Funny Woman
ABOUT:
The new Sky comedy drama series is about a young woman from Blackpool finding her comic voice in the male dominated world of the 1960s sitcom. Bold, stylish, and courageous, Gemma Arterton stars as Barbara Parker - the force of nature who takes London by storm. Her journey from Blackpool beauty queen to comedy superstar and nation’s sweetheart is set during the cultural explosion of the 1960s.
It’s the height of the swinging 60s and Barbara Parker has just been crowned Miss Blackpool – but there’s got to be more to life than being a beauty queen in a seaside town, right? She wants to be… someone. The bright lights of London are calling, and our determined hero sets off to find out who that someone is.
The London she encounters is not as quite as swinging as the one she’d read about and seen on TV. However, after a series of setbacks Barbara finds herself in unfamiliar territory - an audition for a TV comedy show. Barbara’s uncompromising northern wit proves to be the X factor that the show has been missing. She gets the part and becomes part of a ground-breaking new sitcom which will have an impact on British comedy for decades to come.
Being a woman in a largely male environment has its own challenges, but as Barbara ‘finds her funny’ she re-defines the prevailing attitude to funny women and in the process, reinvents herself.
Director: Oliver Parker
Written By: Morwenna Banks
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Rebel Park, Potboiler
STARRING: Gemma Arterton, Tom Bateman
THE MAKING OF THE SCORE
The music is a very strong character within the show and the entire musical world and score is rooted in the 1960’s. Popular musical culture exploded at the time so there was so much to be inspired by a wealth of artists such as The Yardbirds, The Shadows, Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, The Ronettes. I’ve never written in this musical genre before so it was huge fun to embrace and put together a guitar based band where I got to put my stamp on it. I grew up immersed in pop and rock music so it felt like coming home!
Not having ever written music like this before, I had to compete with and replace authentic period music of the 60’s at times.
In terms of production and tone, it had to blend in and feel seamless with the period music from guitar bands, to big brass bands, but also connect with the story and emotionally support the character’s journey.
I did work very closely with the producers and director but we had so much fun writing each scene in a different musical genre and styles before landing on the correct approach for each scene.
I wrote a main theme for Barbara Parker that could evolve and adapt as her character‘s journey evolves traversing through the various musical genres from rock and pop to easy listening, reggae, soul, motown and big band, so I wanted to be authentic to the period but also complement, support and mirror Barbara’s wit, humour and feistiness through the music. As a result the score is quite cheeky, bold. There’s a big nod to the music of the period but with a little edge and modernity to spice it up.
There’s also a lot of physical comedy and rhythm to Barbara so it was a joy trying to mirror that at times with some musical clowning around.
The score had to be embedded in the narrative and Barbara’s dramatic journey but also had to sit alongside many sync songs. So I put together a great band of musicians who played on the score that injected a great authentic vibe into the composed tracks, one of whom included Tim Carter, the guitarist in Kasabian.
The show’s humour is very British and inspired by Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers and the very first piece I wrote was for Gemma Arterton to sing on set, which is the theme tune for The Awkward Squad, the comedy show Barbara stars in. I also composed the theme for the fictional sitcom The Barbara and Jim show which takes a leaf out of the theme tunes of the popular sit-coms of that era.
MUSIC CREDITS:
Additional Music: Javier Blanco Lago
Guitars, Drums, Bass: Adam Double, Tim Carter
Music Editor: Tom Bullen
Trombone: Jo Ranger
Saxophone: Daisy Coole
Trumpet: Sam Ewens
Drums: Ollie Howell, Ric Elsworth