Nick Hornby's novel Funny Girl is a love letter to the early days of television.
Now retitled as Funny Woman, it takes aim at the rampant sexism of the era.
It also has thinly disguised characters that could be based on real life people.
Dennis Mahindra (Arsher Ali) could be Waris Hussain, the director of the very first episode of Doctor Who. His comedy writers seem to be a bit Goonish.
Gemma Arterton plays Barbara Parker. A cheeky gobby young blond who goes from a Blackpool beauty queen to working in a department store in the London of 1964.
Barbara is taken on a night out by an older gentleman who later attempts to rape her.
She later comes to the attention of slimy showbiz agent Brian Debenham (Rupert Everett.) Barbara kind of cons her way to an audition where she does an impromptu reading.
Arterton is bubbly, ditzy and zesty as Barbara but is clearly too old. She looks caked in makeup.
The first episode was not too original. It just had too many stock characters and a tick list of cliched plotting.
The rest of the episodes need to shift up a gear and have some more originality.
Now retitled as Funny Woman, it takes aim at the rampant sexism of the era.
It also has thinly disguised characters that could be based on real life people.
Dennis Mahindra (Arsher Ali) could be Waris Hussain, the director of the very first episode of Doctor Who. His comedy writers seem to be a bit Goonish.
Gemma Arterton plays Barbara Parker. A cheeky gobby young blond who goes from a Blackpool beauty queen to working in a department store in the London of 1964.
Barbara is taken on a night out by an older gentleman who later attempts to rape her.
She later comes to the attention of slimy showbiz agent Brian Debenham (Rupert Everett.) Barbara kind of cons her way to an audition where she does an impromptu reading.
Arterton is bubbly, ditzy and zesty as Barbara but is clearly too old. She looks caked in makeup.
The first episode was not too original. It just had too many stock characters and a tick list of cliched plotting.
The rest of the episodes need to shift up a gear and have some more originality.
