifer Kim, Senior Vice President of International Originals at HBO Max, said:
"Rose is an exciting talent whose international stardom is on the rise. Working with Rose and the team at Avalon has been amazing and so we had to keep it going. We can't wait for audiences to see this hilarious and quirky love story."
Watch the trailer below. Co-written by Matafeo, Alice Snedden, and Nic Sampson, the second six-part, thirty-minute series continues the story of Jessie, a millennial living in East London juggling two dead end jobs and navigating the complications of becoming romantically involved with famous film star Tom (Patel). The U.K. release date, on the BBC's newly brought back BBC 3, is set at 7 Feb. Check out the trailer below: