Plot Summary

Kate Swift has always know her place in the world. "I was a rich bitch! I was good at it! I liked it!" Imagine her horror when both her husband and all her ill-gotten cash vanish, leaving her to fend for herself for the first time ever. Add in her mad old dad, Sir Horrace Mainwaring, boozy journalist Jack, Australian ex-criminal Gloria and Detective Inspector Latham, a sarcastic policeman and it's a recipe for trouble!



i just watched the first episode, and it's absolutely hilarious. joanna plays a rather upper class woman, but she's not as upper class as she seems. just brilliant

Edit:
i'm uploading the first episode as we speak btw

I really do love it, watched it on u tube and think that it should have lasted longer than it did. I really love watching Joanna, her facial expressions get me the most. Im not sure what else it is about her i just think she is fabulous.

i agree, the facial expressions are fabulous! and in a way, there's a bit of patsy in her character, but just a tiny bit. i don't know, it's really hard to explain.
and the fact that she's a rich bitch, but doesn't deny it, she's actually quite proud of it. that's what i find so hilarious

Ever since I was 0 years old, I've always loved Rich, Fabulous Bitches, so this is wonderful!

And I love how they put two pictures of Kate and none of Jack on the front, hahaha <3

Glad people are discovering this series. I remember when it originally aired, but it was never repeated & only released on DVD in the US.

Great series, fantastic guest-stars & storylines. Joanna got all the best lines !

I even found the old Class Act thread over on the F&S board - so many quoteable lines LOL

I'm rewatching Class Act at the moment. I watched the first episode yesterday, and I'm watching the second episode right now.
It's just as funny and brilliant the second time round. Joanna is absolutely hilarious, I swear she was made to do comedy

I love Class Act! Not only are there enough TNA in-jokes to keep a TNA fan happy, but the cast is brilliant, too--John Bowe and Richard Vernon in particular. And the duck! How could I forget the duck? Definitely my favourite non-TNA Lumley project (yes, more than AbFab). I owe this a rewatch.

I saw this series about three years ago, and being the collector I am, I immediately went looking for merchandise. The series isn't very well known, and other than a DVD release there wasn't anything put out in the merchandise stakes. But I did manage to snag the press pack for the series--lots of bios and such of the stars, all in a nice folder with a group shot on the front. Would anyone be interested in the press pack? Should I scan it?

Happy coincidence - I happen to be watching a lot of Class Act over the couple of days in Berlin too! It's a very nice series, and I like Joanna's character, she's tough and good fun. So please yes, do post that press pack if you have a spare moment!

Maartje wrote:Happy coincidence - I happen to be watching a lot of Class Act over the couple of days in Berlin too! It's a very nice series, and I like Joanna's character, she's tough and good fun. So please yes, do post that press pack if you have a spare moment!

Yes, Joanna's great in it--"I was a rich bitch! I liked it! I was good at it!" But so are the other characters, like Gloria--"Don't smile like that. You have too many teeth to smile like that. Where did you get them all, anyway?" And I'm a Hitchhiker's fan (weird fact--most of the AbFab cast has been in Hitchhiker's, and at least 2 Hitchhiker's actors have been in AbFab. Is this some sort of weird conspiracy?), so I love Richard "Slartibartfast" Vernon.

I'll go looking for the press pack. I believe I have it in one of my storage tubs of Avengers memorabilia, probably the main one but I have to check--and get all the stuff that I have sitting on top of it off. Accessing a lot of my Avengers stuff is like opening the Disney vault--it only happens occasionally, and once I close it, it doesn't open again quickly.

Timeless A-Peel wrote:Don't smile like that. You have too many teeth to smile like that. Where did you get them all, anyway?"

Exactly that bit was playing while I was reading this, haha! I love the interaction between the characters of Gloria and Kate - they're both very similar, but they'll never admit it, but I think that's exactly why they're fond of each other.

And Joanna's right - she's certainly very good at playing the ritch bitch.

Maartje wrote:

Timeless A-Peel wrote:Don't smile like that. You have too many teeth to smile like that. Where did you get them all, anyway?"

Exactly that bit was playing while I was reading this, haha! I love the interaction between the characters of Gloria and Kate - they're both very similar, but they'll never admit it, but I think that's exactly why they're fond of each other.

And Joanna's right - she's certainly very good at playing the ritch bitch.

And the richer and bitchier, the better.

I like the line about the teeth because Joanna was always making fun of her toothy smile--she likes to talk about how, when she was born, her dad said "Look at all her teeth! She's like a shark--her face just splits from end to end."

But both Gloria and Kate are schemers. But my favourite is Jack--I root for the underdog. That one episode where he thinks he has a son and then it turns out the girl is lying is heartbreaking. I love how he gradually gets more confident, and Kate gets to realise he's a good man. In fact, I wrote a drabble for the end of Class Act one day. Anyone want to read it?

Yes to the press pack and yes to the drabble

Philippa wrote:Yes to the press pack and yes to the drabble

The press pack will take awhile to dig up, but I know exactly where the drabble is. I wrote a pile of drabbles for different fandoms one day. The Class Act one is a bit of reflection on Kate's part at the end of the series. Here it is. Hope you like it:

New Perspectives

It’s funny. I don’t think about Duncan anymore. When did the money and the husband I lost become less important than the people I picked up trying to find them?

And Jack. When did I stop thinking ‘pathetic wreck,’ and spot the kind, decent man?

I do remember when I took off my wedding ring. The day Jack moved from the shed to the boudoir. It doesn’t mean anything, not anymore.

I packed up all Duncan’s things, yesterday, for goodwill. I won’t sell them. That would be wrong, somehow. We’ll scrape the money together some other way.

We always do.

Awww! I the drabble!!
That's so sweet and so fitting as well.

On and YES to the press thingie!
I was watching the first few episodes yesterday. I remember watching them on YouTube a while back but now to have them all on my computer is much better.

I love the drabble! I suddenly realized I had not read anything else written by you than Avengers related stories, (those already proved to me that you have a talent for writing - don't worry) but this is also very nice!

Aw that's a lovely little drabble
Like Maartje said, you have a real talent for writing, and not just for TNA.

Maartje wrote:I love the drabble! I suddenly realized I had not read anything else written by you than Avengers related stories, (those already proved to me that you have a talent for writing - don't worry) but this is also very nice!

Aww, thanks guys. I don't usually write non-Avengers stuff, mainly because it's still my favourite, and I know the episodes better than any other series (besides, if I wrote for every fandom I have, I'd never do anything else. ) But drabbles don't require much commitment. Besides, it's scary writing for characters you've never written for before, because you never know if you'll get them right. I've got a pretty good handle on Gambit, Purdey and Steed. Kate's a wildcard for me! And the only person I'd shown it to wasn't familiar with the series, so it's really gratifying to hear fans of the series like it. Class Act gets so little love, anyway--it deserves more attention! But I'm glad it seemed to fit. You can see my Jack bias in it, can't you? Like Gambit, he deserves more love than he gets. Anyway, I think it's implied Kate's eyes have opened by the end of the show. I'm glad you guys liked it! Thanks for all the kind words.

I'll dig out the press pack as soon as I can, but it might be sometime next week before you see it here. Lots to scan and lots of digging through my stuff. But I'll get there. I promise.

Well, after much digging in my equivalent of the Disney vault (aka my Avengers collection storage tubs), I found my Class Act press pack (right at the verrrry bottom naturally, hanging out with my Avengers calendars). Looking at it now, it must have been released to coincide with season 2. It's not the world's most glamourour pack--a booklet of text in a folder with some pictures, but it's better than nothing. Apologies for the fact that the text is on a slant--it's hard to scan because the bookelet is stapled at one corner, and because I didn't want to fold/squish it while scanning, I had to let it skew a bit. All the text should be there, though--bios of all the actors and characters, as well as other people who worked on the show. I'd completely forgotten this was a Verity Lambert production!

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Class Act Press Pack

(Stuff is still being uploaded as of this post).

Oooh thank you

Philippa wrote:Oooh thank you

Share and enjoy! (The text is uploading right now).

Oh, very nice! Thank you!

Maartje wrote:Oh, very nice! Thank you!

No problem! Photobucket is uploading now. Reallly slowly.

Darn it! My scanner has been really stupid lately, and it keeps telling me it has the text documents, but I can't find them anywhere. First it didn't want to scan them at all. So I may have to do the booklet all over again another day if I can't straighten it out. Sorry. Argh!

Oh, that's Ok, take your time.

Maartje wrote:Oh, that's Ok, take your time.

It's my darn scanner. It's just been acting really weird. Argh, argh, argh.