Lip service how many episodes in season 1

For Frankie it's time to confront her family, herself and her relationship with her ex-love, Cat. Cat 29 , is an architect who has finally plucked up the courage to re-enter the dating scene and meets a loyal, feisty and funny cop, Sam Their relationship blossoms Sam offers Cat everything the wild, capricious Frankie couldn't but simmering below the surface for both Frankie and Cat is an enduring love and passion that cant be ignored.

Tess is an actress, who is fast approaching 30 with no career, money or love life. Like Frankie and Cat, she wants to learn from the past and find happiness but are they all destined to make the same mistakes again?

Funny, irreverent and moving, Lip Service follows the interwoven love-lives of Frankie, Cat and Tess, building to a poignant and dramatic finale. Did you know Edit. Trivia The cast were given a book about lesbian sex which they were expected to read prior to filming. User reviews 17 Review. Top review. At that moment, you might wonder whether you ought to keep watching.

But at the same time, the acting and characterization offer a connection to a group of friends whose real-life counterparts are often low-key and underrepresented, partly to allow for survival and a minimum of harassment. So if you're like me, you'll so want to know and spend time with those characters that you'll keep watching.

Some critics have complained of an absence of "butch lesbians" in the series, which they say favors the "lipstick" kind, but I think they're wrong. I wonder whether the people who say that understand what television representation is or what the culture really involves. First of all, not everyone is the same; some deliberately androgynous female wooers do wear lipstick sometimes rock stars can be better role models than, say, truck drivers for a player -- if you doubt it, ask Joan Jett.

Second, the figures whom one recognizes from real life, and who are often called butch by the very people who desire them, seem lovingly represented on this show -- though, like characters on all TV shows, they are of course conventionally attractive.

That's only to be expected on any show: Heather Peace might have broad shoulders, but she also has an angelic face. One of them, Frankie, must come to terms with her life as she tries to care for the woman she loves in the way in which she herself was not cared for. The damage has just as much to do with prejudice, and others' rejection of her as a person, as it does the aftermath of childhood. Perhaps you can relate. I was very happy to see butch women represented in Lip Service by two of the main characters, just as I was to see classically feminine characters suffer for being themselves as well.

You feel for them, but you also understand that it's better to understand pain than overlook it. There are infinite variations and additions to archetypes in any community of individuals, as anyone with an imagination will have guessed. Lip Service seems to present them to the general public without insulting the demographic it represents.

I did find the show titillating as its creators intended — "let's excite our gay audience in a way that also excites straight viewers" — but I see that as a way to introduce the idea of shows like this, so that women in relationships that exclude men — even when they aren't gorgeous and in their 20s and 30s — can become accepted and included more often in mainstream shows over time.

Pity there were only two seasons. I'd have loved to see a third. Details Edit. Release date October 12, United Kingdom. United Kingdom. Technical specs Edit. Runtime 1 hour. Related news. Tess reassures her and tells her to go and try to have fun. Cat enters the pub, but can't see her date and orders a drink. Looking very uncomfortable, she takes off her bag and coat, reapplying her make-up. Tess bemoans how she can't chat people up and Ed tells her loads of people want to shag her.

Frankie notices Ed's inferrence and tells Tess that she's sure that there's someone in the bar right now that would want to get their hands on her. Jay checks out a girl as Becky Love , his girlfriend, arrives and tells him that it's a gay bar and she's probably wondering why he's staring at her.

She introduces herself and offers to buy the next round. Cat and Sam Murray meet for the first time. A call comes through for Tess from Cat, who is fretting because her date hasn't arrived and she wonders if she's been stood up.

Unfortunately while she's worrying about her date on the phone, Sam Murray arrives and overhears some of the conversation about Cat making her excuses and leaving. She slips in a sardonic remark about Cat making excuses but other than that doesn't take too much offence and buys her another drink despite Cat's idiosyncrasies. As Sam goes to the bar, Cat tells Tess that she's made a complete tit of herself.

Tess tells her to calm down and Cat downs her wine, replying that she's totally calm. Tess re-enters the club after hanging up and Becky makes conversation about Cat's blind date.

Frankie takes offense at one of her comments and Jay tells his girlfriend that she was tactless. Becky insults Frankie for leaving Cat after persuading her to leave her girlfriend and Ed promises that if she messes Cat around again, she'll have him to deal with.

Jay and Tess laugh at his expense and the group wonder how she's getting on. The date is very awkward, Cat is unrelaxed and nervous despite her glass of wine. She commits a major faux-pas by unintentionally insulting the police and Sam tries to smooth it over by joking about beating up suspects with bags of oranges.

Cat is appalled, genuinely taking her seriously for a moment before she tells her awkwardly that she's joking. Cat laughs and infers that she herself is violent before backtracking and unintentionally seguing into talking about Frankie.

Thankfully Sam's phone rings before Cat can make a bigger fool of herself and she is called in to work. She leaves and it's painfully obvious that a second date is not on the cards.

Frankie and Jay talk about 'special friends' and Frankie teases him about never getting to see anyone else naked now that he's committed to Becky. Cat enters the bar just as Ed and Tess return with more drinks, but when she sees Frankie downing a shot she quickly leaves again. The next day, Ed and Tess are dressed as fizzy drink cans outside a John Lewis.

They banter about his grandparents' sex life and Lou Foster , the TV presenter making a special appearance at this event. Jay is at the office, obviously hungover when Cat strides up to him and confronts him about Frankie.

She learns that Frankie is in Glasgow because her aunt died and feels terrible. Tess is in the toilet texting when she hears someone crying. It turns out to be Lou Foster and Tess consoles her; telling her that she cries in appropriate places all the time, like auditions. Lou tells her that her boyfriend dumped her and went back to his wife and complains about men. Tess replies that women aren't much better and shares her own sob story.

She heads back to the drink stand and Ed, telling Lou to come over if she needs cheering up or gets bored. Frankie enters a funeral home, asking to see her aunt's body. The receptionist Carla compliments her tattoo and Frankie tells her that it's the Japanese symbol for lust.

They flirt a little before Frankie goes to see her aunt's body. Back at the event, Ed and Tess are chatting about Lou when the woman herself interrupts them. Tess is very at ease, convinced that Lou is straight; she makes lots of jokes. Lou seems much more interested in her than Ed and doesn't even remember his name. Once she's gone, Ed tells Tess that she never notices when people like her blatantly referring to himself as well as Lou.

Frankie is at her aunt's coffin and visibly upset that she is dead. Her uncle and cousin enter and it's clear that Frankie doesn't get on with her uncle. They argue and Frankie asks if he knew what her aunt wanted to tell her before she died. He hadn't known that her aunt had left her a message. Frankie leaves and goes to a toilet where she breaks down crying. Cat arrives at the funeral home where she bumps into Frankie, who throws Cat's previous remark about stalking people back at her.

Frankie asks her why she cares that Frankie's aunt died and Cat gives her a choice; Frankie can be nice, or she can leave. They exit the funeral home together. Back at the event, Ed and Tess are packing up for the day and going for a curry and a vat of wine when Lou runs up to Tess. She invites her out for a drink and Tess asks her to come with her and Ed, but Ed excuses himself and Lou and Tess are left alone to go to a bar.

Frankie and Cat sit on a step in a park, talking about Frankie's aunt. Frankie invites Cat to her aunt's funeral and the two reminisce about their younger days. Frankie admits to missing Cat and Cat replies the same. Frankie tries to kiss her, but Cat is upset, berating her for her escape to New York and remembering that Frankie is bad news. She leaves. At a bar, Lou is flirting heavily with Tess, hands on both her knees, complimenting her acting. Tess offers her another drink but Lou invites her back to her place instead.

Frankie re-enters the funeral home and implies that she wants to sleep with the receptionist. Outside, Cat asks a stranger for a cigarette even though she's given up, then realises that she's left her wallet behind at the funeral home. Lou is on the phone but she doesn't seem keen to talk to the person on the other end and she hangs up to 'entertain' Tess. Tess spies a talking robot and fiddles with it, not noticing how keen Lou is to get her hands on her now that they're alone.

Lou eventually kisses her and Tess drops the talking robot and knocks over a lamp with her head. The robot keeps talking as they make out so Lou stamps on it.

Cat goes back into the funeral home which is now in darkness, searching for her wallet. It isn't on the front desk, but she hears noises down the stairs and goes down to presumably find someone to help with her lost wallet.

However, she walks in on Frankie fingering Carla the receptionist next to a dead body, which Frankie makes a crude comment about. The whole set-up is clearly for Cat's benefit, but she walks away without saying anything, running to get out of the funeral home and into the street. When Carla and Frankie are done, Carla asks for Frankie's number but she says that Carla doesn't want it. Frankie walks out into the street, pretending not to notice Cat standing just outside crying with a hand over her mouth.

The opening episode received mixed reviews from critics. Claudia Cahalane of The Guardian wrote that it was "hugely significant" for a drama to normalise lesbian and bisexual relationships, citing a study of BBC output which found that lesbians contributed to just two minutes of programming from a randomly selected 39 hours of broadcasts.

While Cahalane expressed disappointment that the episode did not represent butch lesbians, she deemed it "important to recognise Lip Service for the great service it's doing to British lesbians. He expressed sympathy for the "clearly talented" cast, opining: "In trying to make a point about the importance of engaging with lesbian issues, this show ends up trivialising them.

The lesbians are presented to us not as interesting people, or characters who warrant sympathy; rather, they matter purely because of their sexual preferences. That is immature, patronising, and unrealistic. Lip Service Wiki Explore. Wiki Content. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Edit source History Talk 0. Categories Episode Series 1 Episode Add category. Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki. Episode Guide.