'Funny Woman' Season 2's Trailer Introduces BBC Star Sophie Straw

PBS introduced Funny Woman to the American public a year ago, in January 2024. The somewhat awkwardly titled series (based on the Nick Hornby book Funny Girl, necessitating alterations) stars Gemma Arterton (The Critic) as Barabra Parker, 1960s Blackpool Beauty Queen, who has plans to take her success on the beauty circuit and parlay it into a career on television. This being the U.K. in the mid-1960s, that means breaking into the boy's club at the BBC. (As Nolly somewhat failed to teach us, the competition that eventually merged into ITV was far more cut-throat and willing to use every loophole to keep from paying their talent a living wage.) 

Season 1 followed Parker's journey as she was transformed into "Sophie Straw" by her greaseball "agent," who then refused to send her on auditions. That forced her to take matters into her own hands, landing a gig as the co-star in a romantic sitcom and falling in love with her co-star. However, when she discovers him cheating, she turns the tables on her leading man and emerges as the star of her own show.

Season 2 opens with Sophie Straw, now the toast of Aunty Beeb's lineup, with a show taped live before a studio audience. However, the law of show business is that you're only as good as your last gig, and when that gig suddenly dries up... well, it's time to find a new frontier to explore. Where else would a massive star with a fantastic wardrobe go but France?

Here's the Season 2 synopsis:

The second series finds Sophie on a high. She is the nation’s favorite TV comedy star; she’s got a group of good friends, and her romance with Dennis is full of promise. But trouble is just around the corner: Dennis's divorce will take three years; Sophie’s new sitcom flops, and she uncovers a devastating family secret.  Sophie escapes the turmoil by taking a leading role in a film opposite a glamorous French movie heartthrob. The film is a hit, and Sophie’s slick new US agent offers her a fresh start in Hollywood, but Sophie returns to London, determined to get the gang back together and to create a new show that reflects her real life and challenges outdated cultural conventions.

Arterton is once again joined by Clare-Hope Ashitey (Top Boy), Alexa Davies (COBRA), Matthew Beard (Vienna Blood), Leo Bill (Becoming Elizabeth), Arsher Ali (Everyone Else Burns), Emily Bevan (The Full Monty), Alistair Petrie (Sex Education), David Threlfall (Passenger), Olivia Williams (Dune: Prophecy), Rosie Cavaliero (Gentleman Jack), and Doon Mackichan (Good Omens). Season 2 additions include Gemma Whelan (D.I. Ray), Marcus Rutherford (The Wheel of Time), Lydia Leonard (Ten Percent), Tim Key (Wicked Little Letters), Roisin Conaty (After Life), Rory Keenan (The Regime), Lydia Wilson (Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue), Jack Docherty (Monarch of the Glen), Josie Lawrence (Father Brown), and Steve Zissis (The Changeling).

All four of Funny Woman's Season 2 installments are written by Morwenna Banks (Slow Horses), with Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley (Veep). Oliver Parker (The Great Escaper) directs all episodes. The new series is executive produced by Banks, Arterton, and Hornby, with Andrea Calderwood, Gail Egan, Jessica Parker, and Jessica Malik. 

Funny Woman Season 2 will arrive on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel at 10 p.m. on Sunday, February 2, 2025, taking over from Vienna Blood Season 4. All four episodes will be available as a binge on premiere day for PBS Passport members.