A Passionate Woman Fails to Spark

With a title like A Passionate Woman (BBC1) and with Billie Piper, fresh from Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, in the title role, it seemed fair to expect the screen to steam up with some good old-fashioned post-war rumpy pumpy. But something about this doomed period romance failed to spark. It wasn’t Piper’s fault. She was the picture of let-me-at-’im libido the minute her dowdy Betty clapped eyes on hunky charmer Craze at the local dancehall.
We were in grim-up-North 1950s Leeds, a land of freezing flats,frustrated marriages and small-minded anti-Semitism.
So it was no wonder the rather too perfectly formed Craze (Theo James, with gym-buff body and perfect teeth – not really a 1950s look) caused something of a stir.
To the endlessly repeated refrain of old Johnny Mathis ditty A Certain Smile, Betty and Craze embarked on an affair we knew was ill-fated from the outset, given that he copped a bullet in the opening credits and the whole thing was told in flashback.
Blocking their route to happiness was the fact they were both trapped in entirely implausible marriages to people they didn’t like, let alone love.
Read the rest of the review here

A Passionate Woman - BBC1 9.00

Don't forget you can catch Billie in A Passionate Woman on BBC1 tonight at 9.00pm! Don't miss it!

Embarrassing Pop Career

Billie Piper has confessed that she is embarrassed about her music career.
Piper landed her first number one with ‘Because We Want To’ when she was 15 but revealed that she now refuses to let people listen to her records.
“I don’t play my songs to anyone,” the Daily Star quotes her as saying. “It’s one of those things I lock in a box.”
Piper also ruled out working on more music in the future.
“There’s not enough money in the world to get me singing again,” she admitted. “I would be happy to turn down a million.”

Press Pack Interview

From hooker to housewife, Billie Piper’s latest role finds her as a 1950s newlywed trapped in a loveless relationship in A Passionate Woman, screening on BBC One on Sunday, April 11 at 9pm…

Tell us about A Passionate Woman, your new TV role…
“I play Betty, a young woman. She’s a very poor woman and she’s first-time married, and a mother. She is very much a woman of the time – very ordered, proper, buttoned up. She’s close with her husband but it’s a very old-fashioned relationship – he’s at work all day, he doesn’t talk to her, doesn’t ask her how she’s doing. She is completely bowled over by this polish neighbour, Craze, who moves in. They fall in love and begin this obsessive, passionate affair.”

A true story?
“It’s written by Kay Mellor [Fat Friends] and loosely based on an affair her own mother had in the 1950s, which she never confessed to until the 1980s. The second episode of the story jumps forward to the 80s, where Betty is played by Sue Johnston.”

Did you meet Sue to talk about your character?
“Briefly, we lived next to each other while our parts of the shoot overlapped. She’s lovely, smart and a really savvy actress. I was thrilled to be playing the younger version of her.”

Betty is a far cry from your other role – Belle in Secret Diary of a Call Girl…
“Yes! That’s why I wanted to do it. I get offered a lot of naked roles – feisty nurses, women dressed only in their bras! That’s it for me for now! That’s my life! But I want to different parts, and this is radically different.”

Did you relate to Betty as a young mother yourself?
“Yes. I’ve just had my first son Winston and I’m newly married [to Lewis actor, Laurence Fox], so I could completely relate to Betty. But nowadays we have opportunities to go out and work and socialise and we’re constantly banging on about how we feel. Back then it was a taboo.”

What’s coming up for you? There are lots of rumours that you’re off to America?
“I’m going out there to sniff around and see what there is. I get sent a lot of scripts from America, but I get so spoiled here with meaty, rounded parts, I don’t get that with American scripts. We’re working on what we’re going to do now but I’d quite like to stay at home and be with my son for a bit!”

BBC Breakfast

Billie was on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning talking about A Passionate Woman, the new Doctor Who and more, and looked wonderful!
If you missed it, you can watch it here

Two Years Old

CrazyBoutBillie has now been online and keeping you all updated in the wonderful world of Billie for two years! In that time we have seen her make a comeback to Doctor Who, in series four and again in David Tennant's last episode on New Years Day, we have celebrated the birth of her first child Winston James, and seen her take on many other projects including A Passionate Woman and series three of Secret Diary of a Call Girl. We'd just like to say thank you for everyone that visits this site and hopefully it will keep going for a long while yet!

Billie's Baby Blues

Doting mum Billie Piper has admitted struggling with postnatal depression following her son’s birth.
The pretty actress hit rock- bottom when she returned to work as a screen prostitute on hit TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl. It was five months after her difficult 26-hour labour and emergency Caesaraen to have baby Winston. But the determined star, 27, refused to take any medication for her baby blues.
Describing her ordeal she said: “The doctor said I had post-natal depression.
“Secret Diary was a stressful time. I had started leaving Winston. I was finishing breast-feeding, which is really emotional.
Billie, who had Winston in October 2008, has battled mental illness before. She previously admitted suffering anorexia when she hit the pop charts aged 15, and when her marriage to Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans fell apart.
Now wed to Lewis actor Laurence Fox, 31, she insists she is happier than ever.

You can read the rest of the interview here

American Move?

Billie Piper has revealed that she would think about moving to America in the future.
The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl star explained that she would have to be offered good roles before she would consider moving across the Atlantic. According to The Mirror, she said: “At the moment it’s unlikely, because my son Winston is so young and I’m getting work in Britain of a high quality.
“But if the parts I were being offered in America were really good then yes, I would definitely consider moving.”
Piper continued: “At the moment what I’m being offered is four scenes as someone’s girlfriend in a sitcom, if I’m lucky. But if that changes, if the roles in the US become good and substantial, I would consider moving.”