Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. "This should be good for a laugh," I thought as I settled in to watch Funny Cow, the tale of a plucky lass from northern England (Maxine ...

So it's interesting to see Funny Cow taking us back to a time – the 1970s – when female comics would be booed off stage. Maxine Peake is Funny Cow, a Northern working-class woman whose life is ...

What a grim life it must have been. Maxine Peake's "funny cow" overcomes an abusive father, alcoholic mother, childhood bullying, a violent caveman of a husband and waves of brutal misogyny to pursue ...

OVER the past couple of years, countless commentators have struggled to get to grips with the slippery notion of “Britishness”. I can’t get a handle on it either, but I think I know it when I see it.

At the centre of everything is a towering performance by Peake, whose character goes by the nickname “Funny Cow”. The film originated when Peake met Pitts while they were both working as actors on ...

She has to overcome a violent husband (Tony Pitts, who wrote the script), following the kind of impoverished childhood that has been mercilessly spoofed elsewhere; violent dad, alcoholic mum, a life ...

Maxine Peake grabs this '70s-set comedy by the scruff of the neck as a stand-up who takes no prisoners. ‘It’s not a job for a woman,’ warns comic Lenny (Alun Armstrong) when he’s approached by Maxine ...