It’s 1964 and Barbara Parker is being crowned Miss Blackpool Belle in the first scene of new six-part drama Funny Woman. Played with warmth and humour by Gemma Arterton, she is Bardot beautiful in a white swimsuit, but she is also funny, because she mugs at the camera.
Not content to settle for life as a seaside beauty queen, working in her father’s rock factory and engaged to the handsome local butcher, she makes her way to London, hoping to make it in the TV sitcoms she and her dad love so much.
