So the first episode back for Secret Diary of a Callgirl. I’ve been a fan of the show since it originally aired, and have even gone so far as to read the books. There are large discrepancies between the two, however, both are great in their own right. Of course the essential ‘coming out’ of the former anonymous writer of the Belle De Jour books, Brooke Magnanti, only taking place a few months ago proved to be free publicity for the show if anything.
This show has many female followers, as the area of topic is quite an intriguing one. A woman leading a double life; lady on the street, freak in the bedroom. To be able to do the book justice at all, the show had quite a challenge. They had to show the lives of Hannah and Belle, without making them completely cliché and stagnant. And I think they’ve achieved this, and will continue to make the character/s grow more in this third season. Of course, the show doesn’t lack male followers. It’s pretty raunchy, which will always attract male attention.
At the end of the second season, we saw that Hannah had written a book about her exploits, under the banner of anonymity, ‘Belle De Jour.’ It was unclear if she was going to keep going in her profession, or if she was simply going to rest on her laurels. It didn’t take long to find out that she was going to continue on with her old tricks, and what a relief that was. The show simply couldn’t work without it.
We see Hannah at the book launch of ‘Secret Diary of a London Callgirl’ in the disguise as a waitress. As the real author stayed hidden for so long, it was interesting to see how both Hannah and the publishing agent thought that this was a better idea than merely being a face in the crowd, so as not to draw attention to herself.
She however, is not please with the launch. By getting a porn star lookalike to read an excerpt from the book, she was both upset that this was meant to be a portrayal of her, and that it also cheapened the literary experience greatly.
The juxtaposition between Belle’s best friend, Ben, and herself in their respective sexual conquests is quite humorous. Ben is mistaken by a PR lady at the book launch as being the author. He fails to correct her, and we see them having sex later on. However, it is almost clumsy sex – and the PR lady realises this couldn’t possibly be the author of the book who has seemingly had hundreds of sexual exploits.
Belle on the other hand, has everything under control with one of her favourite clients. They both have a much better time than Ben and his partner, and they seem to have a genuine connection. This may be merely because they have had sex before, the client being a repeat customer. Or it may be because Belle is a professional, and knows the right things to do in order to create some sort of chemistry. Alternatively, they may just get along because they seem to actually like one another. Perhaps it’s all three?
One of the later scenes sets the pace for the entire third series. Her publisher requests her having a manuscript ready in three months to follow up the book she’s just published. It’s seemed to have garnered considerable media attention, and it would make sense to try an capitalise it by printing another book in the same vain as soon as possible. To do this however, Belle needs material, and to get material there is only one solution - get back to work.
Of course, in the dying minutes of the first episode, with her sister showing up is obviously going to cause trouble. Her family is unaware of her occupation, and with the buzz of the book and her need to go back to work – it will be almost impossible to do with her sister hanging around and not finding out the truth about Belle.
FURTHER THOUGHTS
- While there has always meant to have been a certain chemistry between Belle and Ben, I actually think it’s a bit hard to see. It almost seems like they’re too good of friends at this point to turn it into something more
- Belle’s madam, a recurring character, a former callgirl herself, who in her own way is quite amusing, due to the way that she takes the whole business so seriously suspects that Belle wrote the book. And Belle wasn’t exactly favourable in the representation of her, so I’m sure this storyline will be revisited in the future
- The differences between the two clients Belle had in this episode was also quite humorous. As discussed above, Belle seemed to have a genuine affection for her first client. The second, although he was very wealthy, seemed to be very plain, and made the whole affair seem very passionless. Belle seemed more like a prop than a partner in this scene which I thought was interesting
- Billie Pipe is really wonderful as the lead in this show, and looks amazing post baby.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“If you want to stay on top, you need to be in control at all times.” Belle
“Get dressed then, shall I?” Ben
“Maybe I can fake it till I make it.” Hannah
“If I’m going to write a second book, I’m going to have to do some serious whoring.” Hannah
“Prostitute. Author. Sister. Shit.” Hannah
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