Lacey Turner In Our Girl

Last night, Lacey Turner starred in BBC One's one off drama, Our Girl. It was a very moving programme, where a teenage girl from East London joins the British Army, leaving her not so good start in life behind.

The Mirror has written about Lacey's interview with Take It Easy magazine, discussing her role in Our Girl. Click here to read the article.

Lacey provided fantastic acting in the army drama. She made the part really believable and gave the 5.3 million viewers a good insight into what joining the army is really like. In the article, Lacey suggests that the drama reflects reality in the armed forces, after observing training in Pirbright: "I spoke to some of the girls there and it was a real eye opener. There were so many young girls who were only five foot four like me, tiny little things." 

The BBC One show also portrayed life as a working class family living in London. Relationships between Lacey's character, Molly, and her family became apparent and as a viewer, I empathised with her. These relationships develop and evolve throughout the ninety minutes, making it an emotional watch. To add to this, there's a twist at the end of the drama tricking the viewer, which I thought was a clever and effective end to the story.

If you haven't already seen Our Girl, I definitely recommend it. 

Abbey Hartley

The Guardian's Interview With Louise Court: My Opinion

The Guardian: "Cosmopolitan's editor-in-chief discusses why feminism is still a taboo subject for many people and while some battles have been won, there are still many to come. She also talks about how she experienced sexism while working for a newspaper in the 80s and looks at the challenges presented by the changes in how people consume media today."

Click here to view The Guardian's interview with Louise Court.

 I have many opinions on the views expressed in this interview. I am a big fan of Cosmopolitan and find it interesting to hear the editor-in-chief's thoughts. Firstly, I completely agree with Louise, when she says that we need to "get women in more senior positions" within the media such as newspapers, magazines and advertising. I think it is important to have a gender balance in senior media roles. In the future, I hope to be one of these women who helps decrease the male domination of the industry. 

The topic of feminism is discussed in the interview. I believe feminism is not over and should still exist even if there are many negative connotations linked to the notion. Many individuals feel that men and women are now equal, I however do not. The fact that there are more males in senior media positions is just one example of gender inequality. As Louise says, "It's really important to remind people that actually we've won some battles, but there's a lot more battles to be won."

The interview goes on to talk of declining print readership in newspaper and magazine publications, but Louise speaks of the changes optimistically: "I think the exciting thing about a massive brand like Cosmo is that our audience is growing all the time. We've increased our audience by one million over the last year through digital editions, growing on our website, social media." I also think the growth of online resources is exciting and positive. It allows newspapers and magazines to reach even more audiences and different types of people through various platforms. However, I hope that print publications do not become extinct in this media revolution.

Abbey Hartley