Being on set for Nick Hornby’s Funny Woman is so entertaining that the cast struggle to keep a straight face while filming. We spend time behind the scenes of this love letter to swinging 60s London
A deafening fire alarm is going off. Bolton locals want to know what that dreadful noise is all about. They pause their shopping and start to crowd around the town hall in the rain, only for Gemma Arterton to appear out of the fire exit, fingers in ears, wearing a blond wig under a baker boy hat. “I’m in such a conspicuous costume,” she laughs, head down, wrapping her spectacular blue PVC coat round her. I’m walking next to her, wondering what I did wrong in a previous life for this to happen five minutes into our interview.
We’re on location for the filming of the second season of Funny Woman, Sky’s adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl. Although it is mostly set in London, production largely takes place across north-west England. On the other side of the plaza (which is standing in for Trafalgar Square), a nondescript building has been turned into a thriving 60s department store. Vintage cars line the cobbled street. Earlier, a group of women – all in patent heels – were marching for equality, shouting: “What do we want? Equal pay! When do we want it? Yesterday!”
