Girls on Top

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For other uses of "Girls On Top", see Girls On Top (disambiguation).

Girls On Top was a British sitcom which ran on ITV between 1985 and 1986. It was conceived by and starred comedic duo French & Saunders - in their first high-profile writing project for television - and despite a very low budget and poor critical reception received extremely high ratings.

The show focused around four female flatmates and their landlady. The characters were broadly painted stereotypes with very little depth and the comedy focused entirely around the conflicts arising from their personalities.

Characters

Amanda Ripley (Dawn French), a radical feminist who is strait-laced, anti-male and extremely liberal; also the character around whom the entire series was based.
Jennifer Marsh (Jennifer Saunders), an extremely mousy and child-like woman who serves as the whipping post for everyone else.
Shelley DuPont (Ruby Wax), a struggling actress and the British stereotype of a gaudily dressed, rude, loud-mouthed American.
Candice Valentine (Tracey Ullman), a promiscuous, lazy, manipulative gold digger.
Lady Chloe Carlton (Joan Greenwood), an eccentric elderly romance novelist and the landlady.

Synopsis

The first episode had Amanda struggling to find a flat and managing to procure one (that she cannot afford) from Lady Carlton. The former resident, Candice, convinces Amanda to let her stay until Wednesday because she has nowhere to go. Then Jennifer, Amanda's childhood friend, arrives unexpectedly with nowhere to go. Eventually Shelley is recruited to move in because none of the others can afford to cover the rent and deposit.

Each episode inevitably centered around the fact that Shelley could order the others around because they all relied on her to get the rent paid; usually the show also incorporated Candice's latest fabrication about some invented fatal illness, or any other reason she could invent to not have to pay the rent. One episode even had Candice convincing everyone she was dating Prince Andrew while another found her tricking Shelley into participating in an adult movie.

Ullman left the show after the first season and a variety of guests fleshed out the second season. Two DVD boxed sets were released featuring all 12 aired episodes plus one that was unaired. Many fans of the show were disappointed that they had very bad sound quality and deleted content.

External links

[British Film Institute Screen Online]

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