We're about 90 seconds in and already the writing's woeful ('children in bikinis'? I understand the point the writer is attempting to make, but it's being made in a very lazy way) even as Billie is giving us the come-on it's effectively a recruitment ad for a new generation of silly girls whose 'career' paths might have gone no further than a stint as a lapdancer followed by a Big Brother audition, but who just might now book a Brazilian wax at the prospect of such apparently easy money. The lovely Billie/Belle strides purposefully through the lobby of a pukka hotel en route to a client and tells us that 'in a world of children in bikinis and grandmothers in fuck-me boots, the surest way to tell a prostitute is to look for the woman in the designer suit. I charge by the hour and I charge a lot'. I’m not sure anyone is that keen on getting coffee.Billie Piper has made some very smart choices in her short but shiny acting career - the modern revamps of Chaucer and Shakespeare, an Austen, Dr Who, obviously - though none of them has been as short, shiny and so obviously crackling with static as her latest, the almost wilfully un-smart Secret Diary of a Call Girl (ITV2), based on the anonymous blog turned bestseller, Belle de Jourīillie is Hannah by day, Belle by night and, by her own to-camera admission, 'a whore' who has 'never been addicted to anything, except the fourth season of The West Wing. Then again, Hannah enjoys riding him, quite literally, like a horse. Not even the same planet.” She’s as right as rain: Say what you want about fetching Starbucks for the man, it’s a lot different than making it with Hannah’s first punter on the show, a fat, middle-aged ex-farmhand who looks like a sideburned refugee from Bob Hoskins’ gang in The Long Good Friday. I know this because I’ve been a temp and I’ve f-ed for money, and they are in no way similar. (All of which makes it a prickly subway read, and I’m including Amis in there - some crazies think he’s overrated.) It’s when Belle warns us never to use ”whoring” to describe any other profession but her own: ”Many of my friends will tell you how temping for a year or ending up in sales is the equivalent to prostitution. No, it’s not Belle de Jour‘s A-to-Z of English sex work, the graphic descriptions of fisting and anal, her sexually adventurous, understanding beau (yep, in the book she’s got one and he knows) or the exchange of Martin Amis references with a john. My favorite part of Belle de Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, the best-selling, X-rated, ”happy hooker” memoir that is Call Girl‘s source material, didn’t make it into last night’s opener. And though we haven’t met your mom or pops yet, I bet they suspect something, too. I sense Ben has a hunch - he’s got to notice the bling in your pad. ”Belle” when you’re working), as much as anyone else. A very well paid, ultra hush-hush, has-a-lot-of-free-time-in-the-afternoons legal secretary. And we know why she does it: ”I love sex and I love money…I’m fundamentally lazy…what I really like is being my own boss.” But Hannah’s parents, sister, and best friend, Ben, have no clue how she rakes in the dough. We even know how she convinces clients she fancies them (lube). We know what she charges (a lot and up front). We know that she glides past hotel reception (”look like you know where you’re going”). We know how she turns up for an appointment (in a designer suit). Hannah - the high-priced prozzie in Secret Diary of a Call Girl who occupies the attractive and talented body of Doctor Who‘s Billie Piper - has no secrets…from us, at least.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |