Girls on Top The Complete Series

cast
Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Ruby Wax, Tracey Ullman, Joan Greenwood

With the young upstarts of alternative comedy having come along to kick out the jams of traditional comedy with the ground breaking Young Ones and Comic Strip Presents, the girls in the gang clearly wanted their shot at sitcom glory. Created by French, Saunder and Wax with additional input from Ben Elton and Tracey Ullman, the sitcom was the flat sharing Girls on Top which found a home not on BBC2 or pushing the boundaries Channel 4 but slap bang in the middle of the ITV prime time family audience mid week 8.30pm slot.

Made in the mid 1980's the series, whilst being very funny is probably most interesting for seeing the genesis of the French and Saunders schtick that has carried them through the rest of their career together, Dawn's bossy domination of Jennifer's somewhat simple character being a staple of their work ever since.

Dawn is Amanda Ripley, a right on femnist (sub assistant editor of Spare Cheeks magazine), desperate to find accomadation in London she ends up sharing a flat in the house of elderly and more than slightly batty Lady Carlton (the brilliant Joan Greenwood) with her old Brownies friend Jennifer Marsh (Saunders), the wannabe glamour girl Candice Valentine (Ullman) and loud, brash American actress Shelley Dupont (Ruby Wax, playing very much to type). The storylines are typical sitcom fare, occasionally with a bit of an edge such as the episode where Shelley thinks she has landed a part in a movie without realising its a porn film; There is also a huge array of well known faces popping up in guest roles including Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Harry Enfield, Pauline Quirke, Hugh Laurie, John Sessions and even the Beverley Sisters.

Tracey Ullman had moved to the states to further her career there by the time of the second season so her character was killed off but nothing much else changed. It's actually been good fun catching up with this seldom seen series once again and it definitely gets the nod from Memorable TV.

extras are a Ruby Wax interview on the 6 O'Clock Show, 22 January 1988 (hosted by Michael Aspel and also featuring Danny Baker and Chris Tarrant and a Tracey Ullman interview on Sunday Sunday, 8 January 1984