Play for Today Wild lands on Channel 5 on Friday, September 25 at 9pm, with Daniel Mays, Joel Fry and a new run of six original films. The return gives the revived strand a clear start point after Channel 5 brought it back one year ago.
Daniel Mays and Lou
Daniel Mays stars as Lou, a man he describes as being stuck in a rut and still mentally back at university with his mates. He said the character wants to hold on to that phase even though the dynamic has shifted, and that Lou has a David Brent-esque, Alan Partridge quality because he has all the gear but no idea.
He also said filming Lou’s GoPro scenes was fun because he improvised a lot. That fits the character’s role in the story: Lou loves vlogging, is not especially good at it, and deliberately pushes his friends off track while the trip goes wrong.
Joel Fry as Al
Joel Fry plays Al, who he describes as balanced until he reconnects with old friends and tries to act young again. He said the trip is also shaped by the fact that Al has become a dad while Lou has not, and that Al feels pity for Lou’s need to stay in the past.
That gives the film a cleaner business case than a simple nostalgia piece. Channel 5 says Wild is “At once funny, poignant, and unsettling, Wild explores the line between adventure and recklessness, and how toxic masculinity has become a huge part of the epidemic decline in men’s mental health.”
Wild in the Highlands
Wild is a survival dramedy set in the Scottish Highlands, following Lou, Dev and Alistair as banter and nostalgia give way to getting lost, running short of food and watching their friendships fracture. Channel 5 says it was written by Lewis Wren and directed by BRICK, and the strand is meant to champion emerging talent on and off screen.
The second series matters because it turns the revival into a slate, not a one-off. With six original films to follow, the question for viewers is less whether the strand returns and more how Channel 5 spaces out the rest of the run after Wild opens it on Friday, September 25 at 9pm.
