Funny Girl: Now The Major TV Series Funny Woman Starring Gemma Arterton
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Make them laugh, and they're yours forever . . .
Barbara Parker is Miss Blackpool of 1964, but she doesn't want to be a beauty queen. She wants to make people laugh.
So she leaves her hometown behind, takes herself to London, and overnight she becomes the lead in a new BBC comedy, Sophie Straw: charming, gorgeous, destined to win the nation's hearts.
Funny Girl is the story of a smash-hit TV show and the people behind the scenes. But when life starts imitating art, they all face a choice. How long can they keep going before it's time to change the channel?
Richard Madeley review
What a fabulous, spirited, in-your-face defence of popular entertainment this book is. Nick Hornby takes on the ghastly, self-inflated intellectual snobs who have dogged British broadcasting, theatre and literature for decades and demolishes them. He should get a medal.
It is 1964. Barbara Parker has just been crowned Miss Blackpool. Beautiful, clever, funny and ambitious, Barbara's heart quails at the thought of 12 months of corporate ribbon-cutting up and down the Golden Mile. Exactly fifteen minutes after winning the title, she hands her crown back and heads for London, where she changes her name to Sophie Straw. Because her real ambition isn't to be a Blackpool beauty queen.
Judy Finnigan review
When Barbara arrives in London and becomes Sophie Straw, it's not long before she gets her break. She is cast in a new BBC sitcom, Barbara (and Jim) and more or less overnight, she steals the show. It quickly becomes HER show; she is the reason millions of delighted viewers tune in every week. Her comic timing and effortless delivery make even humdrum scripts absurdly funny. She can do it. She's a funny girl.
There is, of course, an immediate critical backlash. Is this sort of rank comedy really what the BBC licence fee is supposed to underwrite? A combination of sexism and pseudo intellectualism and self-satisfied cultural snobbery engulfs the show but Sophie is more than equipped to confront it.
About the Author
More Details
- Contributor: Nick Hornby
- Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
- ISBN13: 9780241965221
- Number of Pages: 352
- Packaged Dimensions: 129x198x21mm
- Packaged Weight: 245
- Format: Paperback
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- Release Date: 2015-05-07
- Binding: Paperback / softback
- Biography: NICK HORNBY is the bestselling author of eight novels, including Just Like You, High Fidelity and About a Boy, and several works of nonfiction including Fever Pitch. He has also written numerous award-winning screenplays for film and television including Brooklyn, Wild and, most recently, State of the Union.
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