Secret Diary of a Call Girl

 _****

A day in the life of a high-class prostitute involves a great number of rules to separate the fantasy life of Belle de Jour from the real life of Hannah Baxter. While Hannah is free to do as she pleases, under the guise of a legal secretary, Belle is forced to succumb to the whims of her clients and become the woman they need her to be at any given moment.

I am familiar with Billie Piper (Hannah/Belle) through the revival of Doctor Who, and have been aware of of her more risque role in this series, but have only seen a limited number of episodes to date. While a part of me is interested to see how well Piper manages in a role so different from that of the Doctor's Rose Tyler, I'm also intrigued at how the series will approach the idea of her role as an escort and whether its portrayal of the job will be shown in a positive or negative light.

Common among many programs in the aughts, I feel that the breaking of the fourth wall, as done in this show, is probably the least offensive to me. While the Office carries on with the pretense of a nine-year documentary, it hasn't felt genuine for a number of years now; Modern Family has taken the concept of the 'talking head' moments, as though it were a documentary, and uses them as a tool to speak to the audience, though I personally find it more puzzling than artful. Here the moments are presented in a way that could just be Hannah speaking to herself, almost as though she's reminding herself of the rules and regulations of her trade, and we, as the audience, just happen to be privy to those moments. It works for me in this series because I imagine that she's dictating this story to herself while she's writing her memoirs, and, from a writing standpoint, I find that far less off-putting than the other options the director could have chosen.

I also like that Hannah is such a strong-willed person; she isn't afraid to ask for what she needs, like when she considered adding more pixels to her photo on the escort website in order to better conceal her identity, and she fights for what she wants, as presented when she demanded a second opportunity to meet with the client who ran out on her. It's also commendable that, as the episode closes, she notes that the client had wanted Hannah rather than Belle, noting that that would cause a danger to the separation of her lives, thus refusing a situation that wouldn't sit right.

The most glaring issue that I have with this series is the run-time; it might be the North American in me that thinks dramas should have hour-long episodes, but it just seems that there is so much more story to tell than the twenty-two minutes allotted us. Granted, that may also be because of the great amount of set-up that needed to be done during this episode.

When Belle's client ran out on her in the middle of a sex act, I assumed that we would see that she wasn't always capable of pleasing her clients, and I think that that would have been a very interesting story to chase. We can clearly see that she is a gorgeous woman, so it feels like an opportunity was missed to see Belle struggle with the fact that not everyone is going to find her desirable. While I do think it was good that she questions what she did wrong, and later dresses herself down to meet with him again, it just could have been a chance for Hannah to question whether or not she's cut out for the job she's taken.

Piper does a phenomenal job juggling multiple personalities is this episode, acting as Hannah, Belle, Belle-as-Hannah, Hannah-as-fake-fiancee, her own business manager, the compliant employee, and any number of roles that her clients request her to be. Piper is very calculated in her choice of movement and seems to make it clear when Hannah is in control versus when it is Belle that she is drawing upon in any given scene.

The directing of Yann Demange is very fluid, almost stylized, as the camera sways and tilts to the movements of Belle de Jour. When Piper is acting as Belle, the camera follows her very explicitly, moving in an almost sensual way to allow us to see Belle as she would have her clients see her, but the camera reverts back to a more traditional role when following Piper as Hannah. Demange did a good job of showing us just enough of the action to know what was happening, but without making things feel pornographic; it's a good way to make it clear that Belle isn't attempting to make her clients feels as though they are in an x-rated film, but trying to give them a brief moment in time that they might not otherwise find. The moments between the sheets are kept titillating without being so excessive to the story that we grow tired of seeing the characters undress.

Lucy Prebble's writing makes it clear that, when Belle meets with her clients, it isn't about sex, it's about the need to feel desired in ways that aren't always offered; it's the fantasy and the gratification that many people only wish for. It's interesting that Hannah finds herself getting lost in one of her clients fantasies, after realizing that he wants a girl more like her than Belle, and she accidentally reveals her real name while cooing on about palindromes; it was a rare occasion wherein she let her guard down and immediately she makes sure to remove herself from repeating that situation with him again.

This series is doing a good job of balancing the lives of Hannah and Belle with a strong emphasis on the importance of keeping the two separate from each other. While the first episode leans slightly toward the exploitative side, showing only the more glamorous side of the job, it is only the first episode I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that, as the series progresses, this will be presented in a more balanced manner. I like that Hannah is clear that she isn't proud of what she does, but also makes no apologies for her occupation, either.

Secret Diary of a Call Girl is in the running to become the feature for Mondays. The series ran from 2007 to 2011 on ITV2 with a total of 32 episodes.