Beautiful People (British TV series)

Beautiful People
File:BeautifulPeople.JPG From left to right: Young Simon, Aunt Hayley, adult Simon, Ashlene, Reba, Kylie, Andy and Debbie
Genre	Comedy drama
Written by	Jonathan Harvey (adaptation) Simon Doonan (source material)
Directed by	Gareth Carrivick
Starring	Luke Ward-Wilkinson Layton Williams Sophie Ash Samuel Barnett Olivia Colman Aidan McArdle Sarah Niles Meera Syal
Narrated by	Samuel Barnett
Theme music composer	Dan Gillespie Sells and Ian Masterson
Opening theme	"Beautiful People Theme"
Composer	Ian Masterson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Jon Plowman
Producer	Justin Davies
Cinematography	Rob Kitzmann (DoP)
Editor	Mark Lawrence
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	BBC Productions
Original release
Network	BBC Two
Release	02 October 2008 – present

Beautiful People is a British comedy drama television series based on the memoirs of Barneys creative director Simon Doonan. The first of six episodes aired on BBC Two on 2 October 2008. The series takes place in Reading, Berkshire in 1997, with short prologues and epilogues set in New York City in 2008. The first episode recorded overnight ratings of 1.5 million viewers and positive critical reaction.

Premise

In 2008 New York, Simon Doonan, a window-dresser at Barneys, tells his assistant-cum-boyfriend Sacha various tales from his childhood in Reading in 1997, when he and his friend Kylie would dream of moving to London and meeting 'the beautiful people'. The plot of each episode centres around how Simon came to own some of his most treasured possessions.

Production

The comedy was greenlit in May 2008 by Controller of BBC Two Lucy Lumsden and Controller of Comedy Commissioning Roly Keating. The six episodes were written by Jonathan Harvey (Gimme Gimme Gimme) and directed by Gareth Carrivick. Studio filming was done at Shepperton Studios and exterior locations at Bushey, Hertfordshire , Harrow, London and New York City. Doonan grew up in Reading in the 1960s but Harvey moved the setting forward to the 1990s. Executive producer Jon Plowman hoped audiences would relate to Simon's childhood; "Every teenager thinks they're different [...] I hope the audience will think: 'That's me as a teenager being laughed at. Everyone else was in a gang together, and I was in a gang of one.' But the truth is, everyone is in a gang of one."

Olivia Colman helped the cast to bond on set by arranging a visit from a mobile blood donor unit.

Characters

• Simon Doonan (Luke Ward-Wilkinson), an effeminate 13-year-old schoolboy who longs to escape 1990s Reading for the glamour of London. Played by Samuel Barnett in present-day scenes.
• Kylie (Layton Williams), Simon's best friend, whose real name is Kyle. Similarly fey, and obsessed with Kylie Minogue. Played by Howard Charles in a present-day scene.
• Debbie Doonan (Olivia Colman), Simon's mother, who has a drinking problem.
• Andy Doonan (Aidan McArdle), Simon's father, an Irish plumber.
• Ashlene Doonan (Sophie Ash), Simon's sister, known to be promiscuous.
• Aunty Hayley (Meera Syal), Simon's blind "aunt" and Debbie's best friend, who lodges with the Doonans.
• Narg (Brenda Fricker), Simon's nan; first an angelic Catholic woman, soon turns nasty and difficult.
• Mummy, Aunty Hayley's overweight guide dog.
• Reba (Sarah Niles), Kylie's mother, the Doonans' neighbour, and Debbie's rival.
• Tameka (Tameka Empson), Debbie's Rum-loving Hairdresser.
• Sacha (Gary Amers), present-day Simon's New York partner.

Episodes

#	Title	Original airdate
1	"How I Got My Vase"	2 October 2008
While at Kylie's, Simon steals one of Reba's dresses and tries it on back at home. Ashlene takes a Polaroid photo of him wearing it and threatens to show it to everyone unless he styles her hair to look like Heather Small's. Debbie finds the dress in the bin, assumes Reba is having an affair with Andy, and fights her in the street. Simon reveals that he took the dress. Debbie tries to quit drinking alcohol but starts again when Andy tells her she is boring when she is sober. Simon sees supposedly-vegan Hayley eating a burger and threatens to tell everyone. To keep him quiet, she gives him £30, which he spends on a vase, which costs £20, that he has had his eye on for a long time.
2	"How I Got My Nose"	9 October 2008
Simon wants to join a stage school and he, Kylie and Imelda (another neighbour), audition for the school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, arranged by the drama teacher who is also Imelda's godfather. Imelda gets the part of Joseph, but the un-professionalism of the cast gets too much for the teacher, who cancels the play and replaces it with a Talent Show. Getting an idea from Stephen King's Carrie, which they had watched earlier in the episode, Simon and Kylie tip a bucketful of red dye onto Imelda, on stage during her performance, in front of the whole school. She is traumatised by this, and convinces her mother to transfer her to the stage school. A chance meeting with Imelda years later results in her breaking Simon's nose.
3	"How I Got My Beads"	16 October 2008
Simon decides to play a prank on his mum. He pretends to be the voice of her spirit guide and predicts the number 2 will bring bad news. When Debbie hears someone has died on the toilet she is convinced another death is close by. Andy's mum comes to stay having had an operation which completely changes her character. After a few days, Debbie is going insane. Andy's mum has brought home a fiancee and is critising and upsetting everyone. One evening, having broken her arm she goes to make a fry-up and puts a can of baked beans in the microwave. The microwave explodes and kills her, proving Debbie's theory correct. Simon, feeling bad, calls his mum and says she will no longer be troubled by her abilities and to increase her son's pocket money by five pounds. Back in present day Simon claims to have made his beads from his grandmother's false teeth.
4	"How I Got My Posh"	23 October 2008
Kylie steals the school headteacher's clutch bag. When Simon discovers this, he returns it straight away to her office, but unintentionally rests the bag on the 'speak button' on her intercom system, revealing to the whole school what he wants for his birthday - a Posh Spice doll. When he is bullied for revealing it, he gets excluded from school. On the other hand, auntie Hayley is asked out by a man - who we later discover is the man who flashed at Ashlene. Worried about Simon's feminine behaviour, Andy plans to teach Simon how to act his gender by teaching him how to play football. At first it all goes wrong, but later Simon is motivated to practice upon discovering that Posh is dating a footballer. Debbie purchases a Posh doll for him, but it gets stolen. Simon is signed up for a school football match, which he wins for his team (using his skills in choreography). Simon's team-mate (and bully) offers him the champion trophy, which he refuses to accept. The bully says he knew Simon would refuse it, which is why he brought along a Posh spice doll specially for him.
5	"How I Got My Tongs"	30 October 2008
Kylie and Simon covet a pair of golden hair tongs, which are displayed in the window of Tameka's hairdressers. She tells them that she won them in a contest, and they'd have to be pried 'from her cold dead fingers'. Later, Kylie asks Simon to dye his hair a dusky blonde, so he can look more like his idol Princess Diana. This fails, and Kylie angrily tells Simon that they are no longer friends. While Simon tries to make new friends, Tameka tells him to stop loitering outside her shop: Simon replies by telling her to "drop dead". Later on while cutting Debbie's hair, Tameka actually does drop dead [leaving Debbie with an unfinished haircut] from a hole in the heart; however, Simon believes it was his words that killed her. Simon and Kylie become friends again when the death and funeral of Princess Diana unites them in grief. Debbie then takes Simon back to the hairdressers, where Tameka is lying in repose in the centre of the shop, the tongs in her hands. In the present day, Sacha asks Simon that if he didn't steal the tongs from the viewing, then how did they end up in his possession? The answer is provided by the appearance of grown-up Kylie, who states that he swapped them with a pair of his mother's before Tameka was buried.
6	"How I Got My Globe"	6 November 2008
Simon and Kylie believe they have found one of the Beautiful People when their new English teacher, Mrs Prentice, arrives from London. The boys become infatuated with their bohemian mentor who romances them with tales of her ex-lover, Francoise, and of the Beautiful People. Mrs Prentice takes the boys to the local pub, just as Debbie is about to start her shift. Debbie is annoyed to see Simon in the pub, but more annoyed that a responsible adult such as his teacher has allowed it. Debbie throws her out of the pub causing Simon to announce hatred of his family. Mrs Prentice tells the boys that Francoise has been in contact and wishes to rekindle their romance and leaves for London quoting lyrics from 'I've Never Been to Me' as she leaves the classroom, leaving her address so the boys can stay in contact. That night, Simon, still annoyed with Debbie, sneaks out of the house and travels to London with Kylie to find her. Arriving there, they discover that Mrs Prentice is not living the glamorous life she implied and is in fact living on a council estate. After telling the boys to go away, Kylie and Simon discover that they are not far from BBC Televison Centre and end up in the audience of Live & Kicking. Back home, Simon lies on his bed completely disillusioned by his trip. Debbie, comfortingly tells him the story of her friend Jamie, whom she used to live with. He used to dream that every night he would go up to the roof and jump off and would dance across the roof tops of London. He told Debbie that one day he would do it because you should never give up on your dreams. Jamie gave Debbie a snowglobe, but became ill and died before he got to London. Debbie gives it to Simon telling him to not give up on his dreams.

Reception

Broadcast and ratings

Beautiful People is broadcast on Thursdays at 21:30 on BBC Two, during the channel's "Thursdays Are Funny" strand, and at 22:00 on BBC HD. "How I Got My Vase" recorded overnight ratings of 1.5 million and a 7% share.

Critical reaction

The series was previewed by The Guardian's Grace Dent as "a sort of camp, working-class British Arrested Development". Dent wrote that it "made [her] laugh more than anything [she had] seen so far on TV this year". Tim Teeman, the entertainment editor for The Times, rated "How I Got My Vase" three out of five stars. Teeman complimented Ward-Wilkinson's and Williams's acting but did not believe the 1990s were long ago enough to feel nostalgia for. Hermione Eyre for The Independent praised Williams and Colman, and compared the show to The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

Merchandise

• Doonan's memoirs have been re-released with a tie-in cover by Harper Collins.
• An accompanying soundtrack to the series was released by EMI on 20 October: It consists of original and cover versions of 90s songs, including a duet by Kylie and Dannii Minogue of ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All", and a version of Dolly Parton's 70s hit "Jolene" covered by Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

External links

• Beautiful People at IMDb
• Beautiful People playlist at BBC YouTube channel
• Interview with Simon Doonan about the TV series Beautiful People