Personal Affairs


Personal Affairs is a 2009 British television comedy-drama series, broadcast on BBC Three. It starred Annabel Scholey, Laura Aikman, Maimie McCoy and Ruth Negga as four City of London Personal Assistants looking for their lost friend Grace Darling.

Production

The interior scenes were filmed at the BBC Scotland drama studios in Dumbarton, whilst most of the exterior scenes were filmed in London.

Cast

Main

The PAs
  • Annabel Scholey – Michelle "Midge" Lerner
  • Laura Aikman – Lucy Baxter
  • Maimie McCoy – Nicole Palmerston-Amory
  • Ruth Negga – Doris "Sid" Siddiqi
  • Olivia Grant – Grace Darling
  • Jamie Davis – Robbie Gascoigne
The Bosses
  • Robert Gant – Rock van Gelder
  • Darren Boyd – Simon Turner
  • Emily Bruni – Rachel Klein
  • Archie Panjabi – Jane Lesser
  • Mark Benton – Iain Ebelthite

    Supporting

Recurring:
  • Kieran Bew – Avi, Midge's first ever boyfriend
  • Joe Absolom – Bob Baxter, Lucy's husband
  • Al Weaver – Crawford, Sid's first love
  • Ben Lloyd-Hughes – Dominic "Fitz" Fitzwallace
  • Anna Kerth – babysitter,
Minor:
  • Annette Badland – Maihri Crawford, Crawford's mother

    Episodes

Series One

The theme used during the title sequence is 21st Century Life by Sam Sparro.
NB. On the DVD and outside the UK, Series One comprises the six episodes listed here. However, only five episodes were broadcast in the UK. The Episode One BBC3 audiences saw was a 70-minute edited version of "A Decent Proposal" and "Baby Boom or Bust", with 50 minutes cut.

Reception

The series was panned by most reviewers. Alison Graham of the Radio Times called it "life-sappingly dreadful" and asked, "how did a series so crunchingly awful actually make it to a television screen?" Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent described it as "Enid Blyton with added shagging", concluding: "It's terrible, but every now and then it glints oddly in the light in a way that makes it hard to write it off entirely."