A Conversation With ‘Funny Woman’s Very Supportive Supporting Cast

In the first season of ITV’s Funny Woman, Gemma Arterton as Barbara Parker (stage name: Sophie Straw) is unquestionably the sun around whom everyone else revolves, but Barbara’s besties, Diane and Marge (Clare-Hope Ashitey and Alexa Davies, respectively), provide extra zing, oomph, and mutual support to her life in London. Each member of the trio brings distinct qualities, experiences, and perspectives to the table.

Diane is the daughter of West Indian immigrants who are members of the Windrush generation and is by far the best-educated and profession-tracked of the three. She’s been to university, and we see her work her way up from a magazine for teen girls to a women’s interest magazine to a news magazine TV show. Marge is a solidly striving working-class woman from Croydon who befriends Barbara in the canteen at the snooty department store where they both work for a time. She begins to find her voice when she joins a women’s consciousness-raising group and develops a more critically-minded understanding of her gender, class, and standing in society as a whole.

Barbara is working class like Marge, but like Diane, experiences another facet of marginalization in Swinging London — her pronounced Blackpool accent, which so many people in the South of England associate with a lack of intelligence and sophistication. It’s a credit to each of these women that they see the kindred spirit in each other.