Next Wednesday (23/8), in hideous open-plan cubicles and typing pools across the US, the super women behind the men are celebrated on Secretary’s Day. In honour of their largely thankless slaving for the powerfully nice and not-so, here’s a run down of the best Girl Fridays from the big and small screens.

NINE TO FIVE (1980) – DOLLY PARTON, JANE FONDA AND LILY TOMLIN

Let’s start with some Dolly, whose halo-permed and A-line-skirted secretary just. Won’t. Take. It. Any. More. Blessed with a boss who really "likes her when she’s angry" (translation: I fancy you more than my wife) and who’s told half the office they’ve been frolicking amongst the filing cabinets (you wish, Mr Hart), she, Jane and Lily go back to Dolly’s flat to smoke some funny cigarettes and plot a deliciously nasty revenge on their idiot paymaster. Dolly’s fantasy naturally sees her dressed as a cowgirl, lassoing the boss and dragging him through the typing pool. Righteous!

SECRETARY (2002) - MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Lee Holloway earns some serious Pitman’s points for navigating a coffee percolator, stapler and the post tray whilst strapped into a kinky crucifix pole. She also gets a totally crap old-school typewriter to work on, which seems really rather unfair when any typos lead to a spanking from her lawyer boss. Her working wardrobe is mega, though, with polka-dotted, pussy-bow blouses and neat pencil skirts that look fabulously sexy and utterly demure all at the same time. Having seen this while also working for a solicitor, this all seemed too, too exciting. At least until I pootled back to the office and remembered I worked for a man who thought it normal to witter into his Dictaphone while sat on the toilet.

WORKING GIRL (1988) – MELANIE GRIFFITH

Fabulous for all sorts of reasons. Not least the obligatory girl-friendly makeover aspect, as Melanie Griffith’s tenacious administrative aide pinches Sigourney Weaver’s Fifth Avenue power suits, New York apartment and her man whilst the cat’s away. With a “head for business and a bod for sin”, Griffith’s Tess McGill also pops her idea-stealing, evil witch of a boss’s valium and has a wicked-cool best friend - who has the kind of 80s hair you need two massive cans of Elnett to achieve. Having dispatched her lyin’, cheatin’ no-good boyfriend, New Jersey goyl Tess does her darnedest to impersonate a Wall Street suit, though Joan Cusack’s best pal Cyn is not impressed. “Sometimes I dance around in my living room in my underwear...that doesn't make me Madonna". And she gets her own office at the end. Yes!

MAD MEN (2007) – ELISABETH MOSS

Peggy, recent graduate of Miss Deaver’s Secretarial School in AMC’s seriously ace drama Mad Men gets shown the ropes by terrifically rude Office Manager Joan, whose dresses I want, need and will have. After a tour of the office, Joan gives Peggy the low-down on the secretary-boss relationship, 50s-style. “He may act like he’s looking for a secretary, but most of the time they’re looking for something in between a mother and a waitress”. In a moment of bonkers bitchiness, and after shamelessly looking the new girl up-and-down, she also tells her to stand naked in front of a mirror with a paper bag over her head, to “really evaluate where your strengths and weaknesses are. A girl like you, with those darling little ankles, I’d find a way to make 'em sing”. Rising above all this passive aggressive nonsense, Peggy turns out to be a copywriting whizz, leaving horrid Joan frothing over her stationery cabinet. Marvellous.