Joanna Lumley

Before Ab Fab and national treasurehood, Joanna Lumley was in some pretty ropey things and before that she was a mildly exploited swingin' London model. Her directorial debut in the Little Crackers series looked back at that period but what charm it possessed was spoiled by the unnecessary behind-the-scenes report which followed, adding nothing but gush.

In her at once frothy and bleak episode of Little Crackers - a Sky1 strand of short autobiographical dramas directed by a different star each night - Joanna Lumley sought to persuade us that as a teenage model she had been a) gawky and shy, and b) routinely called ugly by photographers.

These two ideas may sound no more believable than wrestling, but in interviews she's insisted they're true. Apparently in the Sixties all female models were taunted by the men taking their picture. "Close those legs," sneered the photographer in Lumley's short, "I know you're not used to it."

In those days, fashion photographer was the ideal job for a misogynist, allowing him simultaneously to ogle and bully women without fear of reprisal. In Lumley's short, though, there was reprisal, in the form of a magazine editor who fired the photographer after he bullied the teenage heroine. The editor was played by Lumley. Effectively she'd arrived from the future to save herself.

After the success of Chris O'Dowd's Moone Boy and Kathy Burke's Walking And Talking it was hard not to expect big things from Sky1's latest lot of Little Crackers.

But I can't see any of this year's first batch making it to a full series. Joanna Lumley's much-hyped look back at her early modelling days was particularly uninspiring. But with efforts from the likes of Paul O'Grady, Sharon Horgan and Jason Manford still to come this week perhaps we shouldn't give up all hope just yet.

Sky's seasonal Little Crackers series returned with an autobiographical short about a Sixties model, directed by Joanna Lumley, who took a small cameo role herself as a fashion magazine grande dame. "Baby, Be Blonde" was an innocent affair, as guileless as a teen-magazine photo-romance. It told the story of a Lumley-like ingénue, briefly tempted by the magical glamour conferred on her by her new blond wig (suddenly men are whistling at her in the street) but then rebelling against the oafish sexism of a Baileyesque photographer, in the interests of sisterhood and solidarity. Lumley went through all this at the time, so I guess she's got the details right. But I still found it tricky to buy the notion of the hottest young snapper on the block doing a shoot for a knitting pattern catalogue.

Sky's star-filled success story of recent years has been this yuletide anthology, a sprinkling of cheer across the festive schedules. Two of the autobiographical shorts have even sired fantastic series - Kathy Burke's Walking and Talking and Chris O'Dowd's Moone Boy.

The third series opens by whisking us back to the swinging and sexist Sixties. Baby, Be Blonde sees the young Joanna Lumley (played with wide-eyed charm by newcomer Ottilie Mackintosh) contending with haircuts and wig-fittings before her jittery first assignment.

Daniel Ings is uproariously awful as a photographer who marshals his models like animals ("Put the hippo at the back"). And Lumley, making her directorial debut as well as a cameo as a dragonish fashionista, reveals the facts behind the fun in a 15-minute look behind the scenes. The next Little Cracker, featuring Rebecca Front, is on Sky1 tomorrow.

The swinging, sexist '60s are brought to life by Joanna Lumley in her vaguely autobiographical debut behind the camera, launching another series of short comedies for Sky1. The story of young Joanna's (Ottilie Mackintosh) journey from eager-to-please young model to wiser, bolshier woman is a slight one, leaning heavily on the marvellous, hits-heavy soundtrack and featuring a couple of odd lighting decisions from the tyro director. But it's gently endearing and Mackintosh is a winning lead. Shame, then, that the final 15 minutes is taken up by a 'making of' which, quite frankly, we could have lived without. As charming as Lumley undoubtedly is, the levels of luvviedom hit toxic in short order.

A welcome return for the seasonal series of cheery autobiographical shorts, each one bringing to life an anecdote from the youthful days of a sackful of star celebs. Pulling the first of this year's Crackers is national treasure Joanna Lumley, who draws on her modelling roots to play a magazine editor taking charge at a photoshoot, with newcomer Ottilie Mackintosh facing the daunting task of posing as the 19-year-old Lumley.

Joanna Lumley directs this vignette from the early days of her modelling career. Aspiring model Jo arrives in 1960s London, where no one will take her seriously until she forks out for a pricey blonde wig. Sure enough, an oily snapper called Dan takes a shine to her new Aryan incarnation and she starts getting bookings. These shorts are always best for the mini making-of documentary afterwards where the featured "famous" talks us through the process of going behind the camera.

The seasonal return of the Little Crackers series, which features comedy shorts based on the autobiographical recollections of various actors and comedians. Previous participants have included Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, Jack Whitehall and Sheridan Smith. This latest series begins with Joanna Lumley's Baby, Be Blonde, in which the 19-year-old Jo (Ottilie Mackintosh) is a struggling model who gets a break when she buys a blonde wig. "It didn't, but it made me feel that I had changed the course of my life," says Lumley in the behind-the-scenes film which follows the short. Also starring this week in later episodes are Rebecca Front and Caroline Quentin.

Joanna Lumley to become a TV director

Joanna Lumley plans to turn her back on acting - to become a TV director. The Absolutely Fabulous star got behind the camera for the first time for the new series of Sky1 drama Little Crackers. She loved it so much she now does not want to go back to being in front of the camera.