OLDER WOMEN SHOULD RULE TV

5 FEBRUARY 2022

The acting world has probably never been in a better place for older women (though admittedly there is still a long way to go). Formerly, female actors were put out to pasture once the lines appeared on the face and the grey hairs peeked through but now it’s obvious that there are a myriad options available to them. One of the main reasons for this is that more women are now writing, directing and producing movies and TV shows and, aware of the power and finesse experienced actors can bring to roles, are deliberately creating characters who can be played by such stalwarts. I read an interview this week with Cillian Murphy about the return of Peaky Blinders. Naturally he was asked about the untimely death of his co-star Helen McCrory, who played Aunt Polly to his Tommy Shelby. As a huge fan of the show, one of the things that always struck me was that despite the heavily male cast, featuring heavyweights such as Cillian, Tom Hardy, Aidan Gillen and Adrien Brody, Helen stole the show in every episode. Much of that is due to the fact that scriptwriters gave her storylines that made her the strong matriarch – something that wouldn’t have happened much previously. I’ve raved about the Netflix series Grace & Frankie here in the past – I just love the fact that it champions not only women, but older women, with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda embracing their characters wonderfully. It was co-created by Marta Kauffman, who has been one of the most transformative people in Hollywood for women. She was also the co-creator of Friends, Veronica’s Closet and Jesse, all of which gave women pivotal roles and broke the mould of them simply as mothers and homemakers. Today’s cover interview is with The Crown star Lesley Manville, who says that at 65 she feels like her career is just getting started. And that’s the way it should be. With a career spanning five decades she has a wealth of experience and expertise to share. Thankfully, people like Marta Kauffman and, more recently, the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman are creating shows that not only feature older women but also feature them in unexpected roles – as breadwinners, leaving unhappy marriages, as business owners, as reluctant mothers, exploring their sexuality, all things you wouldn’t have previously seen much. It’s refreshing and giving us such a larger scope of entertainment. I was never a Sex And The City fan so haven’t tuned into the And Just Like That... revival. But one of the main complaints I’m hearing is that they’ve tried to make the characters too ‘woke’, that yes they’ve aged, but they’re behaving as if they can still stay young. The battle for eternal youth is exhausting and we certainly don’t need to be reminded of it every time we settle down for a bit of light entertainment.

Enjoy the issue.