The Girls of Slender Means

This period comedy drama was based on a novella by Muriel Spark, but quite how the makers have managed to extend her story to 3 episodes is anyone's guess. It benefits from a pre-fame cast that includes Miriam Margolyes, Patricia Hodge, Mary Tamm, James Laurenson and Jack Shepherd, who all play their roles with enthusiasm. But it cannot distract from the fact that very little actually happens. And that is rather disappointing, considering it has an intriguing premise on which the story begins.

It starts in 1960, where Jane Wright (Margolyes), a successful reporter for a woman's magazine, spots a newspaper report on the death of a missionary in Haiti. The man Nicholas Farrington was someone she knew during her time living at the May of Teck club during the war and she decides to ring up other members of the club who were there at the time to glean their memories of him so she can write an article about him. And it is from that period just after the war in 1945 that the story focuses on and the various residents of the May of Teck Club. The club - or hostel, to give it a better name - was set up for single ladies under 30 for a place to live during the war for "the pecuniary convenience and social protection of ladies of slender means" (hence it's title). It's a bustling place full of young women living there, all pretty cheery and with their interests in fashion, politics and men. There's Selina (Mary Tamm), the club beauty who turns the head of many a man, Anne (Patricia Hodge), who owns a Schiaparelli dress that she loans out to the other girls (for a price) and Judy (Jane Cussons), who is involved with a married American G. I. Then there is Joanna (Rosalind Shanks), a vicar's daughter who teaches elocution to the other girls and is often quoting poetry, but seems troubled by guilt over something, while Pauline (Judith Paris) is a somewhat odd and vacant girl who goes out every evening, telling the others she is dating Jack Buchanan. But the one who is the focal point of it all is Jane Wright, a plump girl who works for a publishers firm and who yearns to be thin, but finds herself snacking between meals as she needs "food for her brain."

Then one day she encounters Nicholas Farrington (James Laurenson), a radical anarchist who enters her publishers with a book of his ideas that he hopes to get published. Despite orders by her boss to get him to accept a low fee for his manuscript, Jane finds herself smitten by Nicholas and tries to do her best to help him get his novel published, despite friend Rudi Bittesch (Jack Shepherd) telling her it is awful. Amusingly when she questions him about Nicholas, he mentions that he likes both men and women. Stunned, she asks "Has he decided?" Not put off, she invites Nicholas over to the May of Teck club, and there he becomes involved with the other girls. Indeed, he is like a kid in a sweet shop when he first sees the place and has no qualms about manipulating Jane in order to go back there or find out information about the girls. Jane accepts because she loves him, despite soon realizing that his interests may lie with the beautiful Selina, but also because he fascinates her with his views and politics, and at one time is taken to a party full of so called political thinkers that is as pretentious as it sounds.

Indeed, a lot of this drama consists of political waffle and theorizing, with characters proposing, analyzing or dissecting other people's political theories. It's hard to tell whether it is satirizing or propounding these people and their ideas, but there is one amusing moment where after bedding Selina, Nicholas expounds how she should "know her body" in one of his 'meaningful speeches', only for her to puncture it by asking "Do you know where I can get any curby grips?" But the political analyzing does dominate at times, and despite the set up I have described sounding intriguing, truth is very little in the way of incident happens until the last episode. There is plenty of hussle and bussle within the club and the girls as they busy about their lives, but not much else. One of the more notable incidents is when Selina and Anne want to sunbathe on the flat roof of the club, only to find that the trapdoor is jammed. However, they discover that they can get onto the roof through a small bathroom window, but there is a snag - for most of the girls they can only get through if they remove all their clothes! It's an amusing running theme in this drama, and I doubt many people will of seen a young Patricia Hodge in quite so revealing a role as this. Indeed, when later there is a dramatic incident it turns out the only way for many of the girls to escape is to remove their clothes and climb out through that window - the dodgiest plot excuse since Logan's Run when Michael York told Jenny Agutter she needed to strip to avoid freezing to death!

As well as the surprising nudity, it's helped somewhat by an enthusiastic cast of then mainly unknowns who enter into the spirit of things and keep things lively and engaging. As well as the main cast of young women, it's helped in support by the three elderly founders of the club, Greggie, Jarvie and Collie (Madeleine Christie, Valerie Lush and Rosalind Greenwood), whose bickering with each other adds an amusing dimension to things. Ed Bishop and Jack Shepherd also make an impression - in different ways - as the American G. I Felix Dobell and Jewish publisher Rudi Bittesch, two of the few men in the series. While Bishop is solidly dependable, Shepherd is more notable for his unusual accent and exaggerated gestures. While he'll win no prizes for his accent, he is certainly lively. But the most notable performances come from James Laurenson and Miriam Margolyes. While Laurenson's character is engaging and full of charm, he is also a shallow opportunist whose head is easily turned by a pretty lady. He is also a mass of contradictions, having started out an anarchist to now working for the government and to of been a pacifist who later declares the war has given him peace. While he is attracted to Selina, he becomes intrigued by the poetical Joanna, who is one of the few women seemingly immune to his charms. Is it this that attracts him to Joanna, or her focus on her work and spiritualism? Whatever it is, during that time there something happens that changes a free love anarchist into becoming a missionary, and Jane has to figure out what if she is to write about his life in her column.

But it's Margolyes that steals the show as the plump, lovelorn Jane Wright. This series deserves some note for having a plump and plain character as the star lead, especially in an era of glamorous leading ladies, but Margolyes makes an engaging and sympathetic character. When she first starts out her reminiscences about Nicholas upon reading of his death, it's clear she still loves him, despite realizing even back in 1945 that he didn't really love her. But we also begin to wonder whether he was even the worthy character she believed him to be or if she is merely blinded by her affection for him as the series progresses, and it becomes clear when she rings about her friends at the start that he does not feature as prominently in their memories as he does hers. In one sense it's a sad fate to be forgotten, but another of this comedy drama's problem is that there is very little emotional impact or depth other than Margolyes' character, even when one of their number is later killed.

Despite it's flaws it is quite amusing throughout, and the cast spark off well together. The 1940's settings and general wartime spirit add a warm glow to the series, despite the obvious studio sets. The hostel itself and garden hold up pretty well to scrutiny and the bustle of the numerous girls keep things lively to detract from the sets. Only the 1960's scenes with the "split screen" shots of Jane on the phone to her numerous friends look a little comical, with it consisting of a black background and two people on either end of the screen. Also somewhat amusingly Margolyes is given grey streaks in her hair for this period, despite the fact she is only 23 in 1945, making her merely 38 in 1960! But for all of this it cannot detract from the fact that this is a drama of slender plot. Although it gets better as it goes along, it isn't until the last episode that something dramatic truly happens, and a tragedy occurs that affects them all. Those dramatic scenes are well handled, but the series ending rather lets it down. It's a drama that doesn't seem to know where it is going in the end and becomes rather too waylaid by it's own political naval gazing and philosophizing. It's somewhat abrupt ending rather robs it of any emotional impact of the fate of Nicholas and the other girls and left me feeling that this was a drama of missed opportunity. It's cheerful enough and fans of Mary Tamm, Patricia Hodge, Judith Paris and Anna Sharkey are likely to be pleasantly surprised. But I came into this expecting so much more, and instead I went away feeling it was much ado about nothing.