''Up In Town'' is a six-part series of short (10-minute) monologues, featuring

Joanna Lumley Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley (born 1 May 1946) is an English actress, presenter, former model, author, television producer, and activist. She has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992 ...

as the middle-aged, divorced and lonely Madison Blakelock. The series was produced for

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

Baby Cow Productions Baby Cow Productions Ltd is a British comedy television production company based in London and Manchester, founded by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal. Since its establishment it has diversified into radio, animation and film. According to their ...

, and screened on BBC Two. It has subsequently been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

.BBC Worldwide Press Releases
BBC. 30 June 2003

Summary

Madison Blakelock is delighted to be living her 'new life', since her executive class husband, who works 'up in town', and she parted company 18 years before. And now she has nothing more to do but sit before her mirror, picking over the bones of her past with an optimism and energy dizzyingly at odds with her reality. As the unrecognised failures of her life mount up, the loss of love, friends, money, purpose and her beloved cat, the cracks in her terrifyingly maintained facade begin to show.

Critical reception

The series received a positive reception from critics. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' praised Lumley and her "rich, darkly comic and beautifully observed performance".''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' cited that the series deserved better scheduling.Joy of Six: Joanna Lumley's TV career
The Guardian. 11 November 2008 The series has also been compared to

Alan Bennett Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his distinguished entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two ...

's ''

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

'' series of monologues.

References

External links

* BBC Television shows 2002 British television series debuts 2002 British television series endings {{BBC-tv-prog-stub