Here's the link (if my cutting and pasting skills are OK) with the interview with LeeAnn Kriegh whose interview skills leaves nothing neglected as usual . The American adaptation of Bad Girls sounds even more promising than ever. The statement by Eileen Gallagher about the writers says it all

"They love the characters and the stories and the tone of the show, and they want to stick with it."

http://www.afterellen.com/people/2008/6/ei...gher?page=0%2C0

I liked Eileen admitting that some of the stuff they did during the 8 series didn't work right and she was hoping that maybe the new writers would come up with something a bit better. I found, as the show went along it lost sight of the fact that it was supposed to be taking place in a prison. It's all well and fine to be out of it, sometimes, but they started spending more time with the screws and less with the prisoners. At least she admitted they didn't always get it right. :D

At times I was a bit irked about what Nikki and Helen were going through. Honestly, there were times when I wanted to slap one or the other and tell them to stop toying with the emotions of whoever was getting the short end. I hated when they brought in Thomas, as it felt a bit overly forced. Maybe it was just me.

There's a lot in this interview which needs to be read and reread. I hadn't expected this series to stick so close to the original, especially the Helen and Nikki storyline and this should be interesting.

Like you, Elisandra, I found Eileen Gallagher's reflection on the BG series interesting. To my mind, it held up well till it got past early Series 8. Curiously enough, I found that Fenner's absence and non replacement was a critical weakness.

I am pretty confident in this new version of BG and it is best approached with fresh eyes- as far as it is possible.

Richard, I'm hoping they take the best of the first few series and do something a bit new with it. They don't have to follow exactly to the letter. I did love the Monica storyline, so touching and it's nice to see such a wide variety of ages represented on the show. Something that typically American audiences don't see. Everyone seems to need to be 20 something and thinner than a stick here, which is unfortunate. I'd love to see some expansion of a few of the storylines or ones that they started and then dumped, or never explained later. :D Not that I really want more of Smelly Nellie. :D But it was hilarious watching Helen Fraser's Bodybag squirming and Simone's lovely smirk, knowing she'd gotten the better of Bodybag. :D

Some of the stuff Fenner did was a bit over the top, here and there, I really wish he'd gotten caught. He just always seemed to get away with every tiny thing, whereas poor Helen or even Karen always got in trouble for just about every tiny thing they did. A bit lopsided. It's great having Fenner playing the bad guy, and all, no one made me hate a character one minute than feel a bit of sympathy for him the next, like Jack Ellis did. But honestly, the thing where he frames Karen was a bit ridiculous.

I wonder if they'll show the prisoners trying to put their lives back together, outside of the prison. They touched on it here and there, like with Crystal's storyline. It would be interesting to watch the Monica character actually getting her halfway house off the ground and watching some of the prisoners going through the readjustment to life on the outside, like maybe Nikki? :D I always thought it would be interesting to see Nikki get out of prison and then come back to work for the prison, maybe teaching then she and Helen could attempt to frame Fenner. Sigh. It would have been interesting to see.

So far, there's no word as to whether there will be an actors strike, here, or not. The last thing I read about the subject, suggested that the Screen Actors Guild had rejected the final proposal. But the producers are hoping that SAG will let their members vote on whether to approve it, or not. They're currently working without a contract. Word is most of the SAG members would rather work. I'm sure they took a huge hit from the writer's strike, earlier. I'm hoping there is no strike, or it'll make getting "Bad Girls" off the ground even harder. I'm anxious to see who they cast as Nikki and Helen. I'm hoping maybe they'll cast actresses who aren't overly exposed, or total unknowns. Maybe that should be anxious and worried. :D If the chemistry isn't there, the relationship will be poorly developed.

Hi Elisandra. It's obvious that you've thought about this at some length. I had the advantage of seeing Bad Girls The Musical in London which showed some themes in the background moved into the foreground. I'm very interested in your observations about Monica and in this connection I noticed Shed very unobtrusively write the Babs Henry relationship in terms of middle aged people can fall in love.

I understand what you say about Fenner and I had the feeling that 'can someone drive a stake through his heart finally' and, yes, Fenner wasn't the cardboard cutout villain who, interestingly enough, is killed the same way as DC Gossard was (except for the choice of murder weapon)

Yes, the more you think about it, the more the possibilities open up. what you say about the actor's stike really puts me in a dilemma, part of me being solidarity brothers and sisters and the other part saying, well can you make exemptions? :D Ah well, time will tell.

Richard, I only wished I lived in England, so I could have seen the musical version. I do have a British friend who went to see it, I think twice, and loved it. Although she said a few annoying people booed and hissed over the Helen/Nikki storyline. If the show was as popular, in England, as I've been led to believe, then why wouldn't those people have known ahead of time about the relationship? Narrow minded people. It's just too bad the show didn't become as popular in the U.S. I'm not sure how it does on Logo, now, as I do not, unfortunately, have that channel. Although I'm willing to trade all the useless home shopping ones for it. :D

Oh I loved the Barbara/Henry storyline too. Loved Barbara. Not overly fond of the Babs thing. :D I do believe Nikki always called her Barbara too. It does show that people of all ages can actually still fall in love, which I thought Shed handled well.

I'm unionized as well, so part of me feels for those actors, since I know not every member of the Screen Actor's Guild makes millions. Matter of fact, I think it's something like only about 7% that do make a lot of money. Quite a few of them don't even make 20 thousand dollars a year. I have no idea what that is in pounds though. So yes, I do agree, maybe they're not paid that well, but the ones we see frequently are a problem for us regular poor people. We see them and see a bunch of greedy, whiny actors who are never happy, no matter how much they make. We tend to forget that way more of them barely make ends meet. I do agree, I'd make an exception to get this show going. I'm anxious to see what they do with it.

I just wish they'd release a bit more information. On IMDb.com someone's taken to naming people they'd like to see playing various roles. I'm not familiar with a few of his choices. Others have me scratching my head a bit over them. As they're a bit out there. Zelda Rubenstein for Sylvia, is the one that comes to mind. She's in her 70's and is best remembered for her role in "Poltergeist". I guess maybe he's made the comparison because she's a bit smallish. Tyne Daly was his other pick, she's around the same age as Helen Fraser, I believe. I've seen Tyne's name tossed around more than once. Honestly, I have no clue who I'd pick.

Wouldn't it be great if Mandana Jones got a part in the series? Not as Nikki necessarily, but she does such a good American accent in that Kohler commercial!!

I also just had a thought, prompted by someone over at Enhanced. I think we should start a petition or letter-writing campaign asking Shed and HBO to rename the H&N characters. That way, we won't have to do any comparisons of our two favorite actresses and the roles they portrayed so well.

Any thoughts about that?

Oh I'm all for a part for Mandana, or any of the other actresses from the original show. Would be fun. I believe Debra Stephenson does a good American accent. I've never seen Mandana's commercial though, not that I recall anyway.

As for renaming. Nope, don't want that. I am really bad with names. I think it took me almost all of the first season to remember which name went with which person, when "Lost" first started. I don't want to do it again. :D I'm not going to compare the two, because frankly there is no way to compare them. It's hard to top what Mandana and Simone did. So I won't be comparing every tiny thing. I just want the show to get going and there to be a few announcements on cast members. I just hope the Nikki and Helen ones are either people I've never heard of, or ones that actually can act. There certainly are vast amounts of actresses in Hollywood who get by more on their looks than their actual acting talent.

Elisandra-

Here's a link to a site with lots of video from MJ...click on the Works link and then scroll down to the Adverts at the bottom and you'll see the Kohler commercial.

http://www.mandanafc.com/

LOL. That commercial's rather amusing. It looks like something that might air on a channel that I probably never watch, like our financial channel, or maybe one that has something to do with building things. I definately don't remember it. But she looks rather lovely with her hair that way. Thank you for the link.

I am now off topic. :eek I do hope I don't wind up staying on the block forever. :D

Still no new information about the HBO series. Whew, back on topic.

Hi Elisandra. absolutely no problems in going 'apparently' off topic. Good insights often come from interesting detours. :)

I can't believe what your friend said about people booing and hissing during Bad Girls the Musical. there's one thing about theatre going in general which is fine by me but if they had trouble with the Helen Nikki storyline, then why go in the first place.

I thoroughly agree with what you say about actors as I have an actress friend who certainly hasn't been over prosperous over the years. It's the 'celebrity' end of the spectrum which grabs public attention- certainly not the theatre side of it though, as you see from Simone and mandana, for instance, their theatre experience is pretty extensive. And yes, unionisation is most certainly right by me.

I keep an open mind as to how the various parts are cast as Bad Girls was originally cast by actors who weren't prominently in the public eye- in other words, Shed went for the quality of what they had to offer (I never had problems when Claire King joined the cast).

Richard, my friend May was actually astonished that people were upset with the storyline during the play. Hadn't they watched the show before? It seems likely they hadn't. She couldn't understand why they'd want to go to the musical if they knew about the show and I can't see how they didn't know about the show, unless they were tourists.

I don't know any actresses, where I live isn't exactly a hot bed for talent. I should know, there's nothing I'm good at. :D I'd rather if HBO went after those who had talents and fit the profiles of the characters, rather than going after someone who's going to appeal to everyone. I think Shed had a great spectrum of women from all types. There were a few hot looking ones, some plain looking. It's prison, they can't all be dolled up all the time or it won't even look realistic. I'm hoping HBO has the sense to go for realism over anything. A lot of people on IMDb.com seem to be of the mindset that everyone will be pretty and thin. I certainly hope not. Like I said before, I'd love to see the Monica storyline back in there, or Barbara's storyline being redone for the new series.

I'm not sure how they'll handle the uniform thing, typically prisoners wear uniforms here. Although I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the prison system here. They usually are wearing ugly orange things. :D I'm also not clear how they'll explain why there are murderers stuck in with those who've committed fraud, or something less serious. I'm sure the original show took a few liberties for the sake of television.

Maybe it'll be set in some experimental prison system. I haven't found any information on it. HBO doesn't seem to have any forums, that I've managed to find, on their web site.

I am hoping that we'll find out more as the summer comes to a close. I'm guessing this show could start on HBO around January of 2009. Or maybe it's my wishful thinking. Actually if I had my way it would be filming right now, we'd know the cast and be happy/miserable about their selections. :D

Was Claire King well known before "Bad Girls"? Frankly they were all new to me. Although I've watched British television for ages I'd never come across any of the cast members before. Not that I recall.