Michelle de Swarte is ebullient. With her Cheshire Cat grin, swaggering accent and explosion of gorgeous curls, it’s impossible to take your eyes off her – no wonder she used to be a model. After being scouted at 19, de Swarte lived the high life in New York and Paris before spending all her money and ending up homeless back in Brixton.
It’s those post-modelling years that provide the inspiration for her new sitcom Spent . As well as writing the series, de Swarte stars as Mia, a heightened version of herself with very little self-awareness who arrives back in London after her unchecked spending left her bankrupt in the US. Not to worry – Mia has a dangerous trust that everything will be alright in the end.
Nature will take its course “like a David Attenborough documentary”, she tells her oldest friend Jo (Amanda Wilkin). Mia takes little responsibility for her spending but also refuses to reach out for help, surreptitiously couch surfing or staying awake all night, suitcase at her feet, before she gifts enough freebies to a hostel receptionist to convince her to stay in a dorm for a few nights’ kip. Over six episodes she gets into all sorts of scrapes – dogsitting for a posh woman who orders Mia to send pictures of her dalmatian’s excrement, saving a 15-year-old model from the clutches of a pervy businessman, interrupting (and subsequently making friends with) some retirement-age doggers.
It’s fun – but not much more. De Swarte has rich experience to min.