Simon Dunn

Scriptwriter and Comedian

Girls On Top

As early as 1985, Jennifer Saunders was starring in not one, but two prime time sitcoms on the main channels. On BBC One, she played multiple characters in Ben Elton’s Happy Families, and during the same few weeks, she was over on ITV in Girls On Top.

Here’s Tony Pratt’s patronising preview write up in the Daily Mirror from the 23rd October.

Over the page in the same paper, Patricia Smyllie had this to say.

The show was the Pick Of The Day in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

The first episode was watched by 13.79 million viewers, beaten only that night by Full House and Coronation Street, making it the 8th most watched show of the week. In contrast, Happy Families debuted the week before with 7.56 million viewers (54th), in a similar 8.30pm slot.

Peter Donnelly offered us his opinion of that opening episode in the Mirror on the 31st October.

Ruby had her own write up in the Liverpool Echo on the 30th.

, , ,
, ,

<

>

Buy My Books
  • Nineteen 90s Shows
    Nineteen 90s Shows

    I wrote another book about television. I like television. I like television so much that the first thing I modelled and printed on my new 3d printer was this … I made some more after that too. There’s a few more, including TVS, ATV, and HTV, but I bought you here to talk about my…

Follow
Most Read
  • Re-Casting Keanu
    Re-Casting Keanu

    Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…

From The Archive

Sign up for my FREE newsletter