PsychoBrontës

Several websites recommended watching last night's Playhouse Presents: Psychobitches on Sky Arts 1. From the Guardian:

An amazing lineup of comic actors have a ball playing historical figures in therapy opposite Rebecca Front's ever-patient psychologist. Julia Davis puts a new twist on the poetry of Sylvia Plath. Samantha Spiro is a ping-pong Audrey Hepburn, Mark Gatiss a superb Joan Crawford to Frances Barber's inspired Bette Davis. Katy Brand stars as one of three sweary Brontë sisters. It's the comedy equivalent of eating a lot of biscuits. If you miss it you will forgo the funniest thing on TV this year. (Julia Raeside)

And again in The Guardian:

And the puppet-sized Brontë sisters, coarse Yorkshire slags squabbling on the sofa, mainly about (not) losing their virginity. "It's not me who's the desperate one," Charlotte squawks to Emily. "I'm not the one gagging for it that much her fanny's frothing like a beck in a storm." (Sam Wollaston)

From The Independent:

You could be forgiven for thinking that Psychobitches, Sky Arts 1 new comedy series, is an all-female affair. It isn't, though nobody gets on screen without dragging up, the essential conceit being that the patient list for Rebecca Front's psychotherapist is composed entirely of famous women from history. Some of them have come to do some work on a family relationship, such as the Brontë sisters, bickering furiously in a row on the couch. [...]
The writing is often excellent – Charlotte Brontë's furious complaint that her oversexed sister is "frothing like a beck in a storm" seemed oddly plausible – and even the spaces between the sketches are drily funny (Jeremy Dyson directs). (Tom Sutcliffe)

From The Mirror:

The squabbling Brontë sisters are brilliant (Jane Simon)

From Metro:

In the space of 25 minutes or so, everyone from the Brontë Sisters to Margot Fonteyn by way of Nina Simone had a go at hogging the ego-crazed spotlight. (Keith Watson)

And from The Daily Star:

FUNNYGIRL Katy Brand says she couldn’t say no to Sky’s new sketch show because it’s naughty.
Psychobitches on Sky Arts pokes fun at female figures from history.
In one sketch, Katy, 34, joins Selina Griffiths, and Sarah Solemani as they become puppets to take the mick out of at the Bronte sisters.Katy laughed: “Who could resist such a fantastic opportunity to play an array of famous or infamous women?
“I got to be Joan of Arc, Mary Shelley, Diana Dors and Emily Brontë.” (Peter Dyke and Katie Begley)

Picture source

The Radio Times interviews actress Rebecca Front:

Do you have a favourite sketch?The Brontë sisters are my favourite. I really love that it’s incredibly foul-mouthed. The whole look of it was brilliant and all the women playing the parts were great. (Ellie Walker-Arnott)

And speaking of psycho. Here's one of the '7 Things Guys Should Stop Saying Immediately' according to Cosmopolitan:

2. "My ex-girlfriend was a total psycho." Talking smack about your ex behind her back actually makes you look worse than she does — maybe you made her psycho. Incidentally, this is why I have no sympathy for Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, with his crazy-a*s wife who he locked in a wall (116-year-old SPOILER ALERT!). (Anna Breslaw)

Actress Honeysuckle Weeks wouldn't seem to agree with that as she picks her six favourite books for Express.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Penguin, £5.99
I read this at school and felt sympathy with everything Jane thought. Rochester was a bit gloomy but very attractive. I identified with the poor governess-type who strives after the heart of a dark lord: then I married one myself.

The Awl celebrates Barbara Pym's centenary (actually this Sunday June 2nd) and quotes from her wonderful novel Excellent Women

"Let me… add that I am not at all like Jane Eyre, who must have given hope to so many plain women who tell their stories in the first person," says Mildred Lathbury in Excellent Women.(Carrie Frye)

The Mary Sue points to the Tumblr blog LadyPuns:

There will always be a special place in my heart for Jane Eyre, the only book I ever read for school that I later returned to to read for pleasure. But we’re not hear to talk about bigamy, child poverty, madness, illegitimate children and major characters being struck blind, we’re here to talk about Dav Yendler and Hahn-Tien Tran‘s LadyPuns.

The pun on Jane Eyre is Jane Eyre Guitar (click to see the accompanying illustration):

Even though he couldn’t hear the righteous solos and earsplitting riffs, Brocklehurst cowered in fear. He knew that Jane was coming to melt his face off.  

For the Love of Life and Looking at the Stars (in Spanish) both post about reading Jane Eyre. Great Minds Think Alike writes in Portuguese about Wuthering Heights.