The philandering boss, the ruthless diva — and celeb cameos galore
SO WHO’S who in Ten Percent — and how do they measure up with their counterparts across the Channel?
THE PLOT
THE starting point of both shows is the same: the sudden death of the founder of the agency.
During the first episode of Call My Agent!, the founder of ASK agency dies — while holidaying in Rio after swallowing a wasp — and much of the early drama is about the attempts of those left behind to keep going.
The agents have to fight to hang on to their star clients, and fend off attempts from other agencies to buy them up or poach agents.
There are lots of inappropriate workplace relationships — carried off with an enticing Parisian elan — and the series is littered with cameo appearances from big stars.
The British version shares a pacy, deadpan sensibility with Call My Agent! but is very much a London show.
The exquisite embarrassments of difficult social interactions — and efforts at being polite — are entirely British.
In the British version, the founder of Nightingale Hart — played by veteran actor Jim Broadbent — is also the father of the lead agent, Jonathan Nightingale, played by Jack Davenport.
TOP DOG
IN CALL My Agent! the most senior agent is Mathias Barneville (played by Thibault de Montalembert), whose private life is more than a little tangled.
It emerges in the first episode that he has a love child, Camille, who goes on to work for the agency and is eventually acknowledged by him.
His UK counterpart is Nightingale. As with Mathias, he has a love child who starts to work for the agency.
And, as in the French version, he is married but has a mistress in the office — played here by Rebecca Humphries.
She may look familiar. Her romance with boyfriend Seann
Walsh rather infamously fell victim to the ‘Strictly Curse’ after he was pictured smooching his dance partner, Katya Jones. Davenport is probably best known for his role as Miles in the 1990s series This Life.
He said that being in the show made him consider how much fibbing his agent does to him.
‘I actually said to my agent at one point, “So, about... lying?” and he said, “You can’t do it because if you get caught, you’re dead.” But then he talked about information management. If ever there was a profession that dealt in shades of grey, it would be theatrical agents.’
CHIC VETERAN
THE Queen bee of the French agency is Arlette Azemar, played by 89-year-old Liliane Rovere. She prefers to be called an impresario rather than an agent and cuts a terrifying, if magnificently dignified, figure.
In the British version, the veteran agent Stella Hart is played by Maggie Steed, 75.
She recently played Elizabeth in the TV adaptation of the novel Elizabeth Is Missing opposite Glenda Jackson.
She is a familiar face after a distinguished career which includes Shine On Harvey Moon, Jam & Jerusalem, Minder and Midsomer Murders.
KICK-ASS AGENT
ANDREA MARTEL, played by French actress Camille Cottin, is a ruthless figure who lies, cheats and manipulates anyone in the service of her celebrity clientele. She is also promiscuous, and blunt about her sexuality.
She tells one colleague who suggests a liaison: ‘When I moved on from guys to girls, it was like graduating from the sandpit to the football pitch.’
In an interview earlier this year, Cottin said: ‘She is so direct and doesn’t care what people think — and that’s what makes her sexy.’
Since Call My Agent! began, she has filmed Mouche, a reworking of Fleabag in which she plays the Phoebe Waller-Bridge character. Viewers may also recognise her as assassin Helene in series three of Killing Eve.
Her British counterpart in Ten Percent is Rebecca Fox, played by Lydia Leonard, 40, who also stars as Suranne Jones’s ex in Gentleman Jack, and will play Cherie Blair in season five of The Crown.
Like Cottin, her character is lesbian and sexually frank, although less combative.
SPOT THE STARS
PART of the appeal of Call My Agent! is the cameos from stars playing sent up versions of themselves, including Juliette Binoche, Monica Bellucci and Sigourney Weaver. And Ten Percent doesn’t disappoint in that regard.
They include Helena Bonham Carter and Olivia Williams, who are both cast in the same film.
Davenport said: ‘I’ve known Olivia since 1991. We started to do these scenes and I said, “This is very weird because you’re you, but I’m not me”. There was a slight telescope the wrong way round kind of thing.’
Williams said: ‘I was very nervous about that because I wasn’t sure “Is this Olivia on a bicycle in a pair of ill-fitting trousers or is it red-carpet Olivia?” But actually it’s really relaxing to do because it’s not about you, it’s the agents who have all the lines. We just make monosyllabic interjections and it’s such fun.’
Other cameos include Kelly Macdonald, Dominic West, David Oyelowo and Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor.
■ TEN PERCENT launches on Thursday on Amazon Prime Video.