Journalist, novelist, broadcaster and figurehead of British feminism Caitlin Moran, who writes most of the Times and even had her Twitter feed included on a list of A-Level set texts, is now bidding to break into the sitcom business. Can one woman shoulder this ever-increasing multimedia load, along with the fawning tide of adulation that follows her everywhere?
Wisely, she enlisted the help of her sister Caroline to create Raised By Wolves (Channel 4, Monday), a wily reimagining of their home-schooled childhood (alongside six siblings) on a Wolverhampton council estate. After a 2013 pilot, it’s back for a six-part series, with the hyperactive, motormouthed Germaine (the fictionalised Caitlin) played by Helen Monks and her caustic, intellectual sister Aretha by Alexa Davies.
Question is, will it reach beyond an audience of teenage girls? This opener was much concerned with sister Yoko (Molly Risker) having her first period, prompting formidable den-mother Della (Rebekah Staton) to march her girls down the ‘Aisle of Shame’ in Boots to load up with feminine hygiene products (‘these are basically a small mattress in your pants’). The writerly sisters also had a bit of fun with menstrually-related movie titles — Crimson Tide, The Hunt for Red October, 28 Days Later etc. — while also high on the agenda were Germaine’s hysterically fizzing hormones and her lust for a local oik called Lee.
Some of the jokes sounded laboriously written-out rather than spontaneously spoken, and blokes are kept firmly in their place — Della’s dad Grampy (Philip Jackson) keeps popping up, but only so we can cringe at his embarrassing macho delusions. But the characters are sharply drawn, and it’s startling to see a portrayal of council-estate life teeming with creative energy rather than drugs and muggings. Especially on Channel 4.
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