Taking note of equality

IT’S a drama set in the 70s that’s been made by people in the 21st century. If you’re wondering what to expect from MRS AMERICA (BBC2, 9pm, 9.45pm), this alone tells you plenty.

Terrible clothes? Terrible hair? An awful lot of orange? Sure, those are a given.

But what it’s far more keen to show us is how dreadful those 70s men were, most notably in their attitudes to women.

They weren’t just condescending, they were often downright creepy, that’s the message here.And so matter-offact in their casual touchyfeeliness.Yuk.Yes, before it gets down to the nitty-gritty of its fact-based plot, of which there’ll be nine episodes’ worth, Mrs America makes sure we’re in no doubt as to what its protagonists were up against in their battle for equality.

But then it gets a bit more complex, a bit less obvious. Mrs

America isn’t just out to reiterate the same old points about the olden days.

At the heart of its story is a debate that divided US opinion along lines that weren’t always so predictable, as campaigners fought to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Yes, in its broadest sense it was a female-v-male thing. But by no means exclusively.The most forceful woman we meet at the start is Cate Blanchett’s character, the politically astute and ambitious Phyllis Schlafly.And Phyllis wants nothing to do with this equal rights legislation.

“The sweetheart of the silent majority,” she not only believes the average American housewife in 1971 prefers things how they are, she also believes these changes to the constitution could have damaging consequences – potentially leaving women with nothing if their marriages break up and, most alarmingly, running the risk of them being sent to fight in Vietnam.

Not that this issue is all Schlafly cares about. Far from it.

Out to make her own political mark in Washington, she has firm views on issues such as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), fearing American naivety could play into Soviet hands. She is repeatedly belittled as she attempts to put them across to other politicians (in one scene, as the only woman in the meeting, she’s asked to fetch a pad and take the minutes) and yet she continues to insist: “I’ve never been discriminated against.”

Elsewhere, Kingdom Choir conductor Karen Gibson is among the new contestants entering the CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF kitchen (BBC1, 9pm). But it sounds as if she and her agent need to talk more.

“I have no clue what we’re going to be doing,” she admits.

I’m surprised she’s not turned up with her ice skates.