Kathy Burke: I hated Bridesmaids

Kathy Burke has said she can't understand why people loved Oscar-winning comedy Bridesmaids, because she hated it.

The Gimme, Gimme, Gimme star confessed she hates watching women being mean to one another on screen, and so she made sure the girls in her new four-part 70s series, Walking And Talking, got along.

Kathy said: "I wanted to show girls being kind to each other. I'm getting really fed up with the way that girls and women get portrayed a lot of the time."

"It's like everyone loving that film Bridesmaids, and I hated it. I thought, 'Oh right, so we've got to invest in these women because that one's more b****y than this one?'

"I'm really proud that I've written two lovely parts for two young actresses, where they don't have to take their clothes off, or smoke or do sex scenes, or anything like that."

Though she's known for the Waynetta Slob catchphrase "I am smokin' a fag" and refers to her Islington house as "the Big Smoke" (because it's the only place her friends can light up indoors), Kathy isn't a proud smoker, so there is no smoking in the show.

The funnywoman said she certainly didn't want the two young actresses Ami Metcalf and Aimee-Ffion Edwards to start under her watch.

She added: "And also audiences don't need to be patronised any more by being shown in period things how much people smoked."

:: Walking And Talking starts on Sky Atlantic on Monday, June 25.