Men are ruining comedy
Weir wants more female TV execs
Arabella Weir says TV comedy is rubbish – because too much of it is commissioned by men.
The Fast Show star cites shows such as Little Britain and Titty Bang Bang as examples of how dire the state of the industry.
And she says she is now concentrating on her writing career, rather than an acting one, because there’s so little to inspire her on TV.
‘I get depressed by television, I don’t think any of it is good,” she said in an interview with The Times.
‘If women were controlling and commissioning television in equal numbers to men, we wouldn’t get shows like Little Britain — we are the only country in the world to think that men dressed as grotesque caricatures of women is hilarious.
‘And the BBC’s new Titty Bang Bang is possibly the most depressing thing that has ever been on television.
‘It makes Smack The Pony look as if it was made by feminists. There is an old Jewish joke that I love: What is the only thing men and women have in common? They all hate women.’
Weir’s most recent foray into TV was the spoof cookery show Posh Nosh, in which she co-starred with Richard E. Grant, in 2003.
Her fourth novel, Is It Just Me?, is out this autumn and she is planning another, Why Women Don’t Eat In Front of Men.
She is writing a sitcom satirising the chi-chi Notting Hill set.Published: 11 Mar 2006
