The novel was adapted into an 8-hour, sixteen part, television drama series by
Carnival Films for the
LWT network. It originally aired on
ITV in November 1999. It was described as a "saga about broken hearts and terrifyingly unsuitable boyfriends" with "plenty of workplace-mileage to be extracted from Lucy's job at Nudawn Supplies".
Sam Loggin played Lucy. Her flatmates, Charlotte, a promiscuous dippy blonde, and Karen, a bossy Scottish communal financer, were played by
Letitia Dean and
Zoë Eeles respectively. The group of girls party their way around London looking for would-be husbands or boyfriends.
Gerard Butler starred as Lucy's unreliable lover, Gus.
Scheduling The series was launched with four episodes in its first week at 10:30pm on ITV, following which it aired once weekly. However, it failed to attract the young adult audience at which it was aimed, so the series was withdrawn (mid series, episode 9) from that timeslot in December 1999. The programme was subsequently aired a year later between November 2000 and January 2001, in the early evening, pre-watershed time slot at 17:05.
LWT said, "the underlying tone and structure of the series was not dissimilar to that of the tea-time soaps and, given the wider audience available at that time, it was substantially edited and revoiced to make it suitable for the slot." Despite this, the show drew complaints from viewers for featuring a sex scene and bad language. Complaints from viewers about the content of various editions of the series were upheld in part by the
Independent Television Commission (ITC) in 2001. Nine complained of the inclusion of a lesbian storyline and kiss, while others believed that the sexual content, swearing and tasteless material were inappropriate for the time of transmission. In its report, the ITC said it had "serious concerns about the scheduling of a series which concentrated on the sexual relationships of a group of young adults, so early in the evening". A Standards Panel was concerned by the general nature and tone of the content, in particular the sexual themes in one episode, which it "considered were likely to have exceeded the expectations of the majority of the audience at a time when a large number of children would be available to watch it". According to LWT, the series also failed to perform well in the earlier slot and was eventually withdrawn. It has since been repeated on ITV in a late night time slot at various times.
Cast •
Sam Loggin as Lucy Sullivan •
Letitia Dean as Charlotte •
Zoë Eeles as Karen •
Gwyneth Strong as Hetty •
Debbie Chazen as Meredia •
Sara Stockbridge as Megan •
Gerard Butler as Gus •
Cameron Jack as George •
Niall Buggy as Mr. Sullivan •
Frances Tomelty as Mrs. Sullivan •
Simon Greenall as Richard •
James Hillier as Steve •
Pascal Langdale as Daniel •
David Simeon as Ken •
Michael Troughton as Ivor •
Shirley Stelfox as Mrs. Nolan
Crew • Writer:
Colin Brake • Directors:
Brian Grant and
Sarah Hellings • Producer:
Stuart Doughty • Executive producer:
Brian Eastman DVD release The entire series was released on DVD for the first time in Australia (Region 4) on Thursday 5 June 2008. ==References==