Gail Trimble

Television Heroes: Abigail's Party

Sometimes television shows go right into mythology. Most of these shows happened, it has to be said, when there wasn't much on. But the teleplay, Abigail's Party, is still a raved-about classic. From the pen of kitchen-sink dramatist and film-maker Mike Leigh, it debuted on BBC in 1977 and nailed a stereotype of upwardly-mobile middle-English pretention. Beverly (the amazing Alison Steadman) and Laurence invite new neighbours, Angela and Tony, over for drinks, along with divorced neighbour Sue, whose 15-year-old daughter Abigail is hosting a party down the road. The alcohol loosens tongues as the couples make small talk, squabble and flirt and the evening culminates in disaster. Despite a touch of classism and misanthropy, it's as painfully wonderful a viewing experience as you could hope for. Ever after, leather-bound books, Demis Roussos records, and cheese and pineapple nibbles became associated with a sort of low-rent nouveau riche tastelessness, and the story of desperation and social embarrassment set the tone for everything from Alan Partridge to The Office to, well, the last dinner-party I hosted.

Television Heroes 2: Gail Trimble

Jeremy Paxman himself seemed stunned by the incredible brain of Gail Trimble (left), captain of the team that won University Challenge last week. The Latin scholar from Corpus Christi answered about two-thirds of her team's questions over the course of the competition, making such an impression on those classy gents from Nuts magazine that they offered her the opportunity to be involved in a "tasteful" photo-shoot. Then all the usual bigots and misogynists crawled out of their holes to take pot shots at her for being very intelligent and "the cleverest contestant ever", which, if you've been paying attention to Paxman's Victorian adventures, is meant to be something only wealthy male polymaths are meant to be.

This made the internet confused and it dealt with this problem by having an argument with itself about whether Trimble was hot or not. I think Trimble got it right when she said, "It is nice when people are saying nice things about my appearance, and not nasty things, but it's sad that they feel it necessary to say things about my appearance at all."