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Funny Woman
Your favourite, almost real, very British 1960s TV star
The Sky Original miniseries “Funny Woman” (6 episodes) is based on the novel “Funny Girl” by Nick Hornby.
Here, if you like, you can read my review of the novel.
I can say that it’s without a doubt my favourite novel by Hornby or, more precisely, the one I enjoyed from start to finish. In general, I really like Hornby’s books, but I tend to find the endings disappointing.
However, there is a fundamental difference between the book and the miniseries: the former seems like a true story, while the latter is clearly fiction.
The strength of the novel was precisely the decision to write it as if it were a fictionalised account of the story of Barbara Parker/Sophie Straw, complete with photos scattered throughout the text. So, when tackling the series (of which Hornby is one of the producers), they had to necessarily emphasise other aspects. They tried to bring the same sense of authenticity into it, using clips from time to time that looked like archive footage, but it was clear from the start that this was a made-up story.
In my opinion, the miniseries has two strong points.
One is the way in which the story has been broken down into six episodes, always choosing the perfect point…
