Let's Play Lions . . . Part Two: The Mrs.

I invariably associate Gina Bellman with the sock puppet scene in Coupling. The episode is called Jane and the Truth Snake. Gina Bellman's character, Jane, overdoses after she loses her job. While hopped up on drugs, she decides to become a children's television host with her sock puppet, Jake, as a side kick. This disturbs Sally, Susan, and Steve, but Sally especially for reasons I will not go into here. The scene is laugh out loud funny, and epitomizes the craziness/airheadedness that is Jane. I never thought I'd be able to picture Gina Bellman as anyone but Jane. Of course, then I watched Jekyll.


The minute I realized "Jane" was playing Mrs. Claire Jackman in Steven Moffat's Jekyll, I thought "Oh no." I fully intended to be annoyed by her character, but I wasn't. She wasn't the dumb, pushover wife I expected her to be. Gina Bellman's Claire was a strong woman and she was definitely feisty when it came to her property i.e. Tom/Hyde.

At first in Jekyll, she came off as merely a victim. Tom Jackman, or Dr. Jekyll, left her without an explanation when he began having his "episodes." She is understandably upset and desperate during their first meeting in the miniseries. Claire this sort of weak woman until we arrive at Episode Three when she finally learns the truth about Hyde. She knocks him out with a wine bottle after he changes, chains him up, and slaps him when she learns that Hyde hasn’t been faithful to her. Her relationship with Hyde is brilliant overall. He sees her as his wife, but he doesn't feel any obligation to her at the beginning. She sees it differently. She sees Tom even when sees looking at her husband's alter ego. She doesn’t take any crap from Hyde or anyone else. She bristles when she meets Jackman/Hyde’s pretty assistant Katherine and stakes her claim there too. Claire is not an airhead like Jane. She’s a feisty woman who brings out the best in both versions of her husband.

When watching the extras, I wasn't surprised to find that Moffat had reservations when she auditioned for the role. He wrote Coupling and so in his mind she was also associated with Jane. However, she blew them all away in her audition. Gina Bellman really does take you by surprise in Jekyll. By the end of the movie, I wondered if the story was as much hers as it was Jackman's.