Monday Monday

Monday Monday is an ITV, UTV comedy drama. It stars Fay Ripley, Jenny Agutter, Neil Stuke, Holly Aird, Morven Christie, Tom Ellis, and Miranda Hart.

Monday Monday
Genre	Comedy drama
Written by	Ben Edwards[1] Rachel New[1] Jack Lothian[1] Malcolm Campbell[1] Harry Wootliff[1]
Directed by	Roger Goldby[1] Nick Laughland[1] Martin Dennis[1]
Starring	Fay Ripley Morven Christie Holly Aird
Composer	Simon Lacey[1]
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	7
Production
Executive producer	Margot Gavan Duffy[1]
Producer	Alison Davis[1]
Editors	Matthew Tabern[1] Peter Oliver[1] Steve Singleton[1]
Running time	45. minutes approx
Production company	Talkback Thames
Distributor	Fremantle
Release
Original network	ITV, UTV
First shown in	United Kingdom
Original release	13 July – 24 August 2009
External links
Website

It is set in the head office of a supermarket that has fallen on hard times and had to re-locate its staff from London to Leeds.[2] The show was initially announced as part of ITV's Winter 2007 press pack, but was "iced" until 2009 due to falling advertising in the wake of the economic downturn.[2][3]

Background

The show is named after The Mamas & the Papas song with the same name, though does not feature the song as a theme tune.

The show was commissioned by ITV's director of drama, Laura Mackie.[1] Mackie said that the show aimed to "entertain, engage and strike a chord with the audience".[1] Although the show was initially announced as part of ITV's Winter 2007 press pack, it was put on hold until 2009 due to falling advertising rates in the wake of the economic downturn.[2][3] According to Broadcast, the show aimed to "shed light on a world of alcoholic HR bosses, power-crazed managers and sexually unfettered PAs".[2]

Towards the end of the first episode, Christine is shown to be an alcoholic, which she eventually admits. As the series progresses the failing life of Christine becomes more central to the plot.

Plot

The show features a group of head office workers for struggling supermarket chain Butterworths.[4] As a result of downsizing, the workers are forced to move cities, relocating from London to Leeds.[2]

Cast

Management

• Clive Merrison – Gavin, Chairman, Butterworths Group
• Peter Wight – Roger Sorsby, Chief Executive of Butterworth's Stores
• Jenny Agutter – Jenny Mountfield, PA to Roger Sorsby
• Holly Aird – Alyson Cartmell, Chief Operating Officer
• Tom Ellis – Steven McColl, PA to Alyson Cartmell

Human Resources

• Fay Ripley – Christine Frances, Head of Human Resources
• Morven Christie – Sally Newman, PA to Christine
• Miranda Hart – Tall Karen, Office Assistant
• Jodie Taibi – Small Karen, Office Assistant

Marketing

• Neil Stuke – Max Chambers, Acting Head of Marketing
• Laura Haddock – Natasha Wright, Marketing Assistant (prev. PA to Vivienne Wyatt. With Vivienne off sick recovering from cancer, Natasha is seconded to Max Chambers)
• Saikat Ahamed – Vince, PA to Max Chambers & Natasha Wright (prev. PA to Max Chambers)

Finance

• Nick Sampson – Keith Saunders, Head of Finance

Building Services & Facilities Management

• Joan Oliver – Susan, Facilities Manager
• Susan Earl – Janet, Facilities Assistant

Shop Floor

• Sue Vincent – Helen, Bakery Manager
• Bruce McGregor – Greg, Fish Manager
• Richard Fleeshman – Gillon, Bakery Customer Service Assistant

The departments named above are the main departments focused on but other departments are mentioned or featured on presentations. They include:

• Contracts
• Sourcing
• IT
• Design
• Property
• International Sales
• National Sales

Butterworths Group PLC

Butterworths Head Office

The Head Office is arranged into a North Wing and a South Wing on all floors above the Lower Ground Floor.

• Lower Ground: Canteen, Building Services/Property/Facilities Management & Sourcing
• Ground Floor: Marketing (South) Meeting Area (North) & Reception/Security in Centre
• First Floor: Human Resources (South) Contracts (North)
• Second Floor: International Sales (South) Finance & Chief Executive's Office (North)
• Third Floor: National Sales (South) Design (North)

Other Services than Retail are Insurance Sales. Each department is managed by a Department Head and each department head has a personal assistant

Episodes

1. Episode 1 (13 July 2009)
2. Episode 2 (20 July 2009)
3. Episode 3 (27 July 2009)
4. Episode 4 (3 August 2009)
5. Episode 5 (10 August 2009)
6. Episode 6 (17 August 2009)
7. Episode 7 (24 August 2009)

Broadcast and reception

The show did not receive good reviews. Tim Walker of The Independent stated that the shows rival in the same timeslot, BBC One show The Street was "a darn sight more interesting than watching Fay Ripley walk into doors". Walker said that the show was filled with shots of Leeds, saying that the show was purely "advertising it as an attractive nightlife destination" or "to prove beyond doubt that ITV was fulfilling its obligations to the regions." (something that may have been fitting with ITV mothballing many parts of its Leeds Studios the same year).[5] Sam Wollaston of The Guardian also criticised the show saying that it was "lame and laboured, tired and predictable".[6]

The poor reception was reflected in the show's ratings, the show bringing in 3.7 million, a 16% viewing share, six percent and 1.3 million viewers lower than The Street. The show, however, was second in its timeslot, beating the other three terrestrial channels in the slot.[7] Despite being second in the timeslot, the show was down on the 5.6 million for ITV1's channel slot average so far in 2009.[8]

Not helping matters in terms of viewing figures was the fact that STV continued its recent trend of declining high-ticket ITV productions, thereby avoiding having to contribute to the production cost on a pro rata basis, and so Scottish viewers of terrestrial broadcasts were unable to view the series. The series average, based on overnight ratings was 2.90m, equating to a 13.2% viewing share.

	Date	Overnight rating (millions)	Share	Official rating (millions)[9]	Weekly rank	Source
Episode 1	13 July 2009	3.65	16.2%	3.81	19	[10]
Episode 2	20 July 2009	3.40	15.0%	3.20	24	[11]
Episode 3	27 July 2009	2.62	12.1%	n/a	30+	[12]
Episode 4	3 August 2009	2.63	12.2%	n/a	30+	[13]
Episode 5	10 August 2009	2.68	12.3%	2.69	28	[14]
Episode 6	17 August 2009	2.47	11.3%	2.54	29	[15]
Episode 7	24 August 2009	2.84	13.2%	2.86	24	[16]

International broadcasts

In Australia, this programme aired each Friday at 8:30pm on ABC2 from 28 January 2011.[17] In Serbia, this programme aired on Fox Life. In the United States the show is on Hulu.com and currently available via Netflix and YouTube.

References

1. "Monday Monday Press Pack Summer '09" (PDF). ITV/Talkback Thames. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
2. Rogers, Jessica (14 November 2007). "Shaps hails new era in ITV drama". Broadcast (subscription). EMAP. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
3. McMahon, Kate (11 February 2009). "ITV vows 'iced' dramas will go out this year". Broadcast (subscription). EMAP. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
4. "Monday Monday". ITV. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
5. Walker, Tim (14 July 2009). "Last Night's Television – Monday Monday, ITV1; The Street, BBC1". The Independent. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
6. Wollaston, Sam (14 July 2009). "Last night's TV: The Street, Monday Monday". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
7. Roberts, Tom (14 July 2009). "TV ratings: The Street cleans up amid news of likely demise". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
8. Rogers, Jon (14 July 2009). "BBC1 is right up the viewers' Street". Broadcast (subscription). EMAP. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
9. "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.
10. French, Dan (14 July 2009). "'The Street' return draws 5 million". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
11. Wilkes, Neil (22 July 2009). "Friel's 'Street' appearance draws 5.1m". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
12. French, Dan (29 July 2009). "Armstrong's 'Street' appearance draws 4.4m". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
13. French, Dan (4 August 2009). "1.6m discover 'The Trouble With Girls'". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
14. French, Dan (11 August 2009). "1.7 million go 'On Tour With The Queen'". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
15. French, Dan (18 August 2009). "1.7 million watch Andre 'Going It Alone'". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
16. French, Dan (25 August 2009). "'The Hotel Inspector' ends on series high". Digital Spy. Digital Spy Limited. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
17. "ABC2 Programming Airdate: Monday Monday (episode one)". ABC Television Publicity. 10 February 2011.