Wikipedia:Peer review/Fay Ripley/archive1

Fay Ripley

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because it passed GAN a couple of months ago and would like to know from uninvolved editors if there are an glaring errors or omissions in it before I take it to FAC.

Thanks, Bradley0110 (talk) 22:54, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Brianboulton comments: She's a great actress, one of my favourites, and this article is a decent attempt to do her justice. It does need futher work, however, if it is to go to FAC which can be a hard place. Here are my detailed comments. It is a great shame that there isn't an image, but I do understand the problems involved in obtaining free images of living celebrities. I trust you have left no avenue unexplored in this respect.

• Lead
  • As per WP:LEAD, the opening statement of the lead should say who or what the subject is and why he/she/it is notable. Thus I would expand the first sentence to something like: "Fay Ripley (born 1966) is an English actress who from the late 1990s onwards has achieved considerable success in film and television comedy-dramas."
  • "Ripley was born in Wimbledon, London and her parents separated when she was two years old." Inappropriate "and" connector, since the clauses are unrelated.
  • The term "technical college" will confuse non-UK readers. Unfortunately the wikilink, which you use in the main text, is not helpful as it leads to advanced technical institutes rather than colleges of the Brooklands sort. The most useful link is probably thus: technical college. This should be used at first mention of the term.
  • Overdetailing in lead, for example: "During her training she lived in a small flat in Streatham, South London" and: "...in the south of England."
  • "Breakout" becomes "breakthrough" later in the article. Suggest consistency.
  • "Initially a supporting cast member..." I think "supporting part" would be neater.
  • Why are Bon Voyage and Monday, Monday described as "ITV" dramas? The term is meaningless outside the UK; why not just "TV" or "television"?
  • Children should not be named unless they are themselves notable, which in this case is not so.
• Early life: Generally, this section is too long and overdetailed for an encyclopedia entry, with various anecdotes of no relevance to her career. With due respect to her talents, Ripley's schooldays don't warrant this degree of treatment, and her recorded musings on her inadequate education are somewhat unmemorable. My advice is to drop the quote, chop the first two paragraphs considerably and keep most of the third.
• Early performances: The section is a little too anecdotal for a summary emcyclopedia article, with phrases such as "she was distraught" contributing to a generally non-encyclopedic tone. Indeed, the amount of text devoted to explaining her (non)-appearance in the Branagh film (130+ words) is a little excessive and could be edited down.
• Breakthrough roles
  • A run of three consecutive linked phrases (Granada Television Comedy Premiere Cold Feet) is excessive. The "Comedy Premiere" could be left out, and you could describe the show as a "pilot" comedy rather than a one-off. Then you could say: "In 1996, Ripley auditioned for Cold Feet, a pilot comedy for Granada Television"
  • "In the audition, she performed with an inelegant approximation of a local Manchester accent." This sounds like a quotation; if so it should be in quotes, and cited.
  • "...just a supporting role" - "just" is redundant
  • "given", not "giving"
  • "Ripley had not experienced childbirth before..." sounds as though she was now experiencing real childbirth. I suggest "At that time Ripley had not experienced childbirth,..."
  • Although links are not normally used within quotes, I think that "Elaine" and Seinfeld should be linked - not everyone in the UK will understand the reference.
  • In order to follow the chronolgy of Ripley's career, it would be useful to have more dates in this section. When was the first Cold Feet series shown? What were the dates for the second and third series? What was the year of her BAFTA nomination for Best Actress? When did she advise the producers tat she was quitting the series, and what was the date (or at least, year) of her heavily pregnant final appearance?
  • You should mention that The Herald is a Glasgow newspaper
  • "She considers I Saw You the television show she is most proud to have worked on, and acted in it alongside her husband Daniel Lapaine." Another inappropriate "and" conjunction; suggest rephrase: "She considers I Saw You, in which she acted alongside her husband Daniel Lapaine, the television show she is most proud to have worked on."
• Leading roles
  • "BBC" is sufficient, rather than "BBC One"
  • "Instead of being invited to audition, the role was offered directly to Ripley." Not grammatical as it stands. Try: "Ripley was offered the role without being invited to audition."
  • "baddie" is slang, definitely not an encyclopedic term.
  • The lengthy information given on Bon Voyage lacks any critics' comments on Ripley's performance. I'd cut out some of her own reflections on the film, and include some quotes quotes from critics. Likewise, there is nothing on her Reggie Perrin performance beyond her own comments on the role. I seem to remember that the series was critically panned, and presume that someone said something about Ripley.
• Other work: Overdetailing – I'm not sure that we need to itemise her work on advertisements. A single sentence should cover this.
• Personal life
  • Why has the 1983 Romeo and Juliet appearance, with James Purefoy, not been mentioned until now?
  • Note again comments relating to the naming of children
  • "...to draw attention to child sponsorship" Could you add a few words to clarify what work she was doing on behalf of ActionAid?
• General
  • Some of the online sources lack access dates
  • Is it not possible to get confirmation of her birth date? The date 28 June crops up in hidden notes, which appears to conflict with GRO details – unless she was born on 28 June 1965 and was registered late, which could happen. Either way, if the GRO records show her birth was registered between Jan-March 1966 it is quite likely that her birth year was 1965 not 1966. I'd be surprised if her actual birth date is not on the public record somewhere, unless Ripley herself has suppressed it.

Brianboulton (talk) 17:03, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your review, Brian. I've made a few of the changes you recommended this evening and will give you detailed feedback tomorrow. Bradley0110 (talk) 00:05, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for taking so long with this, Brian (house under six feet of snow, work underwater, etc). I've fixed all of the grammar issues and clause fixes you've suggested, and have some specific responses and defences:

• WP:ACTOR has stopped doing "So-and-so is an actor famous for this and that" in the first sentence because it often smacks of original research and has point-of-view issues. The notability of the subject is established by the article itself and a fully-developed lead.
• I'm not sure the link you've suggested for the tech college is any better than the one I've used. TBH, the context in which "technical college" is being used in the sources isn't helpful either. I've delinked it and just replaced it with "local college".
• Bon Voyage is described as an ITV drama because... that's what it is. One could also say NBC or ABC are meaningless terms outside of America.
• I've removed the childrens' names from the lead to avoid bloat but have left them in the personal life section. Their names are widely repeated in media so I'd rather leave them in for comprehensiveness.
• I've cut down the early life section. I think the main problem was the large quote, which made the section appear larger than any other in this article. I've left in a lot of the other stuff though because it's important to say precisely how and why she became an actress.
• Since her role in Frankenstein is an important milestone in her career (regardless of the scene's presence on the cuting room floor) I'd rather leave this in. I've cut out some of the fluffy bits though.
• The quote about her Manchester accent is "I managed to bodge together a sort of Manchester accent", which I've recast to keep the text formal and avoid overuse of quotes.
• I've linked Seinfeld but not Elaine Benes, as that article doesn't really help readers understand the reference. From the context of the review, it seems that the critic is comparing her to the actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, rather than the character, so it's no big loss.
• I've added a couple of dates to the breakthrout section. Is it desperately important that The Herald be noted as a Glasgow newspaper? Are the opinions of the mad Scots worth signposting so? ;)
• Bon Voyage didn't seem to have much critical response specifically relating to Ripley's performance (bar "good" and "brilliant"). I've added a couple that supplement the information about her on-set pregnancy but I could hear the sound of the barrel scraping as I typed.
• Similarly, she doesn't have any comments personally relating to her role in Reggie Perrin (it seems Martin Clunes and Simon Nye bore the brunt of the Daily Mail's ire). The BBC is supposed to be doing a second series later this year so she might get some criticism or praise then. Same with Monday Monday--very little in the way of useable reaction beyond one word compliments or "she irritates me".
• The National Lottery and Tesco adverts were major campaigns with significant coverage relating to Ripley's participation, as opposed to ones where she just provides a voice over (how weird that there is one playing on TV exactly as I type this).
• The Romeo and Juliet performance appears to be a school play, rather than a professional appearance. Beyond the fleeting mention of it relating to James Purefoy, there is no coverage of it.
• All online sources have access dates.
• Regarding her date of birth; 28 June is batted about online (IMDB, Hello magazine, etc) but it does not appear in any verifiable sources. It might be that Ripley or her agent don't want the exact date out there, in which case 1966 will have to do. Jan-March 1966 is from the records on Ancestry.com. The exact date is probably on file in the Wimbledon records office. I'm not sure what could cause a delay in registering a birth from 1965, unless it occured late in December or something. Otherwise, 1966 is the best it is going to get.

Thanks again, Brian. I appreciate the time and effort you put into these reviews. Bradley0110 (talk) 16:45, 9 January 2010 (UTC)