Heads Up: Bad Girls on CBS Action

Freeview channel CBS Action is about to start showing the 1999-2006 series Bad Girls.  The ITV drama, set in the women's prison HMP Larkhall, ran for 107 episodes.

For all its qualities, the series was not strong on nudity and the only overt nudity came in Series 1 from Mandana Jones.

Mandana Jones in Bad Girls

In one scene her character is undergoing a strip search (top row) and in another scene she is changing in her cell (bottom row).  Specific episode numbers are currently unknown although I would anticipate they are from different episodes.  Series 1 ran for 10 episodes and from reading an episode guide the second episode seems to have a plot that could account for the strip search scene.

The only other slight nudity was in series 3, episode 2 (or episode 25 overall) from 2001 when Debra Stephenson's character is attacked in a shower - but it is very marginal and fleeting.

There may have been other "almost" moments but nothing that has emerged as being enduringly noteworthy.

It is being shown on CBS Action every weeknight from 10:00pm starting on Wednesday 21st October 2015.  With the same episode then repeated later on at 1:00am.

UPDATE: 24/Oct/2015: The strip search scene was in episode 2 of series 1.
UPDATE: 12/Nov/2015: The scene shown on the bottom row of the collage turned out to be from series 2, episode 6.

Film Report: Curse of the Witching Tree (2015)

Curse of the Witching Tree (UK 2015)
Director: James Crow

Plot Outline: Amber Thorson (Sarah Rose Denton) is a mother of two who is having to cope alone while her husband is in hospital in a coma from which he is unlikely to recover.  Amber rashly decides to buy a large 800-year-old farmhouse in Kent called St Jonas Farm and moves in with her student daughter Emma (Lucy Clarvis) and 12-year-old son Jake (Lawrence Weller). Unfortunately for all concerned the farm has a bad history and was the site of tragic events many centuries ago when a medieval witch called Isobel Redwood was hanged from a nearby tree accused of killing her young son Ulrich.  Isobel cursed the tree and all children who touch it - a curse which has not diminished with the passage of years.  Jake unwittingly touches that certain tree while hiding in the woods from a gang of school bullies and brings back to the farmhouse vengeful spirits of the long dead children who proceed to make the lives of its occupants a living nightmare ...

Curse of the Witching Tree is a suspenseful horror film from writer, producer and director James Crow.  This is his feature debut after making a number of short films.  It was co-produced by actress turned producer Lucinda Rhodes(-Flaherty) who used to play the sister in Cavegirl. There are no star names amongst the cast although Gary Lineker's wife Danielle Bux makes a brief appearance as the evil (young) witch.  Although Sarah Rose Denton heads the cast, the main action tends to centre more on the plight of her two children Emma and Jake.  Emma is said to be a student and although her precise age is not mentioned she is probably in her adult teens.

The nudity in the film comes from co-lead Lucy Clarvis in two scenes, one of which is probably the best bath scene you're ever likely to see.  She is a relatively new actress from Lincolnshire in her mid-20s with one other 2015 horror feature on her credits and a number of shorts.

Lucy Clarvis in Curse of the Witching Tree

The main scene shows Emma (Lucy Clarvis) topless having a peaceful bath after some upsetting events only to have her peace shattered by a phantom presence.  The other scene is later on when she is seen marginally topless while preparing to take a shower.

Film Report: Bonobo (2014)

Here's the first in (perhaps) a regular theme of reports on recent UK films that haven't otherwise had much attention.

Bonobo is a drama about a strait-laced and lonely middle-aged widow called Judith (Tessa Peake-Jones) whose 20-year-old daughter Lily (Eleanor Wyld) has dropped out of law school and left home to join a notorious commune at a place called Bonobo House.  Uptight Judith is determined to "save" her only child from her folly and visits the commune to persuade her to come back - Lily is just as determined not to leave having found an inner peace.  The leader of the small close-knit commune is Anita Janacek (Josie Lawrence), a philosophy doctorate who believes that harmonious living can be achieved by following the behavioural lifestyle of the Bonobo monkey where all members adhere to the principle of making love not war and resolve their differences and disputes accordingly.  Judith is naturally sceptical but is persuaded by Anita to stay with them for a day and experience the way they live and then she will help resolve the pent-up difficulties between mother and daughter.  Judith reluctantly agrees and so embarks upon a life changing new episode in her own life.

Also starring is James Norton who has had a high TV profile recently in shows such as Life in Squares, Granchester, Happy Valley and Lady Chatterley's Lover.  He plays a commune member who has a penchant for doing naked yoga in the garden.  Bonobo is the debut feature of director Matthew Hammett Knott.

The film features both male and female nudity seen as the commune members cavort naked and free outdoors; and at bedtime practising the principles of free love.  Eleanor Wyld does the main honours for the fairer sex and this would seem to be her proper nude debut having previously done a "side view/almost" type scene in Misfits on E4 in 2012 (series 4, episode 2) where she was credited as "Eleanor Wild" playing a blind girl who can see telepathically through her guide dog.


Here is a description of the scenes in Bonobo.
In the pre-credits prologue scene naked commune members are seen running in the forest and then sitting down in a group when Lily sees her mother watching them from behind a tree - although it turns out to be a troublesome dream her mother Judith is having about what she thinks her daughter is getting up to at the commune.  In addition to Eleanor Wyld and some commune men there are also two other naked young women in the group - they are credited as Helen Anslow and Carolyn Mellor although they are not seen again in the rest of the film so are essentially non-speaking extras.  A little while later Judith dwells on it a bit more and we see a few more new shots of Eleanor Wyld topless.  There is a brief moment when Judith thinks she sees Lily prancing about naked in her back garden in a window reflection - but it is her imagination and makes her realise how lonely she is without her daughter.  Later on at the commune Lily is seen topless making love astride Ralph (James Norton) on a bed.  And lastly Lily is seen with (mostly) rear nudity larking around in the commune garden with two of the guys as they play a prank on Ralph while he is sitting meditating.

Eleanor Wyld in Bonobo

Eleanor Wild in Misfits

NOTE. If you seek out this film be aware that strangely enough there were two full-length UK films released in 2014 called "Bonobo".  The other one is an entirely different story and stars Caroline Langrishe.

Heads Up: Playing The Field on CBS Drama

Starting soon the Freeview channel CBS Drama will be showing the BBC1 series Playing the Field written by Kay Mellor about the women's football team The Castlefield Blues.  It begins on Thursday 8th October at 9pm and then every subsequent weekday at the same time.

Playing the Field began in 1998 and ran for five series ending in 2002 with 32 episodes made in total.

The first couple of series had a fairly high female nudity quotient, but by the time of the latter few series this had almost entirely disappeared as an ingredient.

I know which of the known scenes take place in series 1 having seen that one in full.  The remaining scenes must be from series 2 onwards with a fairly high likelihood that most of them are from the second series.


SERIES 1 (1998, 6 episodes, 50 mins each) - started 8th March 1998
No nudity in episodes 1, 3 or 6

Episode 2
Jo McInnes - Brief rear nudity (mainly) jumping into a communal bath

Episode 4
This episode has what is probably the drama's most well known scene when the team are celebrating in the showers.  Marsha Thomason and Saira Todd are the main actresses seen topless; and Saira Todd also has another bit of brief nudity elsewhere in the episode

Episode 5
Tracey Whitwell and Saira Todd have nudity together in a bedroom scene


SERIES 2 (1999, 7 episodes, 50 mins each) - started 18th February 1999
Updates in blue to confirm episode numbers

Debra Stephenson - There are several episodes in which she is seen topless - a few in a bedroom and one sitting in a communal bath (that one I believe to be episode 2).  She is seen almost topless twice in episode 1; topless in the baths in episode 2; and topless in a bedroom scene in episode 6.
Marsha Thomason - She is topless in the same communal bath scene as Debra Stephenson and another scene in a normal bath in which she is briefly topless.  The communal bath scene is in episode 2 and the other bath scene is in episode 5.
Lorraine Ashbourne - She is seen topless is a scene in which she is giving birth.  This is in episode 1.
Jo McInnes - there is a scene in which she is topless in a bedroom getting dressed while talking to a man.  This is in episode 4.


SERIES 3 (2000, 6 episodes, 50 mins each) - started 8th February 2000
Emma Rydal - A brief topless side view getting out of bed.  This is in episode 3 of series 3
+ There is a topless scene involving an uncredited extra lying in bed next to a man that has been pinpointed as being from episode 5 of the third series.


SERIES 4 (2000, 7 episodes, 60 mins each) - started 13th July 2000
No known scenes hail from this series


SERIES 5 (2002, 6 episodes, 60 mins each) - started 6th January 2002
The only nudity in this series was in episode 5 when Kelli Hollis "supposedly" flashes her backside from the clubhouse door - but it is a cutaway close-up and so could have been a double.


Some collages showing various scenes from throughout the series
This run down currently assumes any unpinpointed scenes are from series 2.

Debra Stephenson from various episodes in series 2

Emma Rydal from series 3

Jo McInnes from series 2 and series 1 (bottom right)

Kelli Hollis from series 5

Lorraine Ashbourne from series 2

Marsha Thomason from series 1 and series 2 (bottom left)

Saira Todd in two episodes from series 1

Tracy Whitwell from series 1

Uncredited from series 3