A deafening fire alarm is going off. Bolton locals want to know what that dreadful noise is all about. They pause their shopping and start to crowd around the town hall in the rain, only for Gemma Arterton to appear out of the fire exit, fingers in ears, wearing a blond wig under a baker boy hat. “I’m in such a conspicuous costume,” she laughs, head down, wrapping her spectacular blue PVC coat round her. I’m walking next to her, wondering what I did wrong in a previous life for this to happen five minutes into our interview.
We’re on location for the filming of the second season of Funny Woman, Sky’s adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl. Although it is mostly set in London, production largely takes place across north-west England. On the other side of the plaza (which is standing in for Trafalgar Square), a nondescript building has been turned into a thriving 60s department store. Vintage cars line the cobbled street. Earlier, a group of women – all in patent heels – were marching for equality, shouting: “What do we want? Equal pay! When do we want it? Yesterday!”
The comedy-drama follows Sophie Straw (Arterton), a former Miss Blackpool and stick-of-rock factory worker, who moves to the capital to find fame like her icon, the comic actor Lucille Ball. It’s a love letter to swinging 60s London and the dawn of great British TV comedy, with a first series that saw her find stardom in sitcom Barbara (and Jim) – and all the sexism, classism and creeps that came with it. As she goes it alone in series two with new show Just Barbara, we see all too clearly what a man’s world women like Sophie had to fight hard to be funny in. You could say, and critics have, that it is a grittier version of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.
Back in the building (it was a false alarm!), I quickly learn not to mention the M word to Arterton. “People love to compare things, don’t they?” she grins politely. “But Mrs Maisel is about a wealthy woman with a fancy house; our show is very much about the working class – they have a lot to lose, and there’s a lot more at stake. Even Sophie, when she’s at her height, is only one bad review away from working in the rock factory again.”
Perhaps the comparison deserves an eye-roll because Arterton, 38, has working-class roots herself. After growing up in Kent with her welder father and cleaner mother, she got a scholarship to train at Rada. Her screen breakthrough came as head girl Kelly in the St Trinian’s film, which led to a Bond Girl role in Quantum of Solace. But there’s been a clear pull towards powerful working-class stories, particularly in the stage productions Nell Gwynn and Made in Dagenham. She has since said: “If you are born into a class, being that in your soul and your guts, you will never be anything else.”
Arterton has also been a leading voice in the #MeToo movement and in campaigning for equal pay. It can’t have been easy: it’s an unsettling realisation that in St Trinian’s she acted opposite Russell Brand as a schoolgirl that his older character lusted after, and she has spoken about an American manager telling her to “stop doing the feminism thing because it’s not doing you any favours”. But that didn’t stop her. Arterton called on female actors to wear black at the 2018 Baftas in solidarity with anti-sexist movement Time’s Up, penned an alternative feminist ending for her Bond Girl, and set up production company Rebel Park in response to the lack of female roles in the industry.
Luckily, she says, when I ask if she relates to any of the issues explored in the show, she hasn’t had “any ‘full on’ experiences” like Sophie, but there are “certainly things that I’ve witnessed or heard about”. “Sexism, racism, homophobia … obviously all of those issues exist and we’re still on a journey to parity,” she adds, “but they occur way less.”
Arterton wanted to buy the rights to Hornby’s novel as soon as she read it in 2014, but they had already been sold. A few years later, a production company contacted her with a script by screenwriter Morwenna Banks – who is also the voice of Mummy Pig in Peppa Pig – and asked if Rebel Park wanted to co-produce it. It felt serendipitous. “She is quite like me, a working-class actor and – you wouldn’t think it – but I am quite slapstick in real life,” she laughs.
The one huge obstacle that Arterton is dealing with right now is something Sophie hasn’t had to worry about: being a working mum. This is her first project since having a baby son with Peaky Blinders actor Rory Keenan in December 2022. “I’m not going to lie: it has been challenging,” she says. “It’s very, very long days on this job. But it’s only short lived and then I’m back to being mummy. I did think: ‘Am I going to be able to work this job and be a mum?’ So I’m pleased I’ve done it now. I just get on with it and don’t sweat the small stuff as much.”
There is one problem she wants to raise, though: “We could do better with childcare in this business, having a creche and things like that, because of the hours. But that’s a whole other conversation.”
Arterton is pulled away to pick up a placard and join the protesters, and the three men in Sophie’s life sit down for a chat. Matthew Beard and Leo Bill play Sophie’s writing team Bill and Tony, while Arsher Ali takes the role of her director and will-they-won’t-they love interest Dennis. Bill is navigating being gay when it is still illegal, Tony has a baby on the way and Dennis is handling a much-frowned upon divorce – all while trying to make another hit sitcom.
We learn that – after admitting their feelings for each other – Sophie and Dennis can’t be together for three years until his separation from his wife is finalised, in order not to tarnish her social reputation, which only makes you root for them even more. The romcom element is a huge part of the story’s charm, says Asher: “Although I didn’t know romcoms were so fun until I did this – I’ve never seen Bridget Jones.”
It’s not the only reason fans adore the show. “It’s very warm,” says Beard, “And each character explores an interesting side of that period, from the politics to sexuality. It also shows how exciting television was at that time!” It’s clear they have a hoot filming it, too. “By about 5pm we’re all slightly delirious,” he says, “It’s a really dangerous time. We’ve definitely corpsed and lost our minds before.” Bill adds: “There’s a lot of piss-taking.”
No wonder it has attracted some great comedy names to the cast. The first season starred Rupert Everett as Sophie’s dodgy talent agent, and this season sees the arrival of Tim Key, Roisin Conatyty and Gemma Whelan.
Whelan plays a journalist called Lynda, but she isn’t on set when I visit. I finally talk to her on a video call some months later during a heatwave, while she is wearing funky sunglasses and sitting in her garden. “I’m in a paddling pool situation with the children, so forgive me,” she says before introducing her smiley young son, who is splashing cold water on her feet. She’s a total delight, clearly, and yet she joins the show as its poisonous villain.
“She’s out to kill,” Whelan says of Lynda, who tries to get a scoop on the skeletons in Sophie’s closet. “She’s probably one of the only female journalists working on Fleet Street; another woman in a male-dominated industry, just trying to earn her bread and butter. She’ll get a story at any cost.” But the Game of Thrones actor had a lot of fun playing a not-so-nice character: “I spent a whole afternoon filming in Blackpool Tower!”
Whelan knows the world of comedy well: she started her career as a standup comic and won at the Funny Women awards in 2010. It was a “calculated move” to get herself an agent and pivot to acting. It paid off well. She captured the hearts of Game of Thrones fans as Yara Greyjoy, then starred in top shows Upstart Crow, The End of the F***ing World, Gentleman Jack and Killing Eve.
How has it been navigating both comedy and TV over the last two decades? “It’s a long journey, isn’t it – equality?” she says. “But there’s much more accountability and transparency on every job I go on now: at the National Theatre, there’s a whole day of consent work and on TV there’s a lot of safeguarding. No one can hide in plain sight any more.”
Did the experience inspire her to do standup again? “No,” she deadpans. She loved doing her own shows, but is more than happy for other people to lead the writing and directing these days: “It means I’m not responsible for everything.”
Whelan says she loved working with Arteron and the rest of the gang – it’s easy to see why. Arterton was so engrossed in filming that she didn’t even watch her other hit series from last year, Culprits (“I’ll watch it when I finish this!”), while Beard describes the production as a place where “chaos is kind of encouraged”, and Bill says: “There’s just joy in being on set, messing about, having fun and making something that isn’t deeply depressing.”
You can tell a third season is in their sights – the drama has already continued beyond the book, and Sophie has a long, exciting career ahead. If that happens, at least Bolton locals know to carry some earplugs around with them next time Arterton’s in town.
Funny Woman is on Sky Max on 6 September