Up the Women

- Season 1

(2013)

In 1910 Margaret Unwin, a member of the Banbury Intricate Craft Circle, becomes inspired by the women's suffrage movement following a visit to London and attempts to interest the rest of the group in votes for women. Bombastic chairperson Helen expresses disapproval, asserting that women are weak and silly and incapable of decision-making, but her sulky daughter Emily, saucy mother Myrtle Von Heckling and perpetually pregnant Eva are all enthusiastic. Helen tries to start a counter suffrage group but Margaret, using weak-wristed young Thomas as an example of male ...

The women's placards arrive though unfortunately they are the wrong shape and too cumbersome. They prepare for action but are unsure what form this should take. Emily suggests blowing up parliament or killing the king, which Margaret writes on a blackboard. Finally they decide to picket the post office but have to ask for it to remain open. When a statue of Venus in the library is desecrated P.C. John Thackeray, an old flame of Margaret, comes to investigate. Emily's chalked suggestions look ominous but it turns out that the culprits are another group of suffragettes.

The women are excited when Margaret gets a reply to her letter to suffragette leader Mrs Pankhurst, announcing that she plans to visit the group with a view to their affiliation with the Women's Social and political Union. Only Helen, who went to school with Mrs Pankhurst and dislikes her, is unimpressed. Mrs Pankhurst duly arrives in a huge hat, and referring to herself in the third person. Though unmoved by the song and tableau the group the women perform for her she believes that they should be allied because she admired their vandalism of the statue of Venus in ...