The Headingley branch of Super Slimmers meets above a chippy where Alison Steadman's Betty presides like a matriarch with a past, Ruth Jones's bride-to-be Kelly obsesses over a too-small dress, and James Corden's Jamie, 15 in series one, contemplates suicide after playground taunts. Each 45-minute episode picks one member, exposing marriages cracking under lost pounds, acting jobs hinging on five less on the scales, or slimming pills mixed with vodka on a night out.
Kay Mellor wrote every instalment, weaving location shots of Midgley’s fish shop, Moor Grange, into scripts that send the group onto Trisha Goddard’s sofa, into health-spa photo shoots and to Spanish hotels won on daytime television. Janet Dibley's group leader Carol watches her own marriage collapse while policing everyone else's calories; Gaynor Faye's actress Lauren lands soap parts yet still hears "pudding" from her boyfriend; David Harewood arrives in series three as fitness instructor Max, turning Carol’s head and Kelly’s marriage upside-down.
ITV aired 25 episodes between 12 October 2000 and 24 March 2005, pulling 10.3 million for the opener and slipping below six by the final run. A 2017 stage musical with score by Nicholas Lloyd Webber opened at Leeds Grand Theatre before touring, proof that the club’s confessions still carry weight.
Production Details
ITV1 / 4 Seasons / 25 Episodes / 2000
Created by: Kay Mellor
Showrunner(s): Kay Mellor, Greg Brenman
Writer(s): Kay Mellor, Gaynor Faye, Katie Baxendale
Music: Mark Russell
Main Cast
Ruth Jones as Kelly Chadwick
Janet Dibley as Carol McGary
Alison Steadman as Betty Simpson
Gaynor Faye as Lauren Harris
James Corden as Jamie Rymer
Lisa Riley as Rebecca Patterson
Lynda Baron as Norma Patterson
Jonathan Ryland as Kevin Chadwick
Richard Ridings as Alan Ashburn
Kathryn Hunt as Val Lorrimer
David Harewood as Max Robertson
Barrie Rutter as Douglas Simpson
