Ronan Vibert, Vibertology, Big Women, Fay Wheldon, Channel 4 drama


	*n. Big Women* *UK Mini-Series (Channel 4, widescreen) 1998:* *Ronan content: approx 4% (240 mins: 4 x 60 mins)* *Character: Bull, intimidating firebrand husband, self-pitying drunkard father* Cast: Anastasia Hillie Stephie, Daniela Nardini Layla, Clare Hollman Zoe, Jayne Ashbourne Daffy, Tom Mannion Hamish, Natasha Little Saffron (adult), Sophia Myles Saffron (teenager), Ronan Vibert Bull, Kelle Spry Nancy Dir: Renny Rye Availablity: not released. Has not been repeated on Channel 4.


	Plot/Comments: Excellent four hour adaptation of the lively Fay Wheldon book chronicling the rise and fall of a feminist publishing house (based on Virago Press), and the personal changes and misfortunes that befall its founding mothers. The evolving story focuses on a cluster of four women, taking them through the sexual, personal, and business minefields of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Each episode takes a different decade to show how the characters, and the relationships between them, grow and change.


	The series is *far from being a dry, bra-burning sermon*. The social commentary is acutely (and often humorously) observed, and the script is, for the most part, razor-sharp and surprisingly entertaining given the subject matter and potentially heavy themes (struggle and collapse of feminism, suicide, spousal abuse). Attention to period detail is excellent, with good use of appropriate pop music and costume changes. The female characters are aged superbly, though the men less so: for some reason they seem to have totally given up on trying to age Vibert, and have simply pasted a large comedy moustache and hornrimmed spectacles on him; because of this, he continues to look mid-30s when playing a 50+ character in the last episode.


	Ronan content: *Ronan simmers with buttoned-down rage and the inability to comprehend how his corn-fed wife could have debased herself with this femisist filth. However, his performance is more than just a bullying cypher to contrast with the female characters, but a man simply unable to accept change, and always* a man who is fiercely protective of his daughter.


	*Back Tales from the Crypt* *Back Romeo & Juliet* *Next Scarlet Pimpernel* *VIBERTOGRAPHY*


	In the final two parts Bull changes completely, unable to deal with single parenthood and guilt. Ronan does a damn good drunk, with a prime example being his *browbeaten, despondent, alcoholic shuffling down the street, squinting in the sun* at his daughter who has so obviously given up on him. The *transformation of Bull from controlling Patriarch to shambolic, guilty, evasive mess is wholly convincing, bringing depth and sensitivity to the part*.

Typical Ronan Character Quote:

"You foul-mouthed bitch! If you so much as ever speak to Zoe again, our marriage is over -- I'll throw her hout...the law says I can"

Trainspotter Comment:

His character has the flattened estuary vowels of a standard working-class Thames dweller (to nonBrit ears, like Cockney, but a lot less of the Dick Van Dyke).

PART 4 - 1.5% CONTENT
The weakest episode is set in the 'Girl Power' 1990s.
Natasha Little's performance as the adult Saffron is disappointing and many of the characters become little more than
cardboard stereotypes.
The story arc could have ended quite
happily with Part 3.
Unfortunately, this final part, concerning the change from feminism to consumerism and the take-over of Medusa by the
now-ruthless Saffron seems tacked on
and empty.
The book is allegedly also disappointing in this regard: perhaps writing about the 1990s while still in them didn't give
Wheldon the perspective she has on the rest of the story.


	PART 1 - 4% CONTENT A feminist group meeting evolves into a bacchanalian witches-brew of naked sloganeering, interrupted on one hand by the arrival of the wifey, shy, self-doubting and utterly mousey Zoe's husband -- the *bullying, sexist firebrand Bull (Vibert)* --and the sexual betrayal of feminist-lite Daffy with Stephie's husband, Tom. *Nearly bursting with dangerously-controlled anger (a Vibert speciality)*, Bull sweeps up his toddler, Saffron and forbids the trembling Zoe from ever seeing the 'hags' of the embryonic Medusa Press again. PART 2 - 5% CONTENT As Medusa Press grows, the constantly barefoot and pregnant Zoe secretly types up her own feminist novel about the 'wasted opportunity' of a clever graduate wife being so literally housebound (although the patronisingly intimidating Bull tells her to consider herself 'houseblessed', and to fight the urge to write her worthless trivial, boring little book). When Stephie calls to confirm Medusa's interest in her manuscript, the message is left with Bull who erupts at the seeming betrayal of his wife, burning her manuscript page by page in front of her -- all under the ever-watchful eyes of the 7 year old Saffron. Soon after this, Zoe commits suicide, and an angry and bereft Bull flees the funeral service after it is hijacked by the Medusa feminists laying the blame firmly at his door.


	PART 3 - 10% CONTENT The *best episode, with a superb performance by Sophia Myles as the teenaged Saffron*, investigating past plotlines to find out more about her mother and the reasons for her death. Superbly constructed, throwing a different light on the previous actions of all of the characters, it avoids placing the blame squarely on Bull's sexist shoulders (now weighed down by equal measures of alcohol, guilt, and failure). By the end of the episode, Bull is on the up again, ready to make it big with building YUPPIE apartments on the Thames Docklands, admitting to his previous faults, and believably, but not self-righteously admitting 'I wouldn't do it now'.


	Part three ends disappointingly, and has little Ronan content (besides the previously-mentioned Groucho moustache and specs), with a single one-line scene. It is briefly detailed in the left sidebar.