Helen Cooper

"Oh, that'll be when Sally misread the autocue, and announced to a waiting nation that the Government had finally agreed to ratify the Maastricht tea tray!"

- Helen's response to Dave finding an entry for Maastricht while reading through the index for Henry's planned autobiography

Replacing Alex as Assistant Editor from the beginning of Series 3, Helen is extremely efficient and organised, and is frequently annoyed and frustrated by the general inefficiency of Globelink

At home, she is the single mother of a daughter called Chloe (Jocelyn Barker), and is a lesbian — a fact she has been keeping secret from her daughter and her parents despite a powerful sense that she really ought to tell them. When George admits that he has fallen in love with her and asks her out, she discloses her sexuality to him in an attempt to let him down gently. George assumes she is lying to spare his feelings — a suspicion reinforced when Helen has a drunken one-night stand with Dave while the staff are on a team-building weekend.

Dedicated to the service of "proper" news, Helen often clashes with Gus, but is usually supported, if ineffectually, by George. Helen quickly earns the nickname of Stalin from other staff due to her obsession with organisation. She does join in with some of the zanier antics of the office and has been seen to be the only source of support for Joy and Sally, despite the latter’s vindictive behaviour.

Surprisingly unable to land another job in the industry, Helen reluctantly works for her girlfriend’s food delivery company when GlobeLink closes.