Every episode of ‘Cutting It’ just arrived on BBC iPlayer
The noughties hairdressing drama remains television at its campest.
By Will Stroude
When people say ‘know your gay history’, what many don’t realise it that that also includes early noughties TV classics like the BBC’s Cutting It.
Starring Sarah Parish, Angela Griffin and a pre-Britain’s Got Talent Amanda Holden, the camp-as-tits drama about the lives of loves of two rival hairdressing salons ran for four gloriously OTT seasons from 2002-05, and is now finally available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer.
Carrying the tagline ‘Hairdressers at war’, Cutting It charted the life of salon owner Allie (Parish) as she discovers her ex-husband’s devious new wife Mia (Holden) has opened a rival salon across the street.
What follows is 25 razor-sharp episodes of sex, scheming, betrayal, bitching, and secret love-children. Every you could want them.
Speaking to Attitude a few years ago, star Angela Griffin admitted the series was still held up as “the standard” for soapy British dramas.
“I have tried for quite some time to try and resurrect it, but everyone who was in a position to resurrect it now isn’t in that job anymore”, Griffin said.
“But in all the commissioning rooms it’s one of the things that’s always held up as the standard, like ‘We want the next Cutting It,’ because it just spoke to everybody and it just worked.
“It had everything: It was camp, it was dramatic, it was fun, you had dads fathering children to, like, sisters and… it was just brilliant. There’s been nothing like it since.
“Bring back Cutting It! Honestly I’m trying. We need to get Amanda [Holden] back into acting; she’s such a great actress.”
Controller of BBC iPlayer, Dan McGolpin, says: “Whether you remember it from before or you’re seeing it for the first time, Cutting It is a television treat, packed with stars and full of romance and rivalry, now available on BBC iPlayer.”
Don’t take our word for it on Cutting It’s camp credentials, though: Simply relive this TV spot from 2002 and then get binge-watching: