Netflix viewers could be forgiven for doing a double-take as they idly browsed the homepage earlier this month. Amid the latest releases and newest releases, an old ITV2 drama appeared in the UK’s top 10 programmes.
Secret Diary of a Call Girl, based on the anonymous blog and books by Belle de Jour – later revealed to be a pseudonym of research scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti – has found a new fanbase on the streaming platform, 17 years after it first aired. It peaked at third on the most-viewed list this month, behind only Bridgerton and Benedict Cumberbatch’s thriller Eric.
Magnanti, whose books inspired the series, said: “I saw that it was doing well which, considering how much prestige television has come along since the early 2000s, came as a pleasant surprise.” Now a pathologist and epidemiologist based in the US, Magnanti once funded her studies at a British university with sex work. Her true identity was one of the best-kept literary secrets of the decade, until she went public in 2009.
Starring Billie Piper as Hannah, the high-end escort known as “Belle”, the TV adaptation ran for four series between 2007 and 2011. It followed a London-based graduate who kept her lucrative double life hidden from friends and family, pretending she was working as a night-shift legal secretary.
The mobile phones and fashion in the show might have dated, but Magnanti believes the themes are timeless. “Something that I think really speaks to people is that while the sexual content is very forward, the true theme is what it’s like to be young and feel alienated, trying to find your place,” she told the Observer. “That has been explored in literature in everything from The Secret Garden to The Catcher in the Rye to my personal favourites, Of Human Bondage and Le Rouge et le Noir.”
Secret Diary of a Call Girl is now shocking a new generation. The show’s key words on Netflix are “steamy” and “intimate”. “It seems to be upsetting the same people all over again,” said Magnanti. “Plus ça change.”
Samantha Blanco, Netflix’s manager of UK licensing and co-productions, is delighted but unsurprised: “When our members discover an older show for the first time on the platform, it feels like new and can find a fresh audience. Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a classic, but potentially not on people’s radar. Licensing it now puts it back in people’s minds … a new generation can discover it for the first time.” Such surprise phenomena are a quirk of the Netflix system, where unexpected shows can suddenly see a resurgence.
It’s akin to YouTube, where content goes viral after being intensely viewed in a short period. The more people click on it, the higher up the rankings it climbs and the more recommended it becomes. Secret Diary Of A Call Girl isn’t an isolated example; supermarket documentary 24 Hours in Lidl recently entered the top 10, while Channel 5 home-swap series Rich House, Poor House enjoyed similar success in the spring. Tom Harrington, head of TV at Enders Analysis, said: “This has been happening for a while – The Inbetweeners and Peaky Blinders both experienced it – but there are more and more shows poking through. Virality plays a factor in the recommendation algorithm, which means total engagement can accelerate very quickly.“Obviously, though, the audience has to want the show. Netflix is definitely getting better at licensing UK programming that’s in line with what its audience desires.”
Secret Diary of a Call Girl was added to the streamer’s catalogue in mid-June. Piper recently starred in another Netflix hit, Prince Andrew drama Scoop, so viewers may have been pointed towards her other roles. Alternatively, they might have discovered the show after bingeing on Bridgerton or Emily in Paris, aimed at similar demographics.
They will have found some things they recognise: protagonist Hannah breaks the fourth wall almost a decade before Fleabag, while now-familiar faces such as Lily James and Matt Smith appear in minor roles.
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The show was created by acclaimed playwright Lucy Prebble, who wrote the early episodes and formed a close friendship with Piper. This dream team would later reunite for Sky’s I Hate Suzie, while Prebble has won Emmys for her work on Succession.
Magnanti said: “I have to give a lot of credit to Lucy Prebble. She went on to do incredible things in television. I think the phenomenon of Succession is probably bringing new viewers to Secret Diary, as people want to know where the creative brains behind that show started out.”
Which show might get a second wind next? “Almost all the growth of engagement for Netflix in the UK is coming from older viewers, meaning its audience is heading in the direction of broadcast television’s,” said Harrington. “So we can predict even more old broadcast shows will become belated hits on Netflix.”