While trawling round I found this Guardian/Observer article from Jun 2001 which was possibly the first time a broadsheet acknowledged BG...???


The Bad Girls who came good
It features corruption, lesbianism, drugs and violence - so no wonder millions of viewers love ITV's latest prison drama, even if the critics hate it

Tina Ogle
Observer

Sunday June 10, 2001


It slipped onto our screens with barely a whimper. Panned by the critics and watched by an audience that dwindled in its first weeks, few critics thought that the gritty prison drama had much of a future. But word of mouth spread and soon millions of viewers were hooked on Bad Girls.

The critics never really came round, but a sizeable army is now fanatical in its appreciation of something slightly different in the schedules. The brainchild of a quartet of ex- Coronation Street personnel, Bad Girls is now the slightly tacky jewel in the crown of prime-time ITV drama. It comes in just below the major soaps in the ratings, attracting a regular audience of just under nine million.

With ITV fending off fierce criticism for the failure of the multi-million pound Survivor , network executives must be thankful they have a rare, if unexpected, success their hands. Bad Girls has around 70 unofficial websites devoted to its brilliance, but has gone far beyond that in terms of its reach. In the 16-34 age group so much coveted by advertisers, it was watched by more viewers than any other peak-time drama during its run last year.

So just what explains its success? It's certainly less cosy than other dramas in similar slots, and no sick animals or people are healed. It also tackles a subject which fascinates people, and strangely hasn't been dramatised for years. While television drama heads ran round in circles trying to find a new way of giving us cops with complicated personal lives or photogenic doctors, this stepped in and stole a march.

For producer Brian Park, who had a controversial reign at Coronation Street in the Nineties, its success lies partly in its unpatronising tone. 'It's eye-level drama because we're not talking down to our audience,' he said. 'It's good, it's honest, it's earthy and it doesn't pull punches. We've found the middle ground between the mushier levels of soap and something dark and hard hitting. We created our own vocabulary and our own grammar and it's worked.'

He also cites its big characters and big stories as a major selling-point. An obvious example would be Shell Dockley, who has entered the realms of television legend as a superbitch to rival Dynasty 's Alexis Carrington.

This temptress, played by Debra Stephenson, kicked off the current series by stabbing an officer in the stomach with a broken wine bottle.

Mind you, his evil machinations and casual corruption - allied to the fact that he was about to have sex with her - meant that he could have been said to be asking for it.

Given the nature of some of the storylines, it might surprise some viewers to know that there are two technical advisers to the series. One is Chris Tchaikovsky, an ex-offender who heads the pressure group Women In Prison ; the other is Wendy Bowker, an ex-prison officer.

But although there are outrageous plotlines, with prisoners breaking out dressed in nurses' uniforms, officers being fed Ecstasy and prisoners running their own sex phone line - who could forget 'Babes Behind Bars'? - serious issues are also raised.

This series alone has seen storylines touching on self-harm, electronic tagging, drug abuse and mandatory testing, and prison rioting.

Behind all the larger-than-life characters who draw in viewers, questions are posed about the nature of incarceration which reach people who don't always read the opinion pages of the quality papers. 'Although this is entertainment, we worked very hard to get it right,' said Park.

'The creators Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus visited a lot of prisons and sought out technical support. A lot of the stories were supplied by ex-offenders or prison officers. We needed to get the everyday procedure right as well, because we owed it to our characters.'

Park added: 'We didn't want people to say: "This is fantasy - those things wouldn't happen". What has come back loud and clear from the ex-offenders was that these stories either had happened or they certainly could.'

Whether they'd be wearing quite the same outfits as Yvonne, Shaz, Shell and Nikki is another question. Low-cut tops and obscenely short skirts do feature heavily, while the actress who plays Yvonne has ended up buying some of her costumes at the end of the series, so lovely were they.

The sex has obvious pulling power and, like Prisoner Cell Block H and Within These Walls before it, Bad Girls attracts a loyal and vocal lesbian following.

The on/off relationship between gay lifer Nikki and prison official Helen has been praised for its treatment of a homosexual relationship in a responsible way. Amanda Verlaque, a passionate fan of the series, said: 'It's a classic will they/won't they love story which just happens to be between two women. It's refreshing to see such positive role models on screen, a simmering relationship between a previously straight and a gay woman which isn't just done for titillation.'

The level of analysis on most of the websites isn't quite as well thought out. 'Nikki and Helen are hot, hot, hot' is a fairly typical entry, with many slavering dedications to these characters as being the hottest babes out. One contributor confessed to having named her rabbit after Shell.

Actress Claire King, who played superbitch Kim Tate in Emmerdale for nine years and is now officer Karen Betts, says her fan mail has vastly increased in volume and intensity. 'People always write to soaps and Kim was a huge character, but I get more now and they're more passionate. I've had some worrying ones with people telling me they want to join the prison service.'

The concept of Bad Girls as a recruitment commercial for HM Prisons is undoubtedly an alarming one. What audiences are clearly also hooked on is the plethora of strong female characters. Apart from the villainous Jim Fenner and Josh, men feature hardly at all. What we get are women organising themselves into a society where, no matter what the authorities think, they run the show and make the rules. You don't have to be gay to appreciate the joy of watching women rule the world, however small and self-contained that world may be.

Park thinks it is the warmth that women bring which is a major draw: 'We chose a women's prison as opposed to a men's because of that extra element of warmth. Women prisoners look after each other and there is a humanity to the stories we can tell. If it had been a men's prison it would have been harder to get past that front or hardness.'

But to try too hard to analyse the success of Bad Girls is to miss the point. Most of us can't wait to tune in for another dose of schlock which, while not insulting our intelligence, doesn't take it on a route march either.

How will Shell and Denny fare in Spain now they're on the run? Will Betts ever wake up to Fenner's evil ways?

And, most important of all, can Nikki and Helen overcome all the obstacles and finally have the happy ending we all yearn for?

With three more episodes of this series to go and a fourth run in the pipeline, we will enjoy finding out for some time yet.

Bad Girls continues on ITV on Tuesday at 9pm.

Great to see an old article on Bad Girls. Thanks for posting x

I love that bit of insight. So spot on! Thanks for posting this, particularly for us late-BG bloomers. :)

This article is highly interesting as it backs up impressions that the critics panned bad Girls and it's nice to see that for once a reviewer in the broadsheets did a decent review

Agreed with everyone about this article. Although it has a strange mix of "this is shlock but we love it" and "this show has a smart, careful political agenda." Those two ideas seem to be in conflict, I think.

Richard, I like your new avatar!

Hi Abzug. I've sort of wanted to have something to illustrate my posts but it took ages to figure out how to do it. When I hunted around on my PC, this one was an absolute 'must have' and the filmed sequence was pretty inspirational. :D

Back to the topic. They sort of hedge their bets by talking of how other critics viewed it and the trivia stuff and balenced but balenced it out with more thoughtful stuff. Amanda Verlaque's quote got it right on the mark.

Reading this type of article reminds me of the time when BG was just starting and wasnt the well known hit we all recognise it as 2day (hard to remember i know). And although over the last few series the storylines have tended to be far fetched and at times unrealistic, in its prime, BG was one of the most hard hitting and controversial tv series that has ever been produced.

I thought this post from the past is worth fresh airing. The discussion about Bad Girls is of special significance as a lot of present day TV production centres on rehashing formulas - like pop talent shows, reality TV and lifestyle programmes. it was interesting to see how Bad Girls originally sneaked its way in to taking up a prime position in TV watching against the odds.

Hi Richard et al ...just passing through for the first time in months [shame on me]
Tis good to read old articles and it amazes me how much I've forgotten....until I start reading then it all comes flooding back ...lol.

Hope everyone is well!

Take care

COOL B)

Hi Cool. I was very grateful for your research on this matter as you end up with relying on memory which can have its limits (well, at least mine has :D )

I reread the article to do more of a comprehensive review of it as there are a lot of instructive points about it. It was written about half way through Series 2 in June 2001 at the time of the rise of real 'trash TV' which is reality TV in the form of Big Brother (God help us).

The article provides a lot of valuable source material and provides a chance for Shed to talk for itself but nonetheless, it is flawed as a sense of bemusement ran through it.

1. On the one hand, it cites the various source materials that Shed input into the series to validate it and yet provide entertainment. On the other hand, its critical backcloth is of a sense of 'normality' or 'ordinariness' alongside which BG is said to be 'outrageous.' However, if Shed had written a drama where the government loses computer discs with a vast quantity of government records or where government papers are strewn on the roadside of an Exeter roundabout and some honest soul handed them in, that too would be considered 'outrageous.' The only thing, it really happened.

2. Likewise Shed 'stole a march' on formula conceived police and hospital dramas and , strangely, the public actually like multilayered intelligent productions that challenges the mind rather than some formula pap. This trick has been repeated with the deservedly popular 'Life on Mars' and 'Ashes to Ashes' series, both intelligent and popular.

3. Despite the critics panning it, Bad Girls spread through 'word of mouth', to establish a lesbian fanbase and also to be spread through internet websites. What isn't brought out here is how the critics were made redundant because of these websites and the creative debate that was engendered.

Regrettably, the article falls short of what it could be despite a number of perceptive points when it concluded thus. "But to try too hard to analyse the success of Bad Girls is to miss the point. Most of us can't wait to tune in for another dose of schlock which, while not insulting our intelligence, doesn't take it on a route march either." This conclusion is given the lie to by the inspiring academic articles written by Didi Herman. For those who haven't come across them, check out the Bad Girls Annex site.


It's lovely to see you around again, Cool, and look after yourself.