Girls On Top
A British sitcom that was shown on ITV from 1985 to 1986, starring and written by French and Saunders, Ruby Wax and Tracey Ullman. Despite a low budget and poor critical reception, the series was a ratings success. The show focused on four female flatmates and their landlady. It was a female version of The Young Ones, two series of which were made in 1982 and 1984. French and Saunders had both appeared in it and, like most of its stars, were members of The Comic Strip group. The theme tune was written and performed by Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford from the British band Squeeze (with the cast singing the theme for the first series, and Tilbrook singing for the second).
Shelley and Amanda stir Jennifer into comforting Candice about her pornographic habits which have corrupted even Lady Carlton. But Candice has left a note saying she's in hospital.
The women at Spare Cheeks are taking classes in electrical repair work which is now being taught by Tom, whose sister can't make it. Amanda, always on the lookout for a man, falls head over heels in love.
Once the subject of an exploratory brain operation (nothing was found), Jennifer suddenly reaches hitherto unknown areas of intelligence when she becomes a financial whizz-kid.
Shelley is determined to be a megastar but, at her glam/glit party, the only invitees who bother to turn up are The Beverley Sisters and the loopy Lady Carlton.
Shelley's mother pays a surprise visit and is expecting her offspring to be a fully-fledged member of the Royal Shakespeare Company by now. She is a touch disappointed to discover that Shelley is with a theatre in education group... playing a tadpole.
Lady Carlton has won a new kitchen in a competition but when her microwave explodes, all the lights go out and Shelley thinks that the world is about to end. She grovels her way into Amanda's makeshift shelter but finds there's no food there so they send Jennifer out to forage.
Amanda manages to snag herself a flat in Chelsea but is unable to pay for it herself. She has no other choice but to look for flatmates.
Candice is cultivating her latest illness; Amanda is quoting liberally from her latest publication "Spare Cheeks"; Shelley has failed yet another audition; and Jennifer, well, she's just Jennifer.
Candice arrives home with her latest Latin lover, Julio, but just as they're about to get down to the nitty-gritty, they are aware that there is another in their company – the inevitable Jennifer.
It's Shelley's big day. Can her ambition to become the next Glenda Jackson finally be realised at her audition for RADA ? However, instead of asking her to do Shakespearean Juliet speech, they want her to improvise... as a fried egg.
Amanda is miffed that Candice is not paying her way with the rent even though she keeps buying expensive clothes. Shelley suggests that Candice could be a prostitute so they all decide to follow her one day.
Annoyed at not being asked to help with the street festival, Amanda goes out into the streets of Chelsea to look for needy people. She pounces on two black boys and then phones the festival organiser to say she has found her a reggae band.
Oh horror! Oh Calamity! Oh Jennifer! She who is lacking in almost everything, plumbs new depths when she takes Josephine, Lady Carlton's stuffed black dog, for a walk and promptly loses her in a shop. The girls plan various schemes, including a stuffed coypu, and giving Lady Carlton a message "from heaven" by a teddy bear, which is supposed to be Josephine, transformed into an angel.
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Release | 1985-10-23 |
| Producer | Central Television |