Back to school for beauty queen Gemma
IT’S an old school reunion for the St Trinian’s gang, with director Ol Parker, headmistress Rupert Everett and tearaway Gemma Arterton all teaming up — 15 years on — in a new drama for Sky.
The show, Funny Woman, is a sitcom based on the novel by Nick Hornby. Arterton plays Barbara Parker, a regional beauty queen ( Miss Blackpool) who moves to London in search of TV fame.
Everett is almost unrecognisable, in a bald cap and heavy make-up, as her agent Brian Debenham. The comedy has been written by Morwenna Banks, who also brilliantly adapted Mick Herron’s Slow Horses for Apple TV+.
Arterton says: ‘It’s a heartwarming story of an ambitious woman with a dream of making people laugh — it’s going to be something special. It’s an honour to be working with such an incredible team, and be reunited with my first ever director, Oliver Parker.’
Of her character, Arterton said: ‘Barbara Parker is quite silly. She’s got a lot of comedy in her bones, and yet she’s quite glamorous. She’s a real clown, but a real working-class girl.’