Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Heather reviewed Round Here and Over Yonder by Southern comedians Trae Crowder and Corey Ryan Forrester, which includes a section about their visit to England and Scotland. Sue reviewed In Memoriam by Alice Winn, a novel set in a British boarding school and beyond into the first World War.

Barbara Parker works in the same candy-making factory as her father in Blackpool, England. For a laugh, she signs up for a beauty queen contest. When her surprise win is far from satisfying, she realizes that it’s time for a change in her life. Off she goes to London hoping to follow the path to comedy success that was opened up by her heroine, Lucille Ball.

Barbara Parker is played by one of my favorite actors, Gemma Arterton (Their Finest, Summerland, Vita & Virginia). Gemma Arterton portrays characters with cheer, determination, and intelligence — all of these apply to Barbara Parker.

Funny Woman, a six-part series, has many comedic moments, as expected given that it’s about an actress in comedy. As a whole, though, it’s more of a drama. We really came to care about the characters, the choices that they made, and the circumstances that were thrust upon them. Her roommate is a hoot as she joins in with the blossoming feminist movement. The station boss makes a delightful villainous character and is played by Alistair Petrie (who I also loved to hate in Sex Education).

The setting for Funny Woman is 1960s England, especially London in the entertainment industry. I’m sure that a lot of us carry some nostalgia for the era when the Beatles changed music, young people challenged authority, and fashion introduced mini-skirts and psychedelic patterns.

I got to the end hoping that there would be a season two. According to the British Period Dramas website, Sky announced, at the Edinburgh International TV Festival, that there will be!

We watched Funny Woman using our PBS Passport, a benefit of belonging to our local public broadcasting station.

Have you seen this series? What did you think?