While the 1960s slowly started to vibrate in London and social structures and moral concepts were gradually being questioned or turned upside down, in the coastal town of Blackpool in the mid-1960s the world was still in the best, most conservative order. This is also the case in the life of Barbara Parker (Gemma Arterton), the protagonist of the new six-part series “Funny Woman”, which has just started on Sky and WOW. She still lives under the same roof with her father and aunt, is in a relationship with the good butcher from the neighborhood, and the maximum excitement is already taking part in the “Miss Blackpool” pageant.
The local beauty pageant, which gave Nick Hornby’s novel its German title, is the unexpected start of a new life for Barbara. Instead of contenting herself with photos in the local press following winning, she spontaneously sets out for London. Maybe the long and secretly cherished dream of acting and being famous will still work out there!
However, there are many pretty blondes with bikini figures there, so that Barbara initially only manages to get a job in a department store and a modest place to sleep with a colleague. But following a few run-ins with bosses and a pretty awful date with a wealthy client, she happens to meet an agent (Rupert Everett). He first gave her the stage name Sophie Straw and then a variety show job, but thanks to initiative, luck and a good dose of cheekiness, at some point she also has to audition for a sitcom.
Gemma Arterton convinces with charm and wit
“Funny Woman” written by Morwenna Banks, who plays Everett’s wife in the series, and directed by Oliver Parker, who shot the “St. Trinian’s” films with him and Arterton, can never really decide who the protagonist actually is really is. A naïve starlet? A feminist who is as clever as she is ambitious? Or, more importantly, a very talented comedienne trying to move beyond childhood trauma? Only the fact that Gemma Arterton (“Vita & Virginia”, “Their Best Hour”), who has rarely been given the recognition as an actress, actually embodies all these facets of the character with wonderful charm and wit, ensures that one as a spectator stays tuned in view of narrative weaknesses.
The latter also means that apart from the titular heroine, it’s a bit too much regarding the different men in her life. Not least those with whom she works on said television series. In addition to the famous colleague Clive Richardson (Tom Bateman) and the producer Dennis Mahindra (Arsher Ali), who both see in Barbara aka Sophie more than just a collaborator, there are also Tony (Leo Bill) and Bill (Matthew Beard). The two met following cruising in a public toilet in prison and became one gay, the other married, but somehow still busy finding themselves as a tight-knit duo of authors.
As interesting as these characters are, the approach is often irritating. Because everything they experience and discuss is not dealt with in the context of the 1960s, which is otherwise omnipresent at the level of action, but with the modern perspective of today. Homophobia and racism, clichés on television or sexist running the spire – all these topics are so clearly perceived and analyzed by Barbara alias Sophie and her environment as even today only by the most reflective contemporaries. This anachronism creates an imbalance that doesn’t always do “Funny Woman” good, precisely because the series actually works best as a showbiz satire.
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