Rules of the Game’s Maxine Peake says humour is often “written out of female stories”
The BAFTA winner has said that witty female characters are "quite rare" in TV dramas.
Rules of the Game star Maxine Peake has said that she's found witty female characters are hard to come by when looking at dramas and that a sense of humour is "written out of female stories" a lot of the time.
The BAFTA-winning actor is set to star in BBC One's upcoming thriller Rules of the Game – a four-parter about sexual politics in the modern workplace – as Sam, an executive manager working in a family-run business.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Peake said it was the "complex" characters in Rules of the Game that drew her to the BBC One drama, adding that female characters with a sense of humour are "quite rare".
"I just felt that they were really well-drawn female characters, which I sometimes find [with] dramas, there'll be a female lad but you can't quite work out the character. It's a bit of an every person...and I just felt that I knew all these people from the first episode.
"They were complex and they were funny – there's a seam of dark humour I think that runs through it which really appeals to my sense of humour.
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"Even though it is a thriller of sorts, it has got some lighter moments and I think all the characters, especially female characters, are witty which a lot of the time again gets written out of female stories, that we do like to have a laugh. I think it's a big survival technique among women, our sense of humour.
"So yeah, I just thought it was a really great script, there's something to say and a lot of good female characters, which I think is quite rare."
The series also stars Sex Education's Rakhee Thakrar, Life's Alison Steadman and Enola Holmes star Susan Wokoma.
- Read more: Rules of the Game ending explained
Rules of the Game airs on BBC One airs on Tuesday 11th January, with all four episodes arriving on BBC iPlayer. Visit our Drama hub for more news, interviews and features, or find something to watch with our TV Guide.
