One Day has a big problem and it's hiding in plain sight

It's the number one show on Netflix and reviewers have raved about it. But for every lover, there's a secret hater and Rowan Pelling can't stop thinking about the one thing that has ruined the relationship between Dex and Emma for her

- Rowan Pelling

Every now and then you're forced to make a lonely stand against the cultural consensus. In 1986 I told school friends that, no, I didn’t worship Simple Minds and so would not be accompanying them to Wembley Arena.

Nearly 30 years later, I risk becoming a social pariah because I’m the only woman in the playground who feels “meh” about One Day. More to the point, I’m underwhelmed by the drama’s heroine Emma Morley. Or, as I came to think of her: the dourmat.

I didn’t find Emma objectionable when I lapped up David Nicholl’s excellent novel on a summer holiday in 2010 – but the delight of reading is you can create your own version of a character in your head. My Emma was sparky, witty and seductively intransigent, like Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.

And when I watched Ambika Mod’s vivacious guest turn on The Graham Norton Show, she fully embodied those qualities. So, my hopes were sky-high when One Day finally landed on Netflix. This, after all, is a story about my generation: our hopes, dreams, politics, failings and our pop music.

But when I started watching the adaptation, something weird had happened: the actor’s natural vivacity had been dialled down to dreary, with occasional flashes of a grin. Emma Jekyll had been replaced by a finger-wagging Ms Hyde who aimed to “reclaim the night” by frowning on bog-standard student hedonism.