Screen queens: the women we love to watch on TV
Olivia Colman in Fleabag
The dark political days drag on but fortunately there’s plenty of comedy on telly right now to to counteract the despair. Fleabag is back – and everyone’s in it. Fiona Shaw plays a therapist to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s flawed-but-relatable anti-heroine (Fleabag). And this week Kristen Scott Thomas made an appearance as an award-winning ‘woman in business’, giving a standout speech on being a woman that ended with, ‘We have it all going on in here inside, we have pain on a cycle for years and years and years and then just when you feel you are making peace with it all, what happens? The menopause comes, the fucking menopause comes, and it is the most wonderful fucking thing in the world….And yes, your entire pelvic floor crumbles and you get fucking hot and no one cares, but then you’re free, no longer a slave, no longer a machine with parts. You’re just a person.’
Multi-talented producer/writer/actor Waller-Bridge is the eponymous cafe-owner often found arching a suggestive eyebrow at the audience, and using sex as a distraction as she attempts to hide her grief in the wake of her best friend’s death. This season sees Andrew Scott join the cast as the gin-in-a-tin-drinking, hot priest, alongside malignant stepmother-in-waiting (Olivia Colman), brittle sister Claire (Sian Clifford) and toxic brother-in-law Martin (Brett Gelman). Apparently Colman told Waller-Bridge she’d ‘love to play a real bitch’ according to the TV show’s producer, Lydia Hampson, during an interview with Radio Times, and Waller-Bridge exclaimed, ‘I’ve got it!.’ Colman is genius as Fleabag’s soon-to-be step-mum with her cutting remarks, passive aggression and ‘sexhibitionism’.
Phoebe Waller Bridge as Fleabag
Mr TNMA and I have just binge-watched Sex Education – a heartwarming, hilarious and gloriously frank series from Netflix. Initially, I wasn’t that keen on the idea of a programme about the sex lives of teenagers, but the series covers more than that, everything from family relationships and friendship groups, to diversity and sexuality. Gillian Anderson is superb as the single mum, sex therapist, Jean. The show focuses on her son Otis as he negotiates his own insecurities around the opposite sex and ends up running a sex therapy clinic for his classmates, together with Maeve the smartest girl at Mooredale High School. Gillian Anderson spends most of the series wafting around in a robe, spying on her son and having one-off sexual encounters with men she’s not really that interested in. There’s a lot to like about her bohemian wardrobe, too – an array of jumpsuits (including this sell-out Finery one), wafty dresses, silky blouses and colourful scarves. As one reader commented on a recent That’s Not My Age post, her embroidered yellow robe deserves it’s own credit as a cast member.
Gillian Anderson in Sex Education
Of course, Waller-Bridge was also responsible for adapting Killing Eve (based on the Villanelle novels written by Luke Jennings) into a screenplay, and says she is drawn to women who are ‘transgressive’ and who flip expectations, fearless female characters with a dark sense of humour. Anyone who has seen Killing Eve can attest to the violent, darkly comic storyline; as the sadistic killer and MI5 officer become obsessed with hunting each other down in a game of international cat and mouse. Main characters Sandra Oh (Eve), Fiona Shaw (Carolyn) and Jodie Comer (Villanelle), don’t conform to gender stereotypes, or even genre stereotypes, in this standout series.
Killing Eve storyboard via Grazia
And although it’s finished (for good), I couldn’t do a TV Screen Queen round-up without mentioning Sharon Horgan, co-creator and star of the utterly fantastic sitcom, Catastrophe. One of the funniest, most honest comedy’s I’ve ever seen. Or giving Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin’s Grace & Frankie, a shout-out. The pair (friends in real life) are wonderful as 70-something housemates thrown together when their husbands declare a long-term love affair. Season five is now available.
Female writers, producers, creators and actors are having a real moment. Now more than ever, we need these narratives, we need funny, truthful and relatable female commentaries, written by women with female actors at the forefront. It’s great to be talking and laughing about motherhood, sisterhood, sex, relationships, friendship, ageing, success and failure. And exposing the (often uncomfortable) truths about what it is to be a woman today. TV has become a feminist force. And it’s fantastic.
Inspired by the bohemian style of our favourite TV Queens:
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Discussion (15 Comments)
lizzie g says:
For the wardrobe; naomi watts in Gypsy on netflix?, masterclass in how to stride around a city or sit elegantly or go from the office to a bar, all really useful for working women,
and dont forget derry girls and the wonderful lisa mcgee for the sheer fun of it……Margaret Leonard says:
How can you possibly forget the Derry Girls?? The funniest thing on screen for years. Great female led and inspired writing casting and comedy. Utterly hilarious
Jodi Brown says:
I just love the Grandad, utterly disdainful of the poor son in law. Belly laughs.
Fifi Stead says:
I was just going to write that! So glad Derry Girls gets a mention , it is wonderful. Also so sorry that Raised By Wolves didn’t get a third series … it was fabulous … the mother was a woman warrior… and Caitlin and Caroline Morans script was brilliant. Think it’s still available as a box set on channel 4.
Charity Girl says:
Hurrah for fantastic women on TV.
Have always loved Gillian Anderson since the X Files.
Does anyone remember ‘This life’ and Anna played by Daniella Nardini. I had a massive crush on her and her clothes.
Gitta Gschwendtner says:
Have you watched Russian Doll? So good, such great style and I love Natasha Lyonne in it!
Helen says:
Hi Alyson
Please may I have details of the grey jumpsuit both you and Gillian Anderson are wearing. You look great in it.
Many thanks
Helen
Hi Helen, the jumpsuit is from Finery London but it’s last summer’s collection I’m afraid….
Katherine C. James says:
The increasing unleashing of the power women hold into roles that are both about women and about how we are on a gender continuum past rigid roles for men and women delights me. Russian Doll is wonderful. I’ve watched it through three times. I loved its message, and that it has so many Easter eggs hidden within it. It’s especially moving to watch it knowing Lyonne’s own history, and knowing that she and the masterful Amy Poehler worked on it together. As a woman in tech, usually in rooms full of men, I adored the scene early on in which Natasha Lyonne does a subtle takedown of the men trying to keep her in a submissive position, before glancing at her phone and saying, “That’s my drug dealer, gotta go, see you later,” and leaves them gaping. Satisfying and familiar. Also loved Catastrophe’s ruminations on how flawed we all are, the power shifts in relationships, our desire to love and be loved, and our inability to see the ways in which other people love us. Catastrophe had a satisfying conclusion. Also a fan of anything Julia Louis Dreyfus does. Read the Time article about her and interview with her if you can. I love her worldview. She was glorious in the film Enough Said working with the fabulous Nicole Holofcener, Catharine Keener, and Toni Colette, as well as the late James Gandolfini. I haven’t watched Veep yet, because it reminds me too much of our American political reality, but I’d like to see it for her work in it. The Favourite reminded me of the power women bring to roles, there was such a concentration of talent there, and it was an interesting choice by Yorgos Lanthimos to make the men so essentially irrelevant and weak. I look forward to more women directing, writing, and acting by women who understand women and who are willing to portray the feminine in all its aspects with fierce bravery. Just watched Amy Schumer subverting expectations for how a pregnant woman should behave in her staand-up special Growing. That made me happy. (Haven’t seen Derry Girls. It’s on my list.)
Mrs Tonia says:
I’m already watching and enjoying this series of Fleabag. Some while ago caught up with first series and saw her in comedy about house sitters in disused commercial property.
And Catastrophe. Finally binge watching the final series which I recorded. Really rate this type of ill-tempered realistic humour. The intimidation of the mother trying to use the playground swings occupied by lounging sullen teens and the couple out jogging fearful of teenagers on bikes with water pistols come to mind.
I started Killing Eve but found it excessively violent. But should persevere and watch again in its entirety. So I can follow forthcoming new series.
As everyone says here. So many juicy fun roles for the actors involved. Including being allowed to swear and behave badly.
Just what is needed right now. A bit of levity.
MARTA DI BELLO 
Yolande Knight Leave a Reply
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I watched the episode with Scott-Thomas (gorgeous outfit) last night and that little speech gave me a lump in my throat. Fleabag is great, as is Killing Eve. I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a bit of a force of nature and writes so wonderfully for women. I’m loving Andrew Scott in this series too.