++ IN PRINT :: INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES++
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- Series 4 interview at the BBC Coupling Site*
- Series 3 dvd interview
Love, Sex and the Singletons. Sunday Express, 4.7.04
Coupling article about S4.
Office typecasting;Secretarial
The Times
(Copyright News International Newspapers Ltd. Nov 1, 1995)
"The role of the screen secretary is changing to reflect the Nineties workplace, says Jennai Cox Her lipstick is always immaculate, she never takes days off and has a remarkable knack of getting away with cheeking the boss. You never see her out of the office and she will never lose her job. To some she is an insult, to others, a heroine. She is the secretary of the screen.
Few television programmes take place in a work environment and the scenes of those that do are usually fleeting. But more scriptwriters are realising the potential of office drama, and the screen secretary is coming into her own.
Miss Moneypenny is one secretary few will have missed; always beautifully turned out, always polite and always disappointed at not having been wooed by 007. None of today's screen secretaries measures up to this image and few scriptwriters take their inspiration from her.
"She is too perfect," says Simon Nye, writer of the sit-com Is it Legal? (ITV). "It is difficult not to stereotype a secretary and I hope I haven't. Those I came in contact with were all rather fierce, and I think that comes across in Alison."
Alison is the blonde, long-legged, twentysomething secretary who works for Lotus Spackman and Phelps solicitors and spends her days reading magazines and thinking about the next party.
"She is bored and needs a job more suited to her character," says Nye. "But she is on top of things and in control of the men in the office." Secretaries on television today do not have affairs with the boss, and Alison is forthright and unfeeling when rejecting advances.
Nye says he receives criticism that the show is not entirely real but Kate Isitt, who plays Alison, says the character is more true to life than is sometimes assumed. Having been a temp while looking for acting work, Isitt says she can sympathise with her character.
"When I read the part of Alison I thought, `I know this girl so well'," Isitt says. "I hated most of the secretarial jobs I did and at 3pm it was all I could do to keep my head off the desk. A lot of secretaries feel like that, and those with any initiative can end up running an office for no thanks. "
Isitt admits secretaries do not generally get a good press but says although her character is entirely self-interested, she is competent and gets the work done.
"People have this image of them powdering their noses, and there are those. But there are many secretaries running offices for their higher paid boss, so Alison's character can be misleading."
Isitt feels a responsiblity towards other secretaries for her character perpetuating a rather negative image, but says the programme is really too ridiculous to take seriously, and the type she plays does exist.
"There are facets of Alison in many young secretaries. As soon as the sun comes out, they take sick leave. But anyone who watches the programme for any kind of insight would be misguided."
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