Sophie Winkleman, whose half-sister is hosting Celebrity Traitors, is slated to return to TV next month with a new BBC series titled Wild Cherry.

Tatler describes the six-part series as ‘provocative,’ focusing on mother-daughter dynamics within high society and the influence of social media on these relationships.

The show aligns with themes Winkleman, wife of Lord Frederick Windsor, has previously discussed. Portraying a character named Frances, she shared in 2023 her choice to pull her daughters, Maud, 11, and Isabella, nine, from school due to iPads being issued in class.

Wild Cherry explores narratives akin to Netflix’s Adolescence, in which a teen was detained for killing a peer after encountering damaging social media content.

The BBC series delves into the destructive impact of social media on teenage interactions, the accompanying pressures, and resultant scandals.

The storyline introduces Lorna, a self-made, accomplished mixed-race entrepreneur, alongside her best friend Juliet, both residing in the exclusive community in which they were raised.

‘Daughters Grace and Allegra are BFFs and live a life that other teenagers only dream of.

‘A safe haven for the superrich and their little darlings, Richford Lake is a place where bad things never happen, until that is, Grace and Allegra are implicated in a shocking scandal at their exclusive private school. 

‘Juliet and Lorna are forced to take sides, pushing their friendship to breaking point.

‘As toxic secrets and lies ripple through the idyllic town, the façade starts to fracture, threatening to reveal the deep-seated elitism and ugliness lurking beneath.

‘Set in a private enclave in the Home Counties, the six-part series is a provocative and deliciously honest look at mother/daughter relationships amidst the whirlwind of social media, hidden apps and relentless peer pressure that asks: how far will we go to protect our children?

‘And just how much do teenage girls know about the women raising them? If the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, then who is leading these girls astray?

”Like mother like daughter’ rings loudly in a complex world, and danger is never far from the surface – even in a perfect town.’

The series stars the likes of House of the Dragon actress Eve Best as Juliet, and Your Honor’s Carmen Ejoho as Lorna – with their daughters portrayed by Imogen Faires and Amelia May.

News of the release comes after Sophie said she took her children out of school twice when she learned they were going to be given iPads to use from the age of six.

Speaking to The Times in 2023, the former Peep Show actress revealed her concerns that devices handed out from a young age were affecting how children learned.

She said she ‘immediately started looking for different schools’ when she learned pupils were ‘going to be given tablets, all of them from Year One to Year Six’.

Her children, Maud and Isabella, attended the exclusive £20,000-a-year Thomas’s Battersea with their cousins, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who have since left for a co-ed prep school in Berkshire.

She praised the south London institution, which charges more than £8,000 a term in some cases, but said it did not suit her children and raised concerns the use of online learning is becoming normalised in UK schools.

‘The internet is a toxic wilderness we’re letting children stumble through without protection,’ the actor said, concerned about the accessibility of extremist content online.

Winkleman, who is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince Michael of Kent, rallied against the adoption of digital learning in UK schools, which she said she believed was driven by parents.

She said her elder daughter was allowed to use a tablet for a limited period on Sundays, and said that she supported a parent group lobbying to outlaw smartphones for under-16s.

UNICEF has warned too much screen-time for young people reduces empathy, as children need face time without FaceTime to develop an understanding of complex social cues.

The organisation noted exposure to screens reduces infants’ ability to read human emotion and control their frustration.

A meta-analysis of studies looking at how young people watched TV and played games found the screentime was ‘modestly associated’ with later ADHD symptoms.

And a study of pre-schoolers found more screen time was associated with worse inattention problems. The study claimed pre-schoolers spent an average of two hours a day in front of screens.

Winkleman said in an ideal world she would combat this by setting up a school for young people in London, outlawing screens altogether – except in IT lessons, of course, and in some maths classes.

It’s a message that the Princess of Wales has similarly preached. Kate has also warned that excessive screen time can harm family life in a new essay published today by the Royal Foundation’s Centre for Early Childhood.

The essay titled, ‘The Power of Human Connection in a Distracted World’, is written in collaboration with Boston-based Professor Robert Waldinger of Harvard University.

The piece highlighted two core points: warm, loving, and meaningful relationships are the single greatest investment we can make for health, happiness and longevity; and modern life, rising loneliness, and fragmented attention are undermining our ability to form those connections, putting at risk the social and emotional development of babies and young children.

Spending too much time online was said to be a factor contributing to the ‘epidemic of disconnection’, which in turn can disrupt family life.

‘Our smartphones, tablets, and computers have become sources of constant distraction, fragmenting our focus and preventing us from giving others the undivided attention that relationships require,’ the essay reads.

‘We sit together in the same room while our minds are scattered across dozens of apps, notifications, and feeds. We’re physically present but mentally absent, unable to fully engage with the people right in front of us.’

The essay went on to explain the importance of a happy and nurturing family life on a child’s current and future happiness, relationships, and success.

Technology, they said, is threatening those safe environments. ‘But just as science is confirming the lifelong importance of connections, we exist in a world that is more distracted than ever,’ she wrote.