What does it mean to be a British woman in a comedy show? Usually, there are limited available roles: they’re twee and harmless, they’re useless singletons pursued by pushy mothers, or they’re equally useless drunkards pursued by insufferably sensible daughters. See: The Vicar of Dibley, Miranda, and Absolutely Fabulous. With perhaps the exception of Ab Fab, these female-centred programmes have a gentle conservatism to them – boundary-pushing they are not. And that’s fine; comedy need not always be achingly edgy. But nonetheless, it’s a sad fact that, as far as British female comedy is concerned, there’s something missing. Something darker, grittier and perhaps even a little bit sicker. Why has America, usually a purveyor of bland and inoffensive goods, taken the driver’s seat in this respect? Where exactly is the UK’s answer to Girls? Despite what we imagine to be budding scriptwriters and commissioners’ efforts, as yet no one has come up with the goods. Despite women being just as capable of twisted humour as men – maybe even more so – female-centred black comedies are few and far between.
Content from our partners
