Up the Women: Episode 1 Review

BBC Four’s new “suffragette sitcom” provides an interesting, comic perspective on an historic political movement deeply ingrained in the UK’s national consciousness, but its first episode lands a little off-target. Though it features a delightful amalgamation of young, old, male, and female characters with great back-and-forth verbal banter, its jokes are hit-and-miss, and its handful of risqué ones feel decisively awkward and out-of-place. Thankfully, though, the show steers well clear of belittling the widely celebrated political movement upon which it is based.

The brunt of the brief, 28-minute episode focusses on a skilfully escalated ideological clash between two members of the Banbury Intricate Craft Circle, a sewing group based in a small church hall. One member, Margaret (Jessica Hynes), seeks to put women’s suffrage on the apolitical group’s agenda; another, Helen (Rebecca Front), the effective leader of the group, looks to nip that movement in the bud. In her own words: “My husband votes for whom I tell him to vote. What could be a better system than that?”

So begins the episode’s driving conflict; the five-person group dissolves into factionalism as Margaret and Helen try to persuade the other group members to the suffragette and anti-suffragette cause respectively, quickly descending into farce as Helen teases the girls to her cause with promises of cake and eleven-inch rosettes. The clash eventually sees Helen’s rebellious daughter dragged into the mess, as well as a young, male medical student (Ryan Sampson), demonstrated to be as dumb, weak, and emotional as his female companions are accused of being.

The typical British sitcom structure works well here, especially with the strong ensemble cast; the group’s youngest member, Eva (Emma Pierson), is a dim-witted though adorable mother of fourteen that provides the perfect complement to its oldest member, the cynical Myrtle (Judy Parfitt). The continuous efforts of Frank (Adrian Scarborough) to install the church’s first electric light-bulb puts another fun historical dimension on the programme, with the girls equally terrified and dismissive of the newfangled technology.

Up the Women certainly has a lot of potential that was not realised in this episode – if that slack is picked up further in the series, it could be a genuinely amusing bit of light political satire with a rare feminist undertone that feels as appropriate for 2013 as in its setting of 1910. First, though, it must achieve a more consistent sense of humour.

Up the Women begins Thurs, 30 May 2013 on BBC Four at 8:30 PM.