#Ruby Wax

[of-fear-and-love]

Technology from Shock Treatment (1981)

[kwebtv]

Girls on Top - ITV - October 23, 1985 - December 11, 1986

Sitcom (13 Episodes)

Running Time: 30 minutes

Stars:

Dawn French as Amanda Ripley

Jennifer Saunders as Jennifer Marsh

Ruby Wax as Shelley DuPont

Tracey Ullman as Candice Valentine

Joan Greenwood as Lady Chloe Carlton

[a-girl-and-her-quotes]

Ruby Wax

[abfabsweetiedarlings]

Saunders, who plays PR boss Edina “Eddie” Monsoon on the show, and Dame Joanna, known for portraying her alcoholic friend Patsy Stone, will appear alongside Julia Sawalha (Saffron Monsoon) and Jane Horrocks (Bubble), as well as a roster of famous faces.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Sunday Tribune - Sunday 24 June 1990

Apparently at some point in early 1991 the Aristasians were featured in a programme about "offbeat" characters around Ireland. I am unsure if this ever made it to the air, but Ruby Wax did host a talk show from early 1991 to 1994 called The Full Wax.

[hankhill420]

Obligatory “does this bird belong to you?”

Also I just noticed the Freud and Somïnex on the bedside table… hm

[hbcsource]

@billie_charity: Some behind the scenes pics from @hayfestival 😍

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

Girls on Top ♀️

I finally watched Girls on Top (starring Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Ruby Wax, Tracey Ullman, and featuring Joan Greenwood). My immediate thoughts were: wow, the title graphics and theme tune are extremely '80s. They feel so old! They're kind of almost cute in how old and nostalgic they are. Also, the board saying "COMEDY DEGRADES WOMEN" that appears briefly in the first series' opening credits before Dawn's glaring face is revealed amused me.

I can see why for marketing reasons this was dubbed the female version of The Young Ones. That must have been an almost guaranteed way to attract viewers in 1985. In fairness, Girls on Top is about four young women sharing a flat (well, three once Tracey left after the first series due to pregnancy). As well as this, Dawn's character (Amanda Ripley) and Jen's character (Jennifer Marsh) can definitely be directly compared to Rick and Neil, respectively. The two groups share similar struggles of paying the rent, the four of them are very different and don't get on, and the last episode ends with a bang. The central set in both shows too is, of course, the shared living space.

That said, Girls on Top isn't a cut and paste female Young Ones, for a number of reasons. It isn't as surreal, has a more developed outside world for its characters to exist in, isn't about students, and I believe the fourth wall is only broken occasionally - at the end of episodes, which is arguably just the actors half breaking character to address the audience. Girls on Top was also made for ITV, not the BBC, which I'm sure will have had an impact too. I think the differences to TYO are a good thing, to be honest.

Anyway, though Girls on Top takes a few episodes to warm up, I liked it. The contrast of personalities between the characters works - the way Ruby plays Shelley DuPont compared to the way Jen plays Jennifer feel at opposite ends of the comic spectrum at points, but both work perfectly for the characters. I always appreciate sitcoms where women are allowed to be flawed and awful people, rather than stock types for the funny male characters to play off. Girls on Top is very much about women; if it wasn't obvious through all the regulars being women, you can tell by the jokes and references to periods, feminism, diets, etc. Amanda in particular is a self-righteous, man-hating, second-wave feminist (and a massive middle class hypocrite - you can see the obvious comparison with Rick 😂). I guess you could say, while The Young Ones is about young people, Girls on Top is about women. Obviously, it's not that the characters in Girls on Top aren't young (although, they're not meant to be as young as the lads from TYO... apart from Mike), but the fact that they're women is more integral to the premise.

In the same sense, The Young Ones' characters all being men doesn't seem to be something the show chose hyper specifically. Man was and still is the default over woman, so the specific choice TYO made was to have a sitcom about young people; the fact they all happen to be men is secondary to that, though not at all surprising. Of course they're men. The experiences of young men are the default young person experiences, right? The experiences of young women have to be defined by their Womanness before their Youngness, right? That's a very stripped down way of putting it, not even addressing other important social factors like race and class, but you get what I mean. Interestingly, Lise Mayer has talked recently about how she thinks, retrospectively, they could have had one of the main characters in TYO be a woman but that at the time the characters were all written for the specific comics who played them, who were all men (again, apart from Mike 😂). Obviously, the dynamic between men VS the dynamic between men and women (especially if the split is notably uneven) would make for different comedies, particularly back then, but it's still an interesting thought.

To get back to Girls on Top, I think I'd have to say my favourite character is Jennifer. She is very dim and absolutely the group punching bag, like Neil, but I think the fact she doesn't go out of her way to look for sympathy makes her more sympathetic than Neil (and Neil isn't NOT sympathetic, as much as any of the lads are meant to be sympathetic, it's just he's also a passive aggressive bastard too 😂). In the final episode, when she finally gets the opportunity to get one over on Shelley and Amanda, we're on her side. Her obliviousness in the face of other characters' - particularly Shelley's and Amanda's - overinflated egos and neuroses means she gets a fair few punchlines, as well. I mean, how does one respond to their bossy, melodramatic diva of a housemate threatening to off herself?

SHELLEY: Now, leave! I've decided to commit suicide!

JENNIFER: Alright then, if you're sure you're okay.

Amazing. 😂

I'd say this show is worth watching if you're into the "alternative comedy" cohort. Aside from the main quartet, almost every episode features a familiar face as a guest star. Some of the guest stars even appear in multiple episodes (Helen Lederer, Pauline Melville). Here's a YouTube playlist featuring the first series, from the same account that ended Hardwicke House's 30 years of obscurity:

[sweetness-doesnt-touch-my-face]

Please enjoy this priceless exchange between two ICONIC manic depressives, Carrie Fisher and Elizabeth Wurtzel.

[hislopchino]

Paul Merton, Ruby Wax, Clive Anderson, and Angus Deayton at The British Comedy Award Ceremony in 1992

Photo by Neil Munns

[kwebtv]

Dawn French as Amanda Ripley, Tracey Ullman as Candice Valentine, Joan Greenwood as Lady Chloe Carlton, Ruby Wax as Shelley DuPont and Jennifer Saunders as Jennifer Marsh in "Girls on Top"

[avengersome]

No idea if this will post properly but this made me laugh.

From Ruby Wax’s Instagram.

Samuel West, Helena Bonham Carter and Olivia Williams rehearsing at Hay Festival.

[mijnmobielemoleskine]

How come every other organ in your body can get sick and you get sympathy, except the brain?

Ruby Wax

[donnahinkleystaceytroy]