1: Bette Davis & Joan Crawford
It says 'blah, blah, blah, shameless showoff. Blah, Blah, blah, her watery bug eyes make me feel physically sick'. Their words, not mine. I think you're an absolutely splendid actress.
Easily the best sketch from the first series with an absolutely wonderfully barbed performance from both Frances Barber as Bette Davis and Mark Gatiss as Joan Crawford. Watching the two of them verbally and physically abuse each other in a series of sketches shouldn't have been as funny as it was but the two of them played off each other beautifully as the rival actresses revelled in using their achievements and personal failings as mothers to try and best the other. I am hoping we get another scene with those two in the second series.
2: Eva Braun
Any negatives?
He might be a tiny bit racist.
I never thought I'd get something of an insight into being the significant half of Adolf Hitler but with Catherine Tate, we found out that Eva Braun was a woman who had been trying to break from her previous relationship patterns when she hooked up with a certain Fuhrer as she tells Front's therapist about her man's love for painting, painting animals and how he commands respect and likes orders. However, she might have undersold his one glaring negative I think.
3: Cleopatra
So you're saying I should hit on him hard?
Oh dear. I know historically that Cleopatra was betrothed to one of her brothers before she ever got involved with Julius Caesar but seeing Sharon Horgan's lusty version of the Egyptian queen trying to get advice from the therapist on how to get her own brother into bed and ignoring her appalled therapist's advice against having a relationship with her sibling nonetheless. Cringey but certainly funny though.
4: The Bronte Sisters
It's her, in't it? She's so sodding uptight, she won't do anything. Won't go anywhere.
I've been to Brussels.
Yeah, but you came straight back, didn't ya?
Another highlight was having the likes of Katy Brand, Selina Griffiths and Sarah Solemani as the Bronte sisters during the most tense family therapy session going. Both Brand and Griffiths took centre stage in this one, while Solemani provided some great support as the more overlooked of the three sisters. I'm not sure if they needed the dolly like bodies for this sketch but it still worked a treat though.
5: Beatrix Potter
You know how pigs are. That earthy vernacular peculiar to their kind.
I know Selina Griffiths has appeared in this twice but her take on children's author Beatrix Potter and the rather acid trippy description of how the animals talk to her was really something to see. I certainly won't be able to look at one of her books in the same way ever again.
Of course, it was hard to pick a top 5 and I do feel bad ignoring the likes of Samantha Spiro and Julia Davis as well as the sketches featuring other historical characters such as Rosa Parks, Nina Simone, Joan Of Arc and Mary of Nazareth but as a series, this was shamelessly entertaining to watch and I can't wait to see who else winds up having to talk to Rebecca Front's therapist in the new series.
The new series of Psychobitches is coming to SkyArts soon. The first series can be seen online on the Sky website.
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