Up the Women

- Season 2

(2015)

Margaret proposes that the group goes on hunger strike to support their imprisoned sisters in London but is hampered by thoughts of buns and Gwen buying up all the stock when the local cheese shop closes down. The women encourage Thomas to propose to his adored Emily, whose mother Helen has arranged a marriage of convenience to wealthy Bertie Smuth. Thomas composes a love letter which, for all the wrong reasons, works to his advantage.

Delivering an earnest speech dedicated to novelist Elizabeth Gaskell Margaret hopes to recruit more women to her suffrage group but her audience prefers to imbibe Dr Hamm's Invigorator, containing cocaine and this, along with Emily's revolt against capitalist mother Helen, tends to dominate the evening. More importantly they take precedence over Helen's intended dinner party for the great and good and Gwen ends up by having her say.

As a protest against the exclusion of women from playing bowls Margaret plans to distribute leaflets during an international match at the local bowling green but when another suffragette group sabotages the green the tournament is held indoors. Two emancipated New Zealand entrants arrive and recruit the women as their substitutes but in the event the group finds the entire game extremely boring.

The women plan a trip to London by train but a more militant suffragette group has been arrested after plotting to kill Winston Churchill so they face a travel ban on all females. The solution is to assume male disguises and, once aboard the train, they see off any detractors but find a distinguished adversary is their fellow traveller.

The village hall is being used as a polling station for the general election though of course the women cannot vote. Margaret's proposed rules for passive resistance fall on deaf ears whilst Thomas invents an early version of a swing-o-meter. Then militant suffragette Betty arrives and locks them all in the hall as a protest. The women must combine to escape from Betty without being seen to collude in subverting the election whilst the heavily pregnant Eva has a baby to deliver.

Margaret has written a feminist pantomime, glorifying famous women but destroyed the script after criticism from her husband. With opening night rapidly approaching Eva comes up with her own play, based on Cinderella and called 'The Dirty Princess' but Margaret is annoyed that it has no social content and plans her own one woman show. However, after the suffragettes hear some upsetting news Margaret agrees to merge the two plays, resulting in a standing ovation and rapturous applause.