If there’s one town that’s been dubbed “up-and-coming” for the past few years, it’s Margate. Now, it offers a vibrant setting for the vivacious family at the centre of Dreamland.

In keeping with the hallmark of Clelia Mountford and Sharon Horgan’s production company, Merman, it’s a sharply observed comedy-drama about the female experience in all its forms.

Making her TV debut, singer-­songwriter Lily Allen leads the cast as Mel. She’s the chaotic member of the family who returns to the Kent seaside town with a secret that could end the relationship between her and eldest sister Trish, played by Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who).

The six episodes are densely packed with family members’ own stories: Trish is pregnant with doting partner Spence (Kiell Smith-Bynoe), following a run of miscarriages; Nan (Sheila Reid) is fending off health troubles; and mum (Frances Barber) is grappling with her sexuality.

Sister Leila (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) finds herself attracted to a Margate newcomer who’s not her usual type, while another sister, Clare (Gabby Best), tries to pursue a writing career.

The series began life in 2017 as Morgana Robinson’s Summer, the Bafta-­winning Sky short written by Sharon Horgan, and starring Robinson and Sheridan Smith.

Merman wanted to develop the short into a full series, recalls Mountford, but it took time to find the right stories to flesh out.

The production company organised a number of writers rooms to expand Mel and Trish’s world, “but we also had to be careful because we were doing [Apple TV+’s] Bad Sisters at the same time. Earlier rooms may have crossed over similar themes and ideas, and I was trying to keep a distance between the two,” says Mountford.

Things fell into place when Emma Jane Unsworth came on board around September 2021 and took the family in a new direction. Best known as an author, she branched out into screenwriting when she adapted her second novel, Animals, for the 2019 Channel 4 series starring Alia Shawkat and Holliday Grainger.

Since then, she has penned an ­episode of The Outlaws with Stephen Merchant, and has two films in development this year. “Whenever I write, I think in terms of scenes, and I often act it out when I’m writing,” says Unsworth. “The advantage of screen compared with novels is that there is a formula that you can learn – there’s a maths to it – even though it’s then fun to break those rules and be playful.”

The premise of Dreamland fits nicely with her previous work. She explains: “I’m always attracted to stories about messy women, even though I know that’s not a helpful way to describe normal women experiencing real situations. I’m especially attracted to intimate female relationships, be they best friends or sisters, or mothers and daughters. Also, I was keen to work with Merman as a company because I love what it does – it has always been on my radar.”

Unsworth helmed a writers room that also included Gabby Best (Clare in the show), Sharma Walfall, Sarah Kendall, Janet Awe of Merman and producer Jane Bell. Mountford and Alex Moody, commissioning editor of Sky’s comedy output, were also part of the process.

“It was a collaborative writers room, and I wasn’t there to get in the way of the editorial, but to facilitate it,” says Moody. “My role was more of a sounding board. Part of it is to almost be the first audience member and ask the idiot’s questions, like ‘How did they get there?’ and ‘Why is she feeling like that at this stage?’. At other times, you’re checking it against the rest of your slate. You’re not saying, ‘Don’t do that’, but you are flagging when a storyline echoes another project.”

For Allen – whose performance in 2:22 A Ghost Story earned her an Olivier award nomination for Best Actress last year – Dreamland was an ideal television debut. “It wasn’t too daunting because she could get into the specifics of that character, bringing her own background, her own family relationships,” says Mountford. “Lily is naturally funny, but she wasn’t being asked to deliver sitcom zingers, so she felt more comfortable in that space.

“She’s a natural performer, but also it’s an ensemble show. It would have been harder for her to carry the whole thing and have most of the scenes, but we wrote to her strengths and what she was interested in doing.”

The first three weeks of filming, led by emerging director Ellie Heydon, took place in Margate during last summer’s heatwave. As Heydon’s first series, “it was a big step up – it was an ambitious shoot for anyone”, says Moody. “It was location-driven, and shooting in a holiday destination at the height of summer was logistically challenging.”

The end of each day’s filming saw the cast on a mission to cool off, helped by dips in the sea. To keep the budget reasonable – given the peak accommodation prices for the production’s 70-odd cast and crew – the last three weeks were filmed in London, in locations that replicated Margate.

On screen, Dreamland strikes a critical tonal balance between comedy and drama, and between depth and levity. It makes observations about today’s society, whether that’s around blended families, familial expectations, gentrification or everyday racism.

“Sometimes, shows don’t quite sing and they’re almost remade in the edit. But this one came in with such a sense of itself that it was exciting from the moment we saw the rushes,” says Moody. “There was something special in the chemistry of the cast, the crackling editorial, and the recognisable dynamics between sisters, women and family.”

The series sits comfortably with Merman’s previous shows such as Bad Sisters and This Way Up. Has the appetite for female-led stories changed since the company was set up in 2014?

“We don’t have to have the conversation [about], ‘This is… a female-driven show and you need one of those’ at commissioning stage any more. That would have happened five years ago,” says Mountford.

“Now, it’s more about the story – it’s not a box-ticking exercise. But it is novel enough that people still comment on it – we don’t comment on male-driven shows, saying it’s an all-male cast, or a male director.

“Ideally, I’d love there to be a day when you just say, ‘This is a fantastic story with brilliant characters’. And the way to do that is to make more and more so it’s the norm.”

Dreamland starts on Sky and Now TV on Thursday 6 April.