The actor exudes star power in this take on the popular novel. It blossoms into a colourful romp through the swinging 60s that is very much TV as comfort food
Photograph: Ben Blackall/Potboiler Productions; ©Sky Uk LimitedPhotograph: Ben Blackall/Potboiler Productions; ©Sky Uk Limitedand a little bit Carry On. Over six episodes, this charming adaptation of the popular 2014 Nick Hornby novel Funny Girl has taken its new, more mature name and blossomed into a colourful romp through the swinging 60s. Gemma Arterton is Barbara Parker, a beauty queen from the rock factory who loves radio comedy and having a laugh with her dad.
If this is the kind of world she is living in, then Barbara is having none of it. In the way that modern series about bygone eras often do, Funny Woman wages a gratifying, ahead-of-its-time war against sexism on all fronts. Barbara spreads her wings and flees to London, where she hopes to become a performer of some kind. She watches Lucille Ball on the television at the launderette, and dreams about her future. “I’d love to get paid to muck about,” she says, wistfully.
Eventually, she ticks off every item in the “single woman in the 1960s” list: she gets a salt-of-the-earth flatmate, Marge, who hangs her pants up in the kitchen to dry; she has an encounter with a less-than-chivalrous gentleman who promises to show her a good night out; she does some nightclub work that edges more towards glamour than glamorous. Then, finally, she finds herself a real-life old-fashioned showbiz agent in the form of Rupert Everett, hamming it up a storm.
Nothing about this drama much bothers to reinvent the wheel. Barbara is an “ooh, what am I like?” character – a bit ditsy, a bit naive, but a powerhouse of charisma. She puts her northern foot in it, constantly, by pronouncing “eau de toilette” as “eau de toilet”, and says things like, “I look like a boiled egg in a tea cosy!” when trying on bobble hats.
It is familiar, then, but there’s something rather lovely in its familiarity. As Barbara/Sophie, Arterton is captivating. Having star power and managing to convey it on screen are not necessarily the same thing, but she manages to get her appeal across brilliantly. When she starts working with a group of Footlights-ish writers and directors, mostly posh, all southern, it really starts to come together.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Police treating death of 19yo Ipswich woman as suspicious while awaiting autopsy resultsPolice are treating 19-year-old Krystle Monks's death as suspicious after she collapsed at a home in Bundamba, south-west of Brisbane, on Saturday night.
Read more »
Search for man who dropped woman at Sydney hospital with gunshot woundNSW Police are searching for a man who drove a woman with a gunshot wound to a Sydney hospital and then left the scene. Police say the 37-year-old is suffering from a severed spine and is unlikely to ever walk again. 9News MORE:
Read more »
Police hold grave fears for elderly woman missing from Brisbane's northPolice have grave fears for a 78-year-old woman who left a note before disappearing from her north Brisbane home last week.
Read more »
CCTV footage captures moment mystery man drops shot woman at Sydney hospitalThe woman remains in hospital with significant internal injuries a month after she was driven to a hospital in the city's south-west, as police search for the driver.
Read more »
Australia’s richest woman to give away $4.1 million in ‘random’ raffleMining magnate Gina Rinehart is rewarding 41 staff members with a share of $4.1 million. 7NEWS
Read more »
Man and woman believed to be in their 40s drown on beach north of SydneyPolice say the pair were pulled from the water at Frazer Beach on the NSW Central Coast on Wednesday afternoon.
Read more »