One flat. One bed. Two strangers. What could go wrong?
Tiffany and Leon each find themselves in a financial bind, leading them to share a 1-bedroom flat in London. The arrangement is simple: Tiffy has the flat from 8pm to 8am, and Leon has the flat from 8am to 8pm and never shall they meet. After many post-it notes, a controlling ex-boyfriend, a falsely accused in-mate brother, and a journey to reunite old loves, what once seemed to be a straightforward arrangement begins to become more complicated as their lives slowly intertwine.
Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare, originally published in 2019, recently hit screens as a TV series adaptation by Paramount boasting a slew of fresh faces. With a 4 out of 5 star rating on Goodreads, it was only a matter of time before this was translated into a TV series or a movie.
The Flatshare has always been a favourite book of mine, so it was with trepidation that I began watching the TV series. For those keeping an eye out, there are definitely some differences between the two mediums of story telling. Fair warning, this article does contain spoilers.
Tiffy’s Work
In the book Tiffy is an assistant editor of a publishing company whose niche is all sorts of craft, which is a distinct difference to the TV series where she is a writer for an online magazine. Our first introduction to her workplace on the screen is her boss telling her and two of her colleagues that their jobs are on the line. It takes Tiffy’s workplace from an extension of Tiffy’s wholesome and craft-oriented personality to a high-pressure character mismatch. Her relationships with her colleagues also take a back burner except for the backstabbing from Rachel, which doesn’t actually occur in the book as Rachel is a close friend and supporter of Tiffy’s. Martin is still a useless cockroach, so there’s that!
This change also means we completely miss out on Tiffy’s client, Katherine, which is a shame as her character brings humour, wisdom, and opportunities to the book.
Tiffy’s Relationship With Justin
I concede this was always going to be difficult to translate from book to screen as a lot of the realisations about the toxicity of their relationship are revealed through introspection in the book. The main point I lament is in the TV series where Tiffy happily goes to bed with Justin whilst in the book there was minimal interactions and lots of therapy sessions working through her trauma, making the final climax of the book all the more shocking. Either way, at the end you still develop a visceral hatred for Justin.
Tiffy’s Friends
I feel as though they did these characters dirty in the TV series. In the book Tiffy’s friends were nuanced and danced the fine line between being great friends and helping Tiffy through her challenges, while trying to carve out some space for their own blossoming relationship. They also changed Gerty’s entire name, which was a bit unnecessary if you ask me. Mo’s sweet character seemed mercifully the same, but Gerty’s strong sense of independence, autonomy, and intelligence was vastly watered down.
Richie’s Case
The Richie/Leon dynamic mercifully stayed the same, which was excellent. As was Tiffy’s introduction, relationship, and banter with Richie. In fact, in my opinion they nailed Richie. The main difference with his case was Gerty’s handling of it. In the TV series when Tiffy asked her to take a look at the case, she said she couldn’t take any more pro bono cases and that was that. It was only after the case had garnered attention that her superiors agreed for her to take it on. When it came time for her to present her case in court, she was nervous and represented as a very junior lawyer. In the book however, she decides to take the case pro bono with minor prompting and lots of questions, has a strong relationship with Richie, and is an all-round bad ass.
Leon’s Relationships
Tiffy and Richie aside, the book really explored Leon’s other relationships a lot more. At the beginning of the story, Leon already has a girlfriend, Kay, and ultimately their tale is very similar. His mother’s involvement, however, was very brief in the TV series instead of providing history as to Leon’s understanding and flat-out refusal to tolerate Justin from the get-go.
Leon’s Patients
Mr. Prior and Holly are delightful characters to behold in the book, and they both twist you around their little fingers. You can’t help but get caught up in Leon’s search for Mr Prior’s long-lost love from his days in the army and cheer when Leon finds him in time. They could have made a whole TV series from that alone, but it was sidelined as Holly’s meddling project instead of driven by Leon as a distraction from everything else going on in his life. Admittedly, Holly’s character is very similar, but with gratefully a much happier ending in the book!
These main differences aside, I still thought the TV series captured the core of the book and was a cute TV series to get lost in for a weekend. I’ve made my peace with the fact that there will naturally be some deviations between the two story-telling mediums, but the measure of an adaptation’s success hinges on whether those changes impacts on the integrity of the story or characters.
While the limited series covered the entire plot of the book, Paramount hasn’t yet ruled out the possibility of a second season. Will we get to see more of Tiffy and Leon? Only time will tell.
