Danielle James' Children's books

Introduction to Actor/Writer Charles West

 

   I was extremely grateful to Eileen Pollock for setting me up with Charles West, who was appearing alongside her in Annie.

   I have to be perfectly honest and admit that I was very nervous of him because he was a very big man.  Another thing that put me off was the fact that he talked with the proverbial plum in his mouth.  Luckily I was prepared for that because I had already spoken to him on the phone a couple of times.  However, as with most of my interviews, I needn’t have worried.

   I as aware, thanks to the programme, that his main claim to fame was his writing.  Well, I scoured the bookshops and libraries to find a copy of any of his books but to no avail.  It wasn’t so much the book itself that I was interested in, as the profile of that writer that is usually included.

   My nerves were gone as I sat down but I was soon in the swing of things.  He suggested that we do a sound check first (something I admit I hadn’t thought about).  I surprised myself with the introduction as, prior to taping, I didn’t have a clue what I was going to say.  What came out was actually quite good!

   I explained my predicament to Charles (with a very red face) and he was really nice.  He just said that the whole point of an interview is to get to know the subject.  I asked if there were any questions he didn’t want me to ask and he explained that he’s not easily offended so I was just to go ahead and ask whatever I wanted.

   This is one of my favourites because I found that he was extremely frank and honest.  If there was one thing this interview taught me, it was not to judge people by first impressions.  The nicest people can appear intimidating at first.  I’m especially proud of it because this was only my third interview - I was learning all the time.

   After this I was on my own because he didn’t know anyone to set me up with.

Transcript of Interview with Charles West

 

Melanie: I’m sitting in the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, opposite Charles West.  Charles is a very prolific writer and he’s currently appearing in the musical Annie, playing Daddy Warbucks.  Charles, thank you for joining us.

 

Charles: Thank you, Melanie.

 

Melanie: First of all, how did you get into acting?

 

Charles: By accident, like most people.  I was an actor at school (I was co-opted into the school drama society because I wanted to play cricket - they bribed me with the chance of playing cricket if I joined the society).  Then, like most people of my generation, my whole life as changed by the war in that I had to go into war service.  While I was in the Army, I found that I was a much better actor than I was a soldier, so I was drafted into an Army theatre.  That really changed my whole life.

 

         I as going to be a Civil Servant when I left but I went from school to the Army, and after that, my college wouldn’t take me for three years because there were a lot of people ahead of me being demobbed and waiting for a course.  So I went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art instead.

 

         That’s really how I drifted, as it were into acting.  Most people get into it by accident.

 

Melanie: (Dumbo!)  So you haven’t always wanted to be an actor then?

 

Charles: I wanted to be an actor but - er, when you’re young, everybody tells you to be sensible, don’t they?  They all say, “Don’t take chances,” “Acting is a very risky life,” and so on.  So you think that because these people are older, they must be right.  So you do something sensible.  It’s only when circumstances force you into doing something ’silly’ that you find you could make livelihood out of it!

 

Melanie: I mentioned in the introduction that you’re playing Daddy Warbucks in Annie.  You’re actually breaking the golden role of stage and television, aren’t you?  Never work with children and animals!

 

Charles: Well, I don’t think that’s a golden rule.  I think it was probably invented by someone who ha a bigger ego than mine.  After all, a play is a play.  What I mean is, a play isn’t really about who is best, it’s about telling a story in action, up on a stage and persuading people that there’s a kind of magic available - the magic of communicating, the magic of telling a story in words and music.

 

         So it doesn’t really bother me if the dog gets more applause.  The dog can’t play my part and I can’t play its part, so we’re not really in competition.  I’m only in competition with someone who wants to play Daddy Warbucks.

 

Melanie: How do you find working with children?  I mean, do you like children yourself (Oh, how green I sound)

 

Charles: Yes, I’ve got 3 boys myself.  Well, they’re all grown up now, of course, so I can’t call them ‘boys’.  They’re young men now.

 

         Yes, I like children.  I do think one should take a very special attitude towards children over the age of, say, 7 because then they are already very ‘with it’.  They are very intelligent.  They understand an awful lot about the world and they are probably able to understand the way things work on stage.  They are very observant and quick.  I don’t think one should think of them as a separate species, you know?

 

Melanie: Have you ever had the giggles on stage? 

 

Charles: Oh yes, that’s very commonplace.  If something happens that makes you laugh, I must admit that I’m just as bad as anyone else.

 

         There was an occasion - er, perhaps I shouldn’t tell this story, but the little girl involved is now probably a grown woman with a family of her own.  But she was playing Mollie in the show when I played it in London.

 

         As you know, Mollie is the small one.  She’s very, very young.  This Mollie used to get excited about being on the stage.  When she got really, really excited, she used to ‘make water’.  This was quite unfortunate for the poor child (she used to get terribly embarrassed about it) but there was one occasion - in the very last scene - where she had to sit down near the edge of the stage.  She was obviously very excited and everybody noticed there was a tiny little stream running from little Mollie, down the stage and dripping off it.  What made me laugh was not that, so much, as that it was hitting the drum so we got a steady drum beat through the end of the show!  (We both laugh)

 

Melanie: As I mentioned, you are a writer as well.  Where do you get your inspiration for your books?

 

Charles: (Thoughtfully)  I don’t think I operate on inspiration.

 

         I decided that I wanted to be a writer because I thought I had better get out of the theatre before I start to lose my voice.  I have made most of my living on the stage and I just dread the time when someone’s going to say, “He used to have a beautiful voice (He does!), so I decided, about 5 years ago, that I would try to make a gentle transition from theatre into writing.

 

         I bought a little cottage in Derbyshire and I sat down to write books.  I have sort of been lured out of retirement really, to do this show, because it’s a favourite of mine.

 

         Inspiration isn’t really the right word.  What I do is I it in front of a blank pier of paper and eventually I get so bored I have to write something on it!  The net day, I look at what I’ve written and think, “Some of that’s alright, I’ll expand on that.”

 

         It’s more like gardening than anything else I can think of - and you don’t ask a gardener where he gets his inspiration from, do you?  He jut goes out there and dig in the ground, puts seeds in and watches it grow.  I do very much the same thing.  (If I’d thought about it in time, I could have asked him whether he enjoys gardening himself.  It might have opened the interview up a bit more.  Third attempt and it’s not a bad interview.  I apologised for this question after the interview and he waved it away.  He wasn’t offended - just didn’t know how else to explain)

 

Melanie: So you don’t feel that you have to live through a situation before you can write about it?  (I’m asking this because I’ve just seen in the paper an article about a woman who wrote a love scene in her book, even though she was still a virgin.  I thought it would be interesting to get Charles’ view on this).

 

Charles: No, not particularly.  I did start writing (when I was in Australia) because I witnessed something which I found so horrifying that I had to write it down to get it out of my system.  (I was just about to ask what it was but he gave me a look that told me not to).  I developed that into my first book over a long period of time and, in fact, that is only a very minor episode in the book.  But it was a germ (or a seed, if you like) from which everything else grew.

 

Melanie: What has been the highest point of your career so far?

 

Charles: I suppose I would count playing in a musical called Man of La Mancha in Australia.  I missed playing the part of Don Quixote in London and an American director who’d seen me audition (and, in fact, worked with me on the part) recommended me for the Australian production.

 

         I realised when I got out there that, halfway through the rehearsal period, the management had lost faith in it.  They thought they weren’t getting the bookings - partly because I wasn’t famous, and also, everyone thinks it’s a very intellectual play.  They came and told me they wanted to cut my contract short (this was before I’d even opened the play!)

 

         This made me so angry that when it did come to opening night, I gave the performance of my life.  We got rave notices and the next day the queue at the box office went round the block - they had to extend the season instead of cutting it short.  I think that was a high spot for me.

 

Melanie: What has been your greatest achievement?

 

Charles: I don’t know - probably bringing up three kids!  Seeing them grow up healthy and strong and intelligent.  I suppose that’s given me as much satisfaction as anything else I’ve done.

 

Melanie: If your children wanted to follow you into show business, what advice would you give them?  I mean, would you try to put them off?

 

Charles: Well, it would be different if they wanted to go into show business because I don’t come from a theatrical background at all - in fact, I doubt if my parents went to the theatre more than half a dozen times in their whole lives - but I’d be able to help them in a practical way.  I could introduce them to people, tell them about certain shortcuts in techniques.  (I’d have asked him for an example, if we’d had time because I love acting and am always willing to learn).

 

         They don't want to go into theatre, however, but they are in related industries.  One runs a recording studio which does a lot of work with pop/punk people; one is a director and producer of animated films for television; and the youngest one is going to be a writer.

 

Melanie: What makes you sad?  (Oops!  I should have told him we were changing to the person beneath the glamour.  Never mind - he told me I did a great job at the end so I shouldn’t judge myself so harshly)

 

Charles: I suppose all kinds of things.  You have to remember that I’m a couple of generations on from you and, therefore, there are things that I see - or rather miss seeing - in today’s society which were commonplace when I was younger.  Things like that make me sad … things we’ve lost.  An area of politeness, if you like, in society.

 

         The education system and its values are so different that I find I’m really out of touch with what young people really believe in now.  That makes me sad because I don’t want to be out of touch and I don’t want to disapprove.  Let’s face it, they could be right and I could be wrong.  (I remember thinking, what a nice man, when he said that)

 

         Also, the way the countryside’s changed.  Food has changed, too.  It doesn’t taste the same.  (Laughs)  Ask anyone of my age and they’ll tell you what I’m telling you.

 

Melanie: When did you last cry? 

 

Charles: Probably last night!  I cry every night during Annie.

 

Melanie: Which part, if you don’t mind me asking?

 

Charles: No, not at all.  It’s when the child says, “I knew my parents were dead because I knew they loved me, and they would have come back for me if they weren’t dead.’  It’s a very simple thing about human beings.  We all need, want and crave love and I find that gets to me.  I cry very easily, mind you - particularly on stage.  I’m a real sobber! (Laughs)

 

Melanie: The reason I asked you is that I did Eileen Pollock (I could have phrased it better than that.  I did Eileen Pollock doesn’t sound right) and she told me that during the rehearsal of the show, everybody was crying.

 

         I know when I saw it (twice) the tears were tripping down my face, particularly during the scene where Annie is packed to leave.  I have to say that it was very well acted.  I knew how it ended, of course, but it still made me cry.

 

Charles: That’s right - and for the same sort of reasons.  These are very important, permanent values, which we haven’t lost and I’m pleased about that.  I’m not sad about the fact that I can still make people cry on the stage because it means that they’re sharing the same values I have.

 

Melanie: Changing the subject to a lighter note, do you believe in love at first sight?

 

Charles: Well, Shakespeare says that’s the only way.

 

         Oh, gosh!  I have to think that perhaps he got it right but sometimes we don’t recognise what it is.  We may get the feeling at first sight but put not the name or label ‘love’ on it.  It’s only later on that we think, ‘Oh yes.  It was love at first sight really, but I called it something else at the time.’

 

         (Laughs)  That’s a very difficult question.

 

Melanie: It is.  (I didn’t think so!)  If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you take with you?

 

Charles: (Quick as a flash)  Can I have a telephone and a boat please?  (Laughs)

 

Melanie: (Talk about slow on the uptake!)  Whatever you want.

 

Charles: (Thoughtfully, turning serious to try and answer the question)  Yes, well, I’m a very practical sort of person.  I would need things that would help me to make a shelter and look after myself.

 

         It depends on the circumstances - whether there’s food there or I’ve got to try and think of growing it for myself; whether there’s wood available.

 

         You’re talking to a writer now and, when you ask a question like that, I automatically pile one question on top of the other until I’ve worked out where I want to be.  (Very apologetically) But it’s so difficult for me to imagine being on a desert island in that sense, that I find the question virtually impossible to answer.

 

Melanie: (Very surprised - I had thought he’d find that question very easy precisely because he is a writer.  I thought it might have sparked his imagination and got a really good answer.  Never mind … another lesson learned: Never make assumptions about how people will answer)  Fair enough.  (I was - unfairly - embarrassed and didn't know how to follow that).  How did your family react when you went into show business?

 

Charles: Not very well.  My father hated it and my mother didn’t really understand what I was getting at.

 

         It was very difficult for them because I come from a working class family.  One of my grandfathers was a miner and the other was a potter (he made garden pots).  Although my father wasn’t actually a manual labourer, he certainly wasn’t rich or anything.  So going into something like acting - which is so insecure - was quite bewildering to them.  My mother did her best to understand but my father just got angry about it.

 

Melanie: Have you ever had a dream come true?  (Looking at this now, with the benefit of hindsight I should have at least responded with something.  Anything.  But I was still learning so I can’t be too hard on myself)

 

Charles: Do you mean an actual dream, or an ambition?

 

Melanie: (Very embarrassed)  Well, a personal dream … something you desperately wanted to do.  (clearly no clue what I was talking about.  Listening to the tape you can hear that I’m floundering)

 

Charles: Yes.  When I was in school I was fascinated by gramophone records (as we all are) (Are we?  I’m not sure what he was talking about.  I love records but have never listened to a gramophone.  Maybe it’s a generational thing …)

 

         My heroes - those whose gramophone records I bought - were of people singing in musical comedy and I used to really wish I could do that.  I used to sing along with the records (they were quite different musicals to the ones we have now, of course - they were ‘The Desert Song’ and ‘The Student Prince’, things like that).  I used to think that it would be wonderful to stand up on stage with an orchestra and a costume and sing to people.  That dream came true.

 

Melanie: I know you are mainly centred on the theatre and writing, but would you like to appear in any of the big American soaps?

 

Charles: Oh gosh, yes of course I would!  It would depend entirely on the part.  Obviously, it’s like winning the pools, really, it’s instant riches and no one turns that sort of thing down without thinking about it.

 

         I don’t think about it much because it’s so unlikely to happen.  I can’t see myself being in a soap opera either in America or even in this country.  I have done quite a lot of television but never - OH!  I played a doctor for a couple of episodes in Brookside.  I’d forgotten that.

 

Melanie: What’s your worst fault?

Charles: I suppose it’s that I’m not a tremendously sociable person.  I’m very content to be on my own and that means that if someone asks me to a party - and they do in the theatre - my first instinct is to say no.  I have to try to remember that it’s very rude and that I must say yes.  Also, I suppose I’m insecure - this, again, is related to my background - so I do find it very difficult to be confident, particularly in company.  I tend not to talk to people and just scurry away by myself.  (Sounds like me at a party!)

 

Melanie: So are you basically a shy person, then?

 

Charles: I don’t know whether it’s shyness … I call it insecurity.  I mean, if people talk to me, I’m not shy of talking to them (as you can tell!  I’m talking to you and we’ve only met today).  There’s also the fact that we are not in a group of people.  We are just talking one to one (I can definitely identify with this)  Shy ness is not quite the same thing as insecurity and  that - i.e. insecurity - is what I would call my biggest fault.

 

Melanie: Do you have a bad temper?

 

Charles: No.  I have hardly any temper at all.  I’m a very equable person.  I have lost my temper but, on the few occasions I’ve done it in the theatre, I’ve done it deliberately, for effect, in order to achieve something.

 

Melanie: What’s been your most embarrassing experience?

 

Charles: Oh Lord!  The thing about embarrassment is that you deliberately forget about it.  You put layer upon layer of other memories over the top of it in order to forget.

 

         I think that, if one is honest, one would never reveal your most embarrassing experience because it’s too embarrassing.  You relive it, don’t you?

 

         I have lots of little embarrassments.  For instance, if I inadvertently use the wrong word when I’m talking to someone, I’m embarrassed for days about it because I’ve used the wrong word.  I didn’t mean to do it and they must think I’m stupid.  But I don’t know that I could actually dredge up my most embarrassing moment.

 

Melanie: What is your most treasured possession?

 

Charles: Oh gosh, I don’t know.  I think in  terms of people rather than possessions.  I suppose if you could say the friendship of my family - friendship not love - is a possession, then I suppose I would value that more than anything.  (Most original answer I ever received - I wish I’d pushed him on why friendship is more important than love to him).

 

Melanie: Who do you most admire?

 

Charles: It depends on the season and the circumstances.  If you’d asked me that when I was 17, I’d have said a tenor called Yusi Bjorney (I have no idea how to spell that name so I’ve spelled it phonetically) if you’d asked me when I was 15 I’d have said a crooner called Bing Crosby (Laughs)  If you had asked me last summer I’d have said a cricketer named David Gower!

 

         What I think you would be getting from that is that I love people who are expert at their job, who I can sit and admire or listen to.  Pavarotti, the great, great performances that one sees.  It would be really unfair to pick any performer, for instance, because there are so many people who are capable of giving such great performances.  If you are talking about opera singers (I wasn’t, particularly), how do you compare Don Giovanni with La Traviata?  You can’t.  they are both operas but they aren’t quite the same animal.

 

Melanie: Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?

 

Charles: Yes.  I would have liked to have been in a number of musicals.  I would have liked to have gone to Stratford, which I never did.  I played the Old Vic for 16 years but I could never get into Stratford.  There was a time I wanted to make a career as a serious singer - a classical singer - and there are any number of things that I would like to have sung as a classical singer.  Now, of course, I never shall because I’m too old for it.

 

Melanie: You’re not that old!  (I was serious, too!  He looked pretty good … he had to have been in his late 70s, now I think about it, when I interviewed him but I really didn’t realise that at the time.  He looked a lot younger than he was).

 

Charles: (Laughs)  Ha!  Well, I’m too old to sing some of the oratorios that I would have liked to have sung.

 

Melanie: What has been the happiest moment of your life?   The one that sticks out in your memory the most.

 

Charles:I suppose it was when I was at the Old Vic.  I was playing in the Scottish Play with Michael Horden and I got a phone call at the stage door saying I had a son.  As soon as I finished the performance I scuttled round to Kensington hospital - to find I had a son who looked like Sid James (Laughs)  He’s grown out of that, I’m glad to say, but he was small and very wrinkled.

 

Melanie: This is a very difficult question.  If you’re career fell apart tomorrow, what would you do?

 

Charles: Ah!  Er, which career do you mean?

 

Melanie: (Brain malfunction there!  I forgot he was a writer and actor.  I can only blame the lack of research for that.  I didn’t know how to handle it so I panicked)  Either - or both!

 

Charles: Well, if both careers fell apart, I would just find something else to do.  One thing I know is that I would work.  There’s always work to be done.  If I couldn’t be an actor or a writer, I would take lessons and be a carpenter, I think.  I love working with my hands and making things from wood, so I’d probably do that.

 

Melanie: I know we’ve just had Christmas, but what is your idea of the perfect Christmas Day?

 

Charles: For me as an actor, a perfect Christmas Day is one where you do nothing at all except just loll around and be with your family, open your presents, eat enough - drink a little too much, possibly.

 

         This is unusual for an actor, though, because he’s usually on the hop at Christmas time.  You’re usually travelling to get home to be with your family, and you’re always thinking about the fact that you’ve got to be fit enough to get back and do the show on Boxing Day.  I even did a pantomime on Christmas Day in Scotland.  So the perfect Christmas Day for me would be perfect idleness.

 

Melanie: If you could turn the clock back, what would you do differently?

 

Charles: There are some plays I wouldn’t have done, some decisions I wouldn’t have taken.  At the time, when you get to a crossroads, you have to make a decision then and there.  You have to say, “I will do this job and not that one.”  At those crossroads - because I know what happened - I might take the other signpost and see where that led.  There are a number of occasions I have turned down one reparatory company to do a better paid job.  Now I would be fascinated to know what would have happened if I had taken the other job and gone down that road.

 

         It’s the same in any profession.  When you get to the crossroads you know that if you do go in one direction, you can’t go in the other.  You make a choice.  Unfortunately, you can’t roll back time.

 

Melanie: No, you can’t.  Where do you see yourself, say, 5 years from now?

 

Charles: I hope I’ll still be working - and writing.  I always thought that, provided my brain would work, then I shall work.  I don’t ever want to stop working.  I think the people who I admire and envy most are those who die in harness.  They are still doing a job they love.

 

         I love writing, acting and singing (although I’m a bit diffident about my writing these days because, like dancers, you only have a limited life as an artist).  I know my voice will go eventually.  It won’t have the same robustness or range and I hope I will have to sense to give up singing before that happens.

 

Melanie: And finally, what about your plans for the immediate future?

 

Charles: Well, I’m finishing this show, Annie.  Then I’m going back to my cottage in Derbyshire and writing the next book in a series I’m doing.  I have to work quite hard because I’ve lost ten weeks writing work over this show so I really have to get into a disciplined life there.

 

         Like acting, writing is extremely dull as a life.  An actor comes to the theatre 6 days a week and gets ready for the next performance.  A writer has the same thing.  He wakes up, starts writing, has lunch, writes some more in the afternoon (That’s not how I work but each to their own).  Then maybe has the evening off (but when I’m near the end of the book I do three sessions a day) and it’s a very dull existence.  Anyone looking in would just see me either staring at the wall or scribbling on a pad of paper.  (Now I am doing the radio show, I realise I could have talked to him a great deal more - interesting he preferred to write longhand).

 

Melanie: Charles West, thank you very much.

 

Charles: Thank you Melanie.  It’s been nice to meet you.

 

---

Introduction to Actress Eileen Pollock

 

    This was only my second interview and, as a result, I was still very nervous.  I did make a few mistakes which I learned for future interviews. In many ways this didn’t go as smoothly as Peter’s, but that was due to a number of factors beyond our control.

    Prior to arranging the interview I had dropped a letter in at the Stage Door of the Liverpool Playhouse explaining that I had met Peter and that it was on his suggestion that I was contacting her.

    I got a shock when I got home that night.  Mum said she’d been speaking to Lilo Lil on the phone at dinner time!  She had apparently been replying to my letter.  Judging by the time she rang, I must have missed her by about five minutes.

    She’d given Mum a time to meet her so I went along - but she was ill so it had to be cancelled and another time arranged.  This time I was the one who had a dreadful cold!  She was lovely - even took me up to her dressing room and made me some freshly squeezed hot lemon and honey.  I was very apologetic about “messing her around” but she just laughed and said she wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.  We talked fora while and she mentioned that Peter had told her about Trishia, my friend from university who had been there when he’d agreed to the interview.  She suggested I bring her along to the interview.

    Big mistake!

    I did manage to do the interview on the third attempt but I was very flustered. 

    For a start, I always like to get there with at least 10 minutes to spare in case of problems - but she was half an hour late picking me up and got lost going into town.  I was really panicking.  As it turned out, luck was on our side.  Eileen herself was late because she’d forgotten about the interview!

    Unfortunately, her dressing room was in use so we had to do the interview in the auditorium which was a nightmare.  We had a stream of interruptions (which can be heard on the tape).

    Also, having a third party with you when you do the interview can be very … off putting.  As hard as I tried to ignore Trishia, she insisted on joining in the conversation (which she had promised not to do!)  I was furious when she corrected me on the title of Far and Away.  I know that was my sticking point because I kept saying Home and Away (which is the name of a popular Australian soap opera!)  Eileen even put her finger to her lips and pointed at the tape recorder.

    As a result of this interview I am always reluctant to have anyone with me - even Paul or Christine.

    The other thing this interview taught me was never, ever trust everything a newspaper says.  I got my fingers burned a couple of times during this interview as a result of doing just that.

    Eileen herself could not have been nicer.  She was very patient and later told me that I’d done an excellent job, especially bearing in mind the problems we had.  She was lot tougher than Peter in personality, despite being lovely she was very abrasive and I would not like to cross her.  Even when we’d finished, she didn’t seem in too much of a hurry to leave.

    It has been difficult to transcribe this interview for two reasons:

   

    1.  My tape recorder is a bit faulty; and

 

    2.  She speaks so fast!

 

    My only disappointment is that unfortunately, despite her requesting a copy of the tape, I was unable to provide her with one.  Shortly after the interview, she left Liverpool and I have been unable to trace her since then.

Transcript of Interview with Actress Eileen Pollock

 

Melanie: I am sitting opposite Nellie Boswell’s arch rival (Eileen laughs), namely actress Eileen Pollock who played Lilo Lil.  Eileen, first of all, how did you get into acting?  (Woah!  That was a bit abrupt.  Where was the welcome and the thanks for joining us?)

 

Eileen  Well my first memory, I suppose … like a loot of kids I was very interested when I was very small.  I remember enacting Noddy with my granny.  She was quite often in bed and she was Big Ears and I was Noddy - that was my first acting experience really!  Then I wrote a play I would sing poems - I can’t remember them now - on Children’s Hour in Belfast.  So I was interested at that stage.

 

         Then, when I was a bit older, I used to boss the other kids in the street, get their little brothers and my sister involved in the nativity play, that kind of thing.  I would direct it and would get the best part - except that I couldn’t play Our Lady because Maria McElaney (the girl next door) was much prettier than me, so I played King Herod or something like that!  I also did the backdrops and organised it all.  (Laughs)

 

         When I got to grammar school, we didn’t do any drama so this early interest kind of waned.  I know that my mother would always take us to pantomimes and, occasionally, to other shows in the Catholic Diocese and the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.

 

         I spent a year away in Spain, where I know I got interested in theatre.  When I started at university in Belfast I joined the Dramatic Society.  In fact, I joined in the first year.  But when I went along they seemed so terrible cliquish and snobby that I got cold feet and never went back.  It was only in my second year that I got courage enough, and a bit more confidence, that I went along and did their productions with them.  But it never occurred to me that a person - especially if you were doing languages - who has an ordinary background with no theatre involved in it would ever - could ever - go into theatre.

 

         So when I left college I came to London to do a Theatrical Translations [course] which I did work at - but I discovered that there were pub theatres opening up.  One such was the Bush Theatre which is now quite established - a sort of pre-West End trial theatre.  I joined them as an ASM - Acting Stage Manager).  Then, through being there, a company I much admired called Belt and Braces Touring Theatre Company, they came by.  They were looking for somebody to join them and I … well, I had a choice.  I could either go into the West End as an understudy, or join these madcap revolutionaries traipsing up and down the country.  (Laughs)  Of course I joined the madcap revolutionaries traipsing up and down the country!  I stayed with them for five years and then there was no turning back.

 

Melanie: You mentioned that you speak more than one language.  How many can you actually speak?

 

Eileen: Well, I studied French and Spanish at the university.  At school I had already done Irish and Latin but I left them by the wayside.  (Laughs)  Then I did Italian for the purposes of translation and I’m currently attempting to learn modern Greek.

 

Melanie: (Impressed)  I know you worked in films as well as television.  Now, everyone wants to know this question (Don’t I mean answer?!)  You must have been asked it a million times.  What was it like working with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman?

 

Eileen: Well, it was very enjoyable.  I wasn’t so gobsmacked with either of them - not that I don’t admire them.  I was more thrilled to be working with a buy  I’d toured with years before called Colin Meahney.  He is now in Star Trek: The New Generation (She meant Next Generation) and he played a character opposite me in Far and Away.  I hadn’t seen him for eight years.  That was much more fun for me.  He hasn’t changed one bit!  He lives in Los Angeles, they’ve got a swimming pool and all that sort of thing, which he never had in his origins either.  But that was more fun.

 

         They are nice.  That’s all I can say really.  They had to maintain a certain reserve from the general public because they would be absolutely mobbed, you know?  There were girls in the streets in Dublin just fainting, you know, they were in such a state because they cause a glimpse of him, you know?

 

Melanie: (First burned fingers)  I believe from the paper that you went around saying to everybody, “How would you like to shake the hand that’s shaken the hand of Tom Cruise?”

 

Eileen: (Laughs)  Well I didn’t go around saying that!  (I am really embarrassed because I’m actually quoting from the paper - a copy of which I’ve brought along to show her)  But some people asked, “Did you have any scenes with him?” and of course I did because he was about the only person I did have scenes with - and Nicole - in the film.  I was just an incident in the lives of those two characters.  So when people got so excited and said, “Oh my God, you actually performed opposite him!”  I said, “Yes.  Not only that but I got to touch him,” you know?  People would say, “Oh my God, and you washed your hands after that?”

 

         I mean, he is terribly charming and she is lovely.

 

Melanie: Moving away from films slightly, I know you appeared on television as well - in the Liverpool sitcom Bread.  What was it like joining such a well established cast?

 

Eileen: It was scary!  I must say that Jean Boht, for starters, was brilliant.  When I arrived up, I had never actually seen it.  To tell the absolute truth I saw the first one and thought, this won’t go very far! and then I just didn’t have an opportunity to follow it up.

 

         So this was a couple of years later and I didn’t know very much about the series at all.  But when I turned up on location she was there and, of course, Ron Forfar who played Freddy Boswell - he was my boyfriend.  It was Jean who went through our lines with us and was very, very helpful.

 

Melanie: What was it like working with Carla Lane because she was actually on the set all the time.  It must have been very off-putting?

 

Eileen: Well Carla, when she was there - she would turn up sometimes on location but mostly she was around when we were in the studio.  You see, the inside scenes - any time you saw the inside of the Boswell’s house or that - it was done in a studio down in London.  The outside scenes, the exteriors in the street and anything done in the park, of course, were done in Liverpool.  So it was mostly in the studio that she was around.  She was pretty good.  If you wanted something changed - especially with my character being Irish - she would write things in a way that an English person thinks Irish people speak … and we don’t!  So I would say, “Look, if I said it this other way around, would that be better?  Would you accept it?” and she was very amenable to that, although she is pretty obstinate in that, you know, what she writes is what she’s thought about.  She’s very prolific and she’s always writing - she never stops, never takes a holiday from it.

 

Melanie: (Oh dear!  Second time my fingers are burned in this interview.  I hope this is the last.  Thank God I brought the newspaper to show Eileen or she would have thought I was crazy - if she didn’t already … this is a much tenser interview than Peter’s)  She doesn’t like Christmas, either, does she?  (What was I thinking of?  I was referring here to another quote from the Daily Mirror but it’s highly unlikely that Eileen will know what Carla’s views on Christmas are.  I could have bitten my tongue out for asking that!)

 

Eileen: I don’t know.  Erm … I think maybe it’s that she doesn’t like a lot of fuss, you know?

 

Melanie: (Shut up, woman!)  Yes, I know in the paper last year she said she wasn’t going to celebrate Christmas at all.

 

Eileen: Well I don’t know whether that is true because, obviously in writing her series, she’s got to incorporate Christmas because of the general public.  But I can imagine that she’s not … I mean, she has given some lovely parties in the course of the year but I can imagine she doesn’t like all that hype.  Also her particular concern for animals means that she would be against Christmas because there’s so much slaughter of animals for the celebration.

 

Melanie: (Feeling very embarrassed and trying to get this interview back on track)  Which do you prefer, working in television or theatre?

 

Eileen: (Seems to sigh with relief - so do I) I think I really prefer theatre - I love to have an audience out there.  For example, yesterday we had two shows and each time it was quite a different experience, so that can be something enjoyable.

 

         Of course, television pays more money than theatre and that’s quite nice, and the filming is quite fascinating, because it’s really so disjointed.  You know, when you come on at the beginning of a show, there is a through line - a kind of journey, as we call it - that you make from curtain up to curtain fall.  I like that because you can get a much better hold on your character.

 

Melanie: Have you ever had any funny moments or embarrassing experiences on the stage, and have you ever had the giggles?  (Why only the stage?  Why not in the television studio - which I later discovered, in the case of Bread, actually is a stage!)

 

Eileen: Oh, the giggles, yes.  I did a play with Stephen Wry from The Crying Game.  I worked with him a couple of times with his company, Seal Day which is no longer operating.  It was an Irish based company.

 

         He played a saxophonist - oh no, a trombonist.  He was my estranged husband.  There was one point where I would come in - it was set in Belfast, in terrible times when there were bombs and shootings to a much greater extent than now.  I manage to get back into the house (he lets me in the back door) and every night - or so it seemed in my memory - he would say something that would catch me out - something different.  He was able to hide in his trombone whereas I was having to pretend that I had come in with a terrible cough.  I’d be spluttering away until I could compose myself.  Oh I could have murdered him - but he had such an innocent face that he could have got away with murder.  He was a good actor though.

 

Melanie: How do you feel when fans recognise you in the street or come up to you when you’re relaxing after a show?

 

Eileen: I don’t mind.  As long as people have been watching the show then that’s terrific.  I’d rather that than be ignored because everybody hates it, you know.

 

         The thing that makes me laugh is like when you’re in a shop and you’re coming up to a cash desk.  Someone like the cashier or someone will say, “Excuse me, I’m sorry to say this but you don’t half remind me of that tart from Bread!”  Then somebody else will say, “Shh … don’t embarrass the woman, that’s a terrible thing to say!”  I have to say, “Well, it’s probably because I played the part!”

 

Melanie: What’s been the highest point of your career so far?

 

Eileen: I suppose, in terms of advance in technique and all that, I would say making that film because that was an extraordinary experience - you know, travelling first class to Montanna, it was an opportunity to see a bit of America as well.

 

         I’m going back in April, but that’s doing a one woman show called “Fight Like Tigers” which is a completely different kettle of fish.  It’s taken from the autobiography of an Irish American mine workers leader, who was active at the turn of the century, and the Irish American Institution … you couldn’t say that when you were p****d, could you?  (Laughs)  They invited me over for a month of performances all over the States which is going to be brilliant.

 

Melanie: Have you ever had a dream come true?

 

Eileen: I’ve had loads of dreams come true!  I’m very lucky.  My dreams tend to be things like certain companies and people that I wanted to work with.  For example, not long ago I worked with the Red Kettle Theatre Company in Waterford.  I did a tour with them - and I’m going to be working with Double Joint (a company that I’m involved with).  there’s a lot of Irish companies and I’m working my way through them all.

 

Melanie: I know you don’t have any children (I didn’t know that, to be honest!  I did well to fake that!) but if you did, what advice would you give to them if they wanted to break into show business?

 

Eileen: To leave no stone unturned, really.

 

Melanie: You wouldn’t try to put them off?

 

Eileen: No, I wouldn’t, because I know that if I had any children I would rather lead lives that satisfy them rather than … well, my mother, of course, being a good mother, she tried to instil into us that you must have a ‘proper job’, a steady job that you can always fall back on.  I suppose that’s where the languages were supposed to come in but they’re all so rusty by now that they’re only good for chatting people up when I’m on holiday. (Laughs)

 

Melanie: Who was the first boy you ever kissed?  (Whoops!  I forgot to warn her of the change of subject!  Be more careful!)

Eileen: (No hesitation here)  Tom Totten - who then went on to become a priest!  (Laughs)  I have a funny effect on people!  (Laughs again)  But I thought you could tell!  Of course, it was, like, on the way home from a walk in the park or something like that, and he kissed me down this entry down the back of our house.  I was absolutely sure that you could tell by my face - you probably could because I was blushing so hard!

 

Melanie: How did you meet him?

 

Eileen: Oh, it’s so long ago!  He was probably the brother of one of my friends or something like that.  You know, gangs of boys and gangs of girls going to discos and things.  (I couldn’t react because I never did that type of thing and really DIDN’T know so I stayed silent and moved onto the next question:  TIP TO SELF: Try to at least FAKE understanding!)

 

Melanie: What makes you sad?

 

Eileen: Fighting.  I find it … I mean I know, for example, about the background to the fighting in Ireland but that’s only one element or global warfare which I find impossible to understand.  It makes me feel very vulnerable, very weak, because I used to be better at standing up and declaring things.  I still hold my principals firmly but now it’s become so enormous that it’s beyond me.  That makes me very sad.

 

Melanie: When did you last cry?

 

Eileen: (Laughs)  If we carry on this conversation it will be in 2 or 3 seconds time!

 

         During the rehearsals for Annie.  I’m awfully soppy and the little girls, especially the littlest one who’s talking abut her dream, she’s lost her mummy, and when the Annie’s are singing their sad little songs.  I mean, it’s a load of sugary nonsense but, in the rehearsal room all of us - men included - were all kind of pretending that we had something in our eyes, you know.

 

Melanie: What’s been your greatest achievement?

 

Eileen: I have to do it again.  Writing a show - it was floored, as they say, and I must go back and redo it - about Einstein.  I think the amount of head energy that went into doing that and, against all odds getting it put on - there was no money involved - I would rate that as an achievement.

 

Melanie: Would you like to appear in any of the big American soaps?

 

Eileen: (Passionately) I would love to.  I had a plan.  Myself and a neighbour in Ireland, who was an actress.  We were going to sell ourselves to the soaps of the world.  So we would start off in EastEnders, do a stint there and we’d be thrown out of the square for being fighting Irish cousins - she’d be a southerner and I’d be a northerner; then we’d do Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Brookside; then we’d go over and do the Irish one.  What’s it called?  (Thinks)  Glen Roe - then we’d move on to the American ones and land up in Australia.  Then maybe there’d be some in South East Asia that we could pop into (in India and things like that).  Then, before we knew it - maybe 5 years alter - we’d be back in EastEnders!  We thought it would be a nice little earner, really.

 

Melanie: If you did get into a big film or soap in America, who would be your leading man?

 

Eileen: Let me see.  That’s a difficult one because there are so many very good actors.  A lot of the younger ones seem to be very sort of, similar, you know?  I can never remember one from the other so I’d probably go for one of the older ones like Donald Sutherland or someone like that.

 

Melanie: If you could turn the clock back, what would you do differently?

 

Eileen: I wouldn’t be put off by the presumption that other people’s information is always correct.  For example, career’s officers that I had who said, “There’s no way you should even bother to become a translator because you’ve got to be trilingual since birth!  There’s no way a person like you could ever get into theatre or do a post graduate course because you’d need Double Honours English or something!”  I let that hold me back for some years.

 

         I mean, I don’t regret what happened in those years but I certainly would have got int theatre faster.  I would love to have gone to drama school.

 

Melanie: So where did you get your training from?

 

Eileen: On the road.

 

Melanie: If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you take with you?

 

Eileen: Some form of music, even if it was some form of guitar that I could play myself - or certainly learn.

 

Melanie: So can you play any instruments?

 

Eileen: Well, I used to play the guitar (rather badly) for a while - I haven’t touched it for ages.  In fact, I gave my guitar to a friend’s family because her kid’s boyfriend are interested (sic) - and they’re good.  So it was wasted on me.

 

         But I would take a musical interment to learn, to entertain me.   I would certainly take a book - probably the Complete Works of Shakespeare or something like that, or some great big tome that will keep me going for a while.  And … what else?  I think I’d be quite happy with that - as long as I had my music, or maybe … well, I don’t suppose you’d have a radio that you’d be able to tune into Capital FM or anything like that, so it would have to be some kind of music, ideally.

 

Melanie: What’s your most treasured possession?

 

Eileen: A tapestry.  An embroidery by the young student.  It was his final year project which he made in Galway.  It’s 12 foot longhand just under 2 foot deep, and it’s a wonderfully rude anti clerical romp particularly about pieces from the bible that the author and myself find particularly offensive.  Like a woman is made for the glory of man and should be treated as such.  Things like that, you know.

 

Melanie: What’s the most extravagant thing you’ve ever done?

 

Eileen: Hired a plane from Galway to Bristol because … I don’t know why I wasn’t able to get on the scheduled flight.  But I had a performance of Bread, the stage show, in Reading and the only way I could get there was by spending £500 which I miraculously had at the time - normally I wouldn’t.  That was an extravagance.  Everyone  said I wa a fool because, of course, I had an understudy but I had promised her that I would never get sick!  She was probably really annoyed because I was depriving her of her chance to go on, but she did seem serious when she asked me not to get sick.  She was understudying for Jean, as well.  She wouldn’t have minded going on for Jean but I don’t think she wanted to do my part.

 

Melanie: Of course, it was quite a big part.

 

Eileen: Yes.  But on the stage show there wasn’t that much - my character only had about three scenes.  But I think the problem was that Lil had an Irish accent and, being an English person, she wasn’t so comfortable with that.

 

Melanie: I know we’ve just had Christmas but what’s your idea of the perfect Christmas Day?

 

Eileen: To be completely by myself, with a bottle of champagne.  Food doesn’t really matter.  My favourite Christmas was when I had a couple of fried eggs, rice and some tomato ketchup!  And a series of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies on telly.  And I would be perfectly happy.

 

Melanie: Do you have a bad temper?

 

Eileen: Yes. (Laughs)  What can I say?  Mostly at myself and things.  Unless they really deserve it, other people don’t usually get the brunt of it.  Of course, it’s always your nearest and dearest who do.  I have no patience, you see.

 

Melanie: What would you say was your worst fault?

 

Eileen: (With admirable patience!)  Impatience!

 

Melanie: Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?

 

Eileen: Yes.  There’s plenty of writing that I want to do.  And I would like to see the company Double Joint established as a leading Irish Theatre company.  There are plenty of films I’d like to be in as well.  (Laughs)

 

Melanie: I wasn’t going to ask this this, but I’ve been asked to specifically  Would you ever have plastic surgery?  (Coward!  I had every intention of asking her that but I didn’t know how she’d react to it!)

 

Eileen: (Thoughtfully, which surprised me)  No, I certainly wouldn’t.  I’m always disappointed when I hear that people have had it.

 

Melanie: (Moving on.  I missed the perfect opportunity for a natural question there.  I’m sticking rigidly to my idiot board.  As this is only my second interview, I can be forgiven for that.  Plus, I’m far more nervous throughout this than I need to  be because I have someone watching.  NEVER again!  I should have asked her why she felt disappointed hearing people had had plastic surgery.  Never mind).  What are you most frightened of?

 

Eileen: Violent death, I suppose.  And pain.

 

Melanie: Do you have any phobias?

 

Eileen: No - I can’t think of anything you’d call a phobia.  (Giggles)  Apart from being knocked down in London - I refuse to die in London!

 

Melanie: (The atmosphere needs to be lightened up so I skip a few questions.  I’m already learning!) How do you real when you’re away from the theatre? When you’re not working?

 

Eileen: Listening to music and, actually, just spending time with my friends, chatting on and setting the world to rights, or reading.

 

Melanie: (I realise I’ve missed a question out)  Do you get nervous before you go on stage?

 

Eileen: Yes.  Not all the time but I have nervous days and brave days.  Obviously at the beginning of the show, when it’s just opening, you are nervous as to how it’s going to go down.  But when it settles in then it’s easier.

 

Melanie: How do you cope with the nerves?  (If it was me, I’d drive people insane with my constant chatter)

 

Eileen: Oh, just a deep breath, that’s all.  And trust in everybody else.  Luckily I’ve usually been working with very good people.  Even the little kids in Annie are amazing.  They’re so confident!  They would be nervous alright, but they just take the bull by the horns, go out there and entertain.  They’re smashing.

 

Melanie: I think maybe, though, that they are too young to feel fear.

 

Eileen: Possibly.

 

Melanie: (Oh brother!  Shut up!  She doesn’t need to know this).  I mean, I used to be on the stage myself and I know what it’s like.  You just get out there and then, afterwards, you think, “Did I do that?”

 

         (Realising, I shut up, fairly smart) Finally, what are your plans for the immediate future - after Annie?

 

Eileen: I’m going over to Dublin for a week to re-rehearse The Government Inspector which was done by Double Joint and toured Ireland, and is now going to do 5 weeks at the Tricyle in London.  It’s an absolutely hilarious version by the Belfast actress and writer Marie Jones.  It’s just stunningly funny.

 

Melanie: Eileen Pollock, thank you very much.  (I should have wished her luck!)

 

Eileen: Thank you!

 

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Transcript of Interview with actor Peter Byrne

 

Melanie:I’m sitting in the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre and opposite me is ‘Nellie Boswell’s’ boyfriend, namely actor Peter Byrne.  Peter, thank you for joining us.

Peter:(Smiles kindly - how does he not roll his eyes?)  Oh, not at all, it’s a pleasure.

Melanie:First of all, could I ask you how you first discovered that you wanted to go into show business?

Peter:My word, that’s going back a bit!  Do you know that next year - you won’t believe this, or perhaps you will - I will have been in the profession for 50 years.

Melanie:(Genuinely shocked) 50 years?

Peter:Man and boy - apart from three years in the Army (I did some National Service) - so it’s quite a long time ago.  We’re actually sitting in the Liverpool Playhouse where I’m playing in a revival of Daphne DuMaurier’s September Tide which was the only play she ever wrote, and the years have flown by.

Now you asked how I started.

Well, I left school under a cloud - I was politely asked to leave … we won’t go into the reasons … when I was about 16.  My father had been a musician and I believe that my grandfather, for a very short time, had been an actor.  I never met him because he died long before I was born - he was much older than my grandmother.  But my mother always had great ambitions for me to be a musician or a lawyer - or an Indian Chief!  Something, you know, professional.

 

I had appeared in some school plays, got the bug and so I applied for an audition to the great Italia Conti who had discovered Noel Coward and, funnily enough, Gertrude Lawrence.  They had been in Where the Rainbow Ends way back in 1911 when they were children.  I passed the audition and went into it too, and it was exactly the same as it had ben in Noel Coward’s day.  All the costumes were the same and so was the scenery.  It just went on going.  It was a children’s patriotic play which would be very dated now with St George, Cubby the Lion Cub, the Slacker - everyone who was anyone before the war such as John Mills, Brian Herne, Gertrude Lawrence, Noel Coward, Anthony Newley towards the end, myself and Millicent Martin was in it.  It reads like a Who’s Who of Theatre.  Whenever there were young children in the old films or television programmes (like the Will Hay films) they were mostly kids from Italia Conti.

I went on tour and made a few (mostly propaganda) films during the war, then I joined the great Will Hay School Act - you may have seen him in his old films on television - he was a mega star in those days.  This was about 1945.  I did a radio series for the BBC, then we were in a review at the old Stole Theatre called For Crying Out Loud with Novo and Nox (all the great names) and we were there for about a year.

We did the first Post War Royal Command Performance at the Colosseum with great artists on the bill like Syd Field, Wilson, Keppel and Betty, Webster Booth and Anne Zeigler, George Doonan and Vic Oliver … I mean, that’s when the Command Performance was a variety Command Performance.  Variety was on the way out but there were these great artists and it was quite an experience, particularly playing at the Colosseum which is a huge theatre.

I went back many years later and, I don’t know … when you’re young you have no fear.  You just go on stage and - I suppose because you have no experience - you just go on and enjoy yourself.  When I went into the theatre and saw the size f the place I wondered how I had the nerve (or the cheek!) to go on there with hardly any experience.

Of course, in those days, the war was just finishing.  I was called up, went into the army and I disappeared.  We went over to France and the Middle East and all over the place. Then the Cold War started and I was stuck in the army for the best part of three years.

When I came out, Italia Conti had died.  I didn’t know how to get a job, my parents were living in South Africa.  I’d never had to do anything for myself and now, all of a sudden, I was thrown on the scrapheap, as it were.

Melanie:Were you popular with girls at school?  (Hang on, that was supposed to be much later in the interview - I’ll have to concentrate!)

Peter:(Laughs)  Well, let’s put it this way, I’ve always been very fond of the opposite sex!

I went to a Catholic Grammar School and learned Latin (you know - amo, amass, anat - I love, you love, we all love - and that’s cost me a few bob in my time I can tell you).

Yes, I love girls and, of course, being in Where the Rainbow Ends at 16 years of age with all the fairies an elves, who were all nubile 16 year old girls - it was wonderful.  It was lovely but we were all so innocent, we really were.  And it was the age of innocent (or the age of terror?)  All that changed in the sixties, I’m happy to say.

Funnily enough, there’s a young lady in Liverpool who wrote to me that was at Conti’s with me all those years ago.  She lives here now.  It’s nice because we all remember each other with great fondness and affection.

Melanie:So do you keep in touch with the other actors?

Peter:Yes, I’m a great friend of Bernard Leader - I lived with him for a while (he played the leading role of Crispin in Where the Rainbow Ends) but most o them gave up the business.  I think I’m the sole survivor of that particular year.

Melanie:(Might as well continue in the same vein)  Who was the first girl you ever kissed?  (Could do better!)

Peter:(Unfazed)  I think it was a girl called Josephine Tschey (pronounced Chewy).  She had a Swiss mother and father but she lived in England.  She was beautiful but absolutely terrified of her father.  I’d drop her at the top of her road, you know.  It was all very sedate and nice.  I met her many years later, about three or four years ago, and she’s still as enchanting as ever.

I read a quote once in a Reader’s Digest and I’ve used this phrase many, many times.  When you meet a beautiful woman like your good self (Flatterer!) - or some of the beautiful woman who are listening - I love looking at them and saying, “My darling, you look lovelier than yesterday and yet less than tomorrow” and it never fails.

Melanie:(Stumped for a moment)  It wouldn’t.  You’ve done a lot of shows on television and theatre, but have you ever been in a musical?

Peter:Oh yes.  When I was a young actor, of course, they were light operettas.  I was in Bless the Bride, for example.  I think they’ve come back into fashion, almost, with Andrew Lloyd Webber but they went out and became very Americanised.  I was in Two Bouquets and I’ve been in a lot of pantomimes (that’s my Walter Mitty thing once a year) and, of course, having started in a musical show (even though they were reviews -it’s the sort of thing you wouldn’t see nowadays - sketches), I enjoyed it.

I don’t profess to have a good voice but in those days (in the light operettas) there were generally two young couples who sang quartets in four part harmony.  The other three were always opera singers who could sing and/or read music, but that one was always given the counter melody which is the most difficult one.  But it was amazing because those trained singers never really let fly at rehearsal and then, when they do, they produce these enormous sounds.  Your veins are sticking out at the side of your neck and you know that your voice isn’t trained - it sounds very, very reedy.  I still sing in the bath though.

Melanie:Aside from musicals, I know you’ve been on television lately - you recently appeared in the sitcom Bread as Nellie Boswell’s fiancé!  (Wait, what?  It was boyfriend before!  If I say either of those two again I will scream!  Bless him, Peter bites his lip, trying not to laugh).

Peter:(Very patiently)  Well, fancy man is what they call me.  Yes, poor old Derek.  He’s still waiting for her in Sefton Park, I think, now that her husband has finally disappeared with the gypsies.

Bread finished a couple of years ago, as you know, even though you’ve seen the repeats.  Most of my stuff was on film.  I used to come up here and drive through the night and I filmed in front of the museums and in Sefton Park - all over the place really -

Melanie:I was at the museums when you were filming.  (Idiot!  Let the poor man finish)

Peter:Oh really.  Ah!  What a wonderful museum it is too, isn’t it.  Absolutely magnificent.

It was rather strange coming back.  I was seeing ghosts everywhere when I was going past in the taxi, thinking, “That’s where I did the scene with Jean,” and so on.  I was missing everybody and thinking how sad it is that they’re not here - and the first person I bumped into was Eileen Pollock who played Lilo Lil (she’s going to be appearing here at Christmas in Annie (Great plug for Eileen there, Peter.  Not many do that!)  She’s a brilliant actress, I love her dearly - and she’s an absolute hoot.

Melanie:Are you still in touch with any of the Bread cast (Watch for similar questions)

Peter:Yes, well a great friend of mine is Giles Watling who played the Proddy Vicar (I’ve known his father for hundreds of years) and, funnily enough, the last thing I did on stage here in Liverpool - but it was at the Empire - was another Daphne DuMaurier called Jamaica Inn and Giles was in that.  I played the Vicar that time and it was most enjoyable.  Yes, I keep in touch with them.  I hear from Jean occasionally - she’s moving house apparently.

Melanie:She lives in London, doesn’t she?

Peter:Yes, she lives in Barnes and she’s got this enormous place that she shares with her husband, Carl Davies (the composer who seems to write the music in every television programme and film - and of course he did the oratorio up here with Paul McCartney - they’re very good friends of the McCartneys).  Apart from that, I haven’t seen any of the others.

Of course, I was in television in the year dot.  I started in 1953 in a series with Billy Whitelaw called The Power of Marriage.  And then I did a lot of television until 1955 when I went into Dixon of Dock Green.  I’d been in the stage version of the film (called The Blue Lamp) which was a great success.  We went into London and that’s how I got into television.

They were looking for a vehicle for Jack Warner and created Dixon of Dock Green. Dixon was murdered in the film and also in the play, but Jack always said that he was the only copper that came back from his own funeral - because they revived him.  He did a series of six and then it went on for the next 20 years.  On Telly Addicts the other dnight, Noel Edmonds asked if the contestant could remember the name of the character that I played.  the poor woman couldn’t - and she was my mother-in-law!  (Laughs)  No, not really.  Andy Crawford, if you’re wondering, folks.

Melanie:While you were in Bread Peter Howitt who played Joey Boswell quit the series - (Duh!  Listen closer - stop jumping around … that’s 20 years in retrospect though)

Peter:Sadly, yes.

Melanie:Did you feel, personally, that Graham Bickley (who took over the role) was unfairly treated by the viewers?  He was very heavily criticised, wasn’t he?

Peter: Well I think he won them over eventually but he was on a hiding to nothing anyway.  If it had been the other sway around, Peter could have been equally criticised.

Melanie:Yes, because you get used to the actors playing the characters, don’t you?

Peter:Yes, and it was such a strong character.

The late Ted Willis once said to me that all the great television series have a father figure (or sometimes a mother figure) and Peter was a kind of surrogate father.  Jean (who played Ma Boswell) was the ‘Mother Courage’ but Peter was the one who fought battles etc, when Dad was whizzing off with Lilo Lil.  He had this element of danger about him, too.

Graham is a slightly softer personality.  They dyed his hair and tried to make him into a clone, but after the second series that he was in, he eventually evolved his own style.  It was the same with Melanie Hil who played Aveline, too, because they were such broad characters.

 

Melanie:In a way, though, I think Aveline was a much harder character to portray.  I mean, they should have written the character of Aveline out when Gilly Coman quit because there was no way that Melanie Hill could compete with her interpretation of Aveline.

Peter:I quite agree.  I don’t know whether you saw Melanie in Auf Weidersein Pet.  She was brilliant.  There again, she used to wear the leathers on the motor bike and she was fabulous in that.  She’s a very good actress but, again, she was on a hiding to nothing.  And she’s such a nice person too.  You know who she’s married to?

Melanie:No?

Peter:Sean Bean.  What a nice chap he is, too.

Melanie:Oh … (Very long pause while I wonder who he is!)

Peter:(Realising he has momentarily stumped me)  Now there’s a long pause while you went into Fantasy Land.  You’re obviously quite a big fan.

Melanie:No, I - er - (Trying desperately to recover - I don’t want to admit I don’t know who Sean Bean is on the tape.  Hang on, I think I remember something …)  Oh, that’s right!  They’ve just had a baby, haven’t they?

Peter:Indeed they have.  I don’t know how he finds the time, do you?

Melanie:No, especially because I know Melanie Hill has been filming Casualty recently, as well.

Peter:Well, of course, Melanie was very heavily pregnant when we were doing the last series and we had all sorts of contingency plans in place just in case it happened during the show - but she was delivered safely two weeks after filming finished.

Melanie:Changing the subject slightly?

Peter:Only sightly?

Melanie:Yes, it’s still to do with theatre.  Does being a celebrity make it difficult to have normal relationships with people.  By which I mean do you have lots of close friend?  (If I did this today I would assume he does.  Peter is one of the nicest gentlemen I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting).

Peter:Have I lots of close friends?

Well, I grew up with a family who lived at the top of our road and they were Canadians.  One of them, Billy Lawton, was six months older than me.  If you have a friendship from when seven which goes on to your teens, then that’s a friendship for life.

We didn’t see one another for ages.  I’d been going backwards and forwards to Canada doing work over there and our paths would cross - he was in television as well.  I was over there in 1973 and I couldn’t find him because he was in another city and I was in Toronto.

Eventually we made contact after 30 years when he came over to England to do some television - that Creskin Show which was very big over here and in the States - and we decided to meet.  I remember going up to the hotel in Hyde Park and thinking, “Oh gosh!  Supposing this is like the army reunion,” that that’s all you have in common, you know, and when you come out you go back into your lives so it’s a disaster when you meet up on these pub crawls or whatever.  You’re all looking at your watch and you just want to get away.  I thought it would be awful if it was like that.  But it wasn’t.

I had just moved back to where we’d grown up - incidentally, I was born next door to Hendon Police College (little did I know that I wa going to spend the next 20 years playing a policeman on television!)  It was as though all our memories were childhood ones.  They were first impressions.  He remembered all the tiny things.

If it had been an adult relationship and we hadn’t seen one another for 30 years, we would have grown away from each other.  I would say that I’ve only really had two close friends that have stayed with me all my life.  I’ve had lots of friends and acquaintances but those two - Bernard Leader and Bill - are my two closet.

Bill came over quite recently with his wife when we did this play at the King’s Head.  They were going on to the continent to visit the war graves (his wife’s brother was killed during the Normandy invasion).  They were here for about four days and we spent a lot of time together.  They saw the show and we really did have a wonderful time.

He had a big show in Canada with Margaret Trudo - a talk show - and he’s just retired.  We had a dance band when we were young (we were very American and thought we were really with it - he still sings over there with a Glen Miller type band) and he left me a tape.

So in answer to your question, I’ve always lived in a kind of goldfish bowl because my face has always been known all my life and I love meeting people, so no, I wouldn’t say it’s been a hindrance.

Melanie:You mentioned America just then.  Would you like to appear in any of the American soaps?

Peter:Oh I’d love to.  Well, you see, when I was young, the war was on and the American films were being shown - it was all so glamorous.  We believed all the Americans had three cars and lived in luxury etc, and it was all wonderful.

My aunt ran a cinema in a little village called Puzey in Woking where my cousins had been evacuated during the war.  In order to make some extra money shed been the usherette and then, as the war went on, people got called up and the projectionist was one of them.  In the year dot, her first husband, who had died, had been a cinema projectionist (they did their courting in the cinema projection room) and so she said she’d take over in Puzey and run the cinema.  When I used to go down and stay, I’d rewind the films for her and, as a reward, I could peer through and watch all the movies.

 

So my training - well, I never really went to any dramatic school, but all my performances are derivative of Warner Brothers and their genre of movies.  And they were wonderful, wonderful films.  I know the names of not only all the star actors who were under contract but the contract stars.  It’s a bit like today when you watch television like EastEnders, Dixon of Dock Green, or even with Bread.  When we all come on the television, we are like old friends.  Well, it was the same with the movies, you know?

There was one chap called Jack Norton who played nothing but drunks.  He had a pencil thin moustache.  When he came on there’d be this wave of recognition.  You’d smile and the whole cinema would wait eagerly to see what sort of joke he was going to tell or whether he’d have a big or small part.  We knew them all, all the stars.

Melanie:That’s still true today.  (Is it?)

Peter:Yes, funnily enough, all my life I really wanted to get into the movies.  I made a few films when I was younger but, of course, with the onset of television, I got side tracked - well, that’s the wrong word, it was a conscious decision - but, I mean, Dixon of Dock Green was a freak show.  It ran for 20 years and, even though I did other things, people still remember me for that.

Melanie:How do you feel about the fact that Dixon of Dock Green is supposedly going to be repeated on Sky and also put onto video?

Peter:(Clearly very surprised but delighted)  Really?  Where did you hear that?

Melanie:I found out during my research - it’s still got to be confirmed.

Peter:Well, I now there are 30 in existence and it’s always puzzled me why they never showed it. 

One of the reasons is that when Ted Williams put up this idea for a show about stories of an ordinary policeman, at that time on television (and in films) policemen were portrayed as being either the village copper who says, “Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir,” and was a bit of an idiot; or he was frightfully laid back - or he had a Mid-Atlantic accent.

So the Drama Department, in their wisdom said, “Stories of an ordinary policeman?  How boring, how dull.”  It had never been done before, you know, to show that policemen were ordinary men doing an extraordinary job.  That they had families and a home life.

Ronnie Waldman, who was the Head of Light Entertainment, said he’d have the show so we went into that department instead.  Of course, for the next 15 years, Drama tried to get it back because it had 13 million viewers and became part of the Bayeaux tapestry of television.  I mean, even 20 years later people still remember it.  But we were a Drama show in the Light Entertainment Department and, of course, in the BBC they stick to their own departments.  For example, Light Entertainment sell variety programmes while the Drama Department sell programmes like Z-Cars, Softly Softly and that sort of thing.  And that’s why our show was very rarely repeated or shown elsewhere.

Melanie:Apparently Sky did a survey recently and Dixon of Dock Green was one of the shows most people want repeated.

Peter:(Beaming)  Really?  Yes, well I hope they show the ones in the 1970’s.  The show started in 1955 when television was very crude.  They showed six about two years ago, I think, of 1956 and it really was Mickey Mouse television.  We were all learning.  The show was only half an hour - 25 minutes actually - so you had just a little bit of introduction, a bit of a plot in the middle and then it was tied up.  It was only later that it went into 50 minutes and then it wasn’t so backed.  In the 60’s and 70’s there were some quite powerful ones.  Well, you’ve encouraged me now - maybe I’m going to be rediscovered.  And it will be on Sky television?

Melanie:Apparently.

Peter:Well, I’ll have to go and buy a dish now because Bread is on UK Gold which means that it won’t be shown on the national network now for 5 years.  Oh, you know what they say … don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.  If it comes through, I’ll take you out to lunch. :D

Melanie:What’s your biggest vice?  (Why didn’t I close the subject by saying I’m looking forward to it or something like that.  To move onto the next question feels … too abrupt.

Peter:I think it’s that I tend to over work.  All my life I’ve always tried to do three different things at once.  I love acting, directing and meeting people and so on, and I’ve been very fortunate (even though I’ve never really scaled the heights and become a big named ‘star’) that I’ve never stopped working for those 50 years.

I hope I hold a certain place in people’s affections but, having come up through television, it’s a face rather than a name.  Even though I appear at the theatre a lot, it’s not quite the same.  There are fewer people watching the show and it’s a very specialised type of audience to come to see it really.  I mean, I’ve been on television now for over 40 years os various generations have grown up with my face and they tend to know the name of the character rather than your name.

When Dixon was on, I was doing three different 50 minute shows as the old boy got older -

Melanie:You played Dixon, didn’t you?  (Uh oh, must listen)

Peter:(Smiling indulgently - maybe he realised why I was confused)  No, I played his son-in-law Andy Drawford.  Dixon was the father figure played by Jack Warner (I went bright red when he said this but, in my defence, I’d never seen the show and had no idea who Andy Crawford was.  When I apologised to Peter after the interview he laughed, waved away my apology and said not to worry about it because it was such a small mistake).

But as he got older I more or less carried the load.  And I was in two long runs in the West End (Boeing Boeing and There’s a Girl in my Soup) which I was doing at the same time.  I used to race off and then I would film through the night - and I was running a business at the same time (I was in management) so it was seven days a week, 14/15 hours a day and something had to give.

But I’ve done that a lot, you see.  I was in Bread for four years and, at the same time, I was in the West End in The Business of Murder with Richard Todd for a year and dashing backwards and forwards to Liverpool.  Then, for the other three years, I was on tour with both plays (The Business of Murder and Bread) and i had to drive through the night.  So I suppose that if you asked my wife she would say that is my biggest vice.

Melanie:How did you meet your wife?

Peter:We met many years ago when she was an actress at Farnham Rep, but she didn’t stay an actress for very long.  She got married to somebody else (a doctor) and he died in tragic circumstances.  I married someone else too, but I was then divorced and - quite by chance - I bumped into her.  I din’t know her husband had died and she had two children, but we got married and lived happily ever after.  She’s a lecturer in Speech Sciences at London University.

Melanie:Have you ever experienced love at first sight?

Peter:Yes, all the time!  I mean, I’m an incurable romantic!  It’s the Irish in me, darlin’.  As I said to you I always greet women - particularly beautiful women (and every woman is beautiful) with the line that they look lovelier than yesterday and yet less than tomorrow.  That’s a wonderful phrase which I use quite mercilessly.

Melanie:Do you and your wife have a special song?

Peter:Yes.  It was a Perry Como song but she’s probably forgotten it now (I hope so anyway).  You see, I’m hopeless at lyrics.  I can learn a 3-act play overnight if I’m pushed - not terribly well but enough to go on and do it - but give me moon and June and you and blue and I’m in difficulties.  Once they’re in there, they’re there for life.  So this song was I Love You and Don’t You Forget It.  They repeat the phrase over and over again.

Also, we all have As Time Goes By, don’t we (Sings) You must remember this, A kiss is just a kiss … you know, by Ingrid Bergman.

I was madly in love with her when I watched her movies and so on.  Then, when I was in the West End in the 60’s and 70’s, one used to get invited to the Evening Standard Awards and all the various things at the Grosvenor House and the Dorchester, and for lunches.  The great and the good were there, all these big, big stars.  I’d be talking to Ginger Rogers and Olivier was there (I’m still star struck).  Suddenly all the cameramen rushed to the door, the lights went on and all the video cameras went on and so on - and Ingrid Bergmen swept in.  It was as thought you’d switched the lights out on everybody else.  She was so beautiful.  The cameras were right up her nose and she just sashayed across the room with such elegance and that wonderful smile.  I’m sure we all miss her terribly but there are so many wonderful things of hers on film.  I think I would have walked over hot coals for that woman.

 

Melanie:If you went into a series or a film, who would you like to have as your leading lady?

 

Peter:Oh, I don’t know.

I’ve always had a great ambition because I speak a little Italian - I love the language and the people.  I’ve spent quite a lot of time in Italy - to work with Sophia Loren who, I think is the epitome of everything that is wonderful about women because she’s not classically beautiful in the accepted sense of the word, and yet she can make you believe, if she wants to, that she’s the ugliest woman in the world, or the most beautiful.  She’s a consummate actress.  My great dream is to appear opposite her in Italian, being directed by Vitorio de Seeka.  Alas it won’t happen now because he’s dead.  But who knows?  I may just play a very small part with her as the leading lady.

Listen, if you’re gonna dream, you may as well dream big±

Melanie:(Laughs)  You may as well.  Have you ever had a dream come true?

Peter:(Quick as a flash)  Well there’s this interview for a start±  (Flatterer)

Yes, well I’ve enjoyed my life, met lots of wonderful people and I’ve had a charmed life really.  I’ve survived this long and I’m still enjoying it.

Melanie:You must get a lot of letters from fans, but have you ever written a fan letter yourself?

 

Peter:Probably yes - occasionally.  The trouble is that I know so many people that I can ring them up, you know what I mean?  Suzannah York is a great one for writing to newspapers when she gets incensed and I help her tone her letters down a bit.

That’s a difficult question.  (surprised.  I thought it was an easy one)

Melanie:What has been the highest point of your career so far?

Peter:I think it’s when the telephone rings and I’m offered another job.  (At this point the tape ran out and Peter suggested we repeat the question.  He had more to say.  Not sure what happened but somehow I went onto the next question … what a shame).

Melanie:If you could turn the clock back, what would you do differently?

Peter:Wasn’t it Bernard Shaw who said, “Isn’t it a pity that youth is wasted on the young.”  I think there are so many things - knowing what I know now and then going back to the beginning, which I think is an impossible concept.

Actually, I think I’d probably still lead the same sort of life really, harem scarem.  Money doesn’t bother me, I’ve got through too much of it in my time.  Bernard Braden once said, “Money isn’t everything, but what it isn’t, it can buy” and I think that’s true to a certain extent. 

I’d still be an actor, I think.  There’s no life like it because, in a sense, you are completely classless.  People tend to talk to you much more openly, whether it’s the dustman or the Queen of England because somehow we are privileged - almost like crown princes in a way.

Melanie:Have you ever done the Royal Variety Performance?  (Yes I was listening at the beginning but I had no idea that it was exactly the same.  Sorry Peter, showing my age and lack of knowledge here).

Peter:Well I did the Royal Command Performance when I was with Will Hay but that’s the only one.  We were going to do an excerpt with Jack Warner who was a variety artist but it was the year of the Suez crisis and the performance was abandoned so we didn’t do it.  But I’ve met the Royal family on various occasions.

Melanie:What was the Queen like?

Peter:I’ve never actually met the Queen, although I have performed in front of her when she was Princess Elizabeth.  But I’ve met Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and various others informally as well as officially.

Melanie:If you were stranded on a desert island, what three luxury items would you take with you and why?

Peter:I do like my comfort so I think I would take a hammock which I would tie up between the trees; I think I would like lots of twine and string (what for?) and, if my wife had escaped, then Sophia Loren!

Melanie:What is your most treasured possession?

Peter:I’m not really one for possessions.

I think it’s probably something of my father’s.  He died at sea and was a rather modest man who tiptoed into life and went out of it almost as you would have raised the entry.  He smoked like a chimney and, towards the end of his life, when he was at home he used to smoke this awful pipe which gurgled.  He had one of those ashtrays on a brass stand and you could put matches in there too.  I’ve still got that even though I don’t smoke.  I think it would have to be that.

Also, my uncle Herbert who was a very eccentric person and started my interest in astronomy, left me his brass telescope.  He was a very dear man - taught himself Chinese.  He used to sit in a kimono and had very long hair at a time when it was considered to be rather weird.  He could play many instruments excruciatingly badly but what he didn’t know about the theory of music wasn’t worth knowing.

In those days - before the war - all the family played instruments and we used to go down to Westrum where we could rent a house for the season.  Of course, my father being a professional musician, needed that like a deer needs a hat rack, you know, us all making music.  And uncle Herbert used to play the piano as though he was wearing boxing gloves.  He was a wonderful man. (Beams at the memory)

Melanie:You say you were all musical - what instrument do you play?

Peter:I was a trumpet player and I played at Covent Garden Opera House, would you believe, when I was about 13.  It was a dance hall during the war.  I played with Billy Smith and his Orchestra and had seven subjects for homework.  I used to do half of them on the bus in the morning when I was late and I’d be half asleep.  And the relief band, if you’ll pardon the expression, was Ivy Bunsen and her Swing Burners!  They were a terrific band actually.  It seems strange, the Covent Garden Opera House being a dance Hall.  You can’t visualise it now, can you?

Melanie:(Reluctant to admit that at the time I’d never been)  No, you can’t.  What’s the most unforgettable moment of your life?

Peter:That’s a difficult one because there have been so many wonderful moments.

I think it was being machine gunned down by two vicious mig-110s (that’s what it sounds like) in Salisbury, which was an open city.  My cousins and I had been evacuated during the war and were down in Puzey.  I was staying with them and my aunt decided to take us into Salisbury.  This was towards the end of the war when the Luftwaffe were a spent force but they still had what they called Bady Parades (again, that’s what it sounds like) when they’d send over a couple of fighter bombers who would come in very, very low, shoot up a street, drop a couple of bombs and make a run for it and that was about that.  They were just pin prick raids - annoying things.  On this particular day, my aunt decided that she wanted some photographs taken of the three children who were younger than I (Pop, Val and Dino we called them).  I’ve still got the photograph.  We went into Salisbury and the siren went.  These planes came in which had two engines on either side and a kind of greenhouse on the top  The gunner was at the back and the pilot was at the front.  They were relatively slow, too, these planes.

I’d been all through the blitz so I knew the difference between a British or American plane and a German one (impersonates different sounds).  Anyway, the siren went and, because they came in so fast and low over the coast, there wasn’t very much time between the warning going and them arriving.  We were walking down the centre of the street when we saw these two fighter bombers fly right around the Cathedral and then come straight down the high street.  I remember seeing the gunner turning his machine gun and like a shot I dived into a shop and then looked back as they were firing bullets up and down the street.  My cousins were looking up and waving, would you believe?  Of course, they were little children and thought its as great fun.  I dived out and grabbed them - my aunt grabbed the other - and we went back into the shop.  The other plane came and dropped their bombs, flew off and the “All Clear” sounded.  We looked around and the shop we were sheltering in was full of mirrors!  I mean, if there had been a ricochet we would have been cut to pieces.

I think that was my most hairy moment.

Melanie:What’s the most extravagant thing you’ve ever done?  

Peter:I bought a very expensive car once.  It was a wonderful Alfa Romeo which gave me nothing but trouble - but boy could it go!

I knew a man who was a Rear Admiral and lived in Bath where everyone below the rank of Rear Admiral is considered to be a failure and people knuckle their forelocks - it was like something out of a pre-war Agatha Christie book.  The lady of the house was a bit like Barbara Cartland.  One day I drove up in this red Alpha sports car and she came out all dressed in pink with this blue rinsed hair, and she said, “Peter, dear, you’ve bought a tart trap!”  (Laughs)  What a name for a car.

I suppose that was the most extravagant thing I’ve ever done.  You’d be surprised - I got some very interesting looks as I used to drive by.

Melanie:I’m sure.  How do you react when people come up to you in the street or when you’re relaxing after a show?

Peter:Oh I’m delighted!  (Why doesn’t this surprise me?  He is such a lovely man!) I mean, they’ve paid my wages through the years.  In the main, they’ve generally been pretty nice, pleased to see me and so on.

I mean, when I arrived here in Liverpool, for example, Toby Walton who is in the show with me (he plays Suzannah York’s young son) was up for a television series about Martin Chuzzlewit.  Neither of us had read it and we were sitting on the bus because we had left the car back at the place we had rented.  (It’s easier because the bus goes from door to door, you know, and putting it in the car park is expensive - doesn’t that sound mean?)  We were talking about it.  I was telling him that I’d been in A Tale of Two Cities and just talking generally - we didn’t realise that the rest of the bus were probably listening to us!  There was a very elderly lady sitting in front of us - and I mean elderly - but still very alert.

When we arrived at Williamson Square we got up to go and she turned around and said, “I hope you don’t mind but I was listening to your conversation about Martin Chuzzlewit,”  So we said, “Oh yes.”  People were trying to get on and off around us and the bus driver wanted to get moving but nobody was fazed by it and she said, “When I was about 30 or 40,  before the war,” which just goes to show how old she was, “I saved a half penny a week and when I eventually got up to half a crown I sent some coupons away and got back four books, one of which was Martin Chuzzlewit.  It’s wonderful, you’ll really enjoy it.”

So we thanked her - everyone was still waiting!  We eventually got off the bus and she was still talking - just like we are now, quite easily - and she told us that she preferred the classics and that her favourite was Shakespeare.  She said, “For example, Julius Caesar was always my favourite -“ and she launched into Mark Anthony’s famous speech.  It wasn’t a bit embarrassing and she knew it by heart.

Everyone gathered round and we all listened quite seriously.  Her diction was perfect and it didn’t appear ludicrous at all.  When we thanked her at the end she just said, “Well, have a nice time in Liverpool,” and walked off!

Liverpool seems to be full of people like that.

Melanie:Yes, we are a very eccentric city.

Peter: It’s wonderful!  I’m almost normal here! (Laughs)

Melanie:Have you got a bad temper?  (Now this question was on the list but I felt very silly asking it.  He doesn’t come across that way at all.  We gelled very well through this interview)

Peter:Yes, but it takes a long time to come to the boil and them it’s usually incompetence, cruelty or anything of that sort.

Being Irish by descent, I explode.  Of course, everybody thinks that I’m Mr Nice Guy, very laid back and easy and so on, and then when I do explode and all hell lets loose, people say, “Really, I didn’t expect that of you!”  It’s quite impressive when I do lose my temper and you would learn several new words - usually Anglo Saxon!

Melanie:What’s been the saddest moment of your life?  (At this point my tape runs out and Peter suggests we repeat the question I was about to ask - not the one above - but for some bizarre reason I ask something completely different.  Not sure why …)

Peter:(Slightly pained … had I realised what had happened I would have restarted the tape but I didn’t … sorry Peter)  I think it’s very sad when a play flops.  So much work has been put into it and it’s very sad.  Usually there are very few people at the last performance but at least they’ve shown up and you’ve given your best.  Particularly if the show is rather good but, for various reasons, it doesn’t come off.

Of course, I’ve seen some pretty horrible things in real life (but we won’t go into those).  I mean, I was in the army and I saw man’s cruelty to man.  It’s still going on - I’m talking about these terrible cases with the small children (the child abuse scandal).  And it saddens me, too, the way we have screwed up the environment.  I thought that the last war was fought for justifiable reasons and we had such a wonderful opportunity to put things right but it all seems to be going awry.  As somebody once said, “Travel hopefully, even though you may never arrive.”  But I’d like to arrive eventually, and I hope everyone’s coming along with me.  (Count me in Peter!)

Melanie:When did you last cry?

Peter:Probably last week, I think!  I get moved by things.  I howled my eyes out over ET - did you ever see that

Things that strike a chord.  Memories can make me cry, too, or perhaps a sense of smell can trigger something off.

I have a little problem with my right eye.  I had my car stolen last year and both sets of reading glasses were in there.  I went along to the opticians and they discovered that I’ve got the onset of glaucoma in it which is controllable but occasionally, when I put the drops in, I look as though I’ve been watching Casablanca with dear Ingrid again.

But I don’t think it’s a bad thing for a man to admit to crying - all great men, such as Churchill, cry.  I’m a very emotional person.

Melanie:What’s your one big, remaining ambition?

Peter:I think it’s to remain in good health and to go on acting for as long as possible and, ideally when I’m about 108 years old, to be in a wild success and on the last night, with the sound of applause ringing in my ears, go to bed after making love to a beautiful woman (namely my wife who would only be about 36 - she lies about her age and has the secret of eternal youth!)  Seriously though, having been with some very good friends and had a beautiful meal, go to bed and just quietly go on to the great Stage Manager in the sky.

Melanie:(Very long pause - nothing for it but to admit what has happened.  Blushing furiously!)  Sorry, this is really embarrassing.  I can’t remember what my last question was going to be!

Peter:(Laughs and waves away my apology)  I think that would be it!

Melanie:No, it wasn’t.  Oh, I know! What about the future?  Are there any plans for a tour or anything?

Peter:Well, we don’t know.  We were hoping September Tide would go to the West End but we haven’t heard anything yet.  With a bit of luck we’ll be going into town.  It’ll be well worth it because Suzannah York is brilliant and it’s a good team as well.  I enjoy it.

We did it at the King’s Head when all the national press came and visited us.  I don’t normally play this kind of part and I was described by The Times in London (I’ve got it in a very prominent place in my loo!)  It said, “Miss Daphne DuMaurier has doomed Mr Peter Byrne to play one of the world’s boring old farts.”  So now I’m going to play boring old fart parts!  (Laughs)

Melanie:Peter Byrne, thank you very much indeed.

Peter:It’s been a great pleasure.

Introduction to actor Peter Byrne

I was lucky enough to meet Peter during my first year of a Pre-Access course I was undertaking at Hugh Baird College, Bootle.

I wrote to him and the rest of the cast requesting that my friend and I be allowed to meet them.  Well, that was a very fortuitous move because when I met him I just took the bull by the horns and asked, “Would it be possible to arrange an interview with you for a charity I’m working for?”  To which he replied, “I thought you’d never ask.  How does quarter to five tomorrow afternoon suit you?”  I almost dropped my glass.

My surprise was justified because I didn’t work for the Disability Network at the time.  I had, admittedly, phoned a tape for the blind and asked if he’d be interested in an interview with Mike Holloway from The Tomorrow People, but he certainly didn’t commission any others.    My other problem was that I had never done an interview in my life!

I’m a terrible liar and Peter saw right through me.  He said, “This is your first ever interview, isn’t it? You’re absolutely terrified - well don’t be!”  He went on to give me a lot of extremely helpful advice - the most important of which was:-

a)Don’t model myself on any celebrity interviewer (even my favourite, Shelly Rohde).  The listeners don’t want to hear someone doing an impression of Wogan.  I was to stamp my own personality on the interview;

b)Ask the questions that I, personally, would like the answers to.

I called Brian and he told me it wasn’t a problem - if it was any good he would use it.  My next problem was to try to work out the sort of questions to ask.

Taking Peter’s advice, I thought long and hard about what I like and dislike about interviews I see on the television.  One thing that really bugs me is that the celebrity is always asked the same questions by everyone, which is fine up to a point.  But by the end of the interview, the audience is no wiser as to the sort of person he or she is.

I decided to use about ten questions as ice breakers (the sort you see on all TV programmes) but then move on to the nitty gritty - such as who was the first girl/boy they ever kissed; what are they afraid of; what is their idea of the perfect Christmas Day; their most treasured possession and so on.  I fleet that this way the listeners would get value for money and, by the end of the interview, would also know something about the person beneath the glamour.

I got advice from Take A Break (Magazine) and away I went to the theatre.

I have to confess that I was absolutely terrified.  What if I made a fool of myself?  What if he’d changed his mind/didn’t like me?  What if …?  A thousand thoughts tumbled through my brain and I seriously thought about backing out, even at that late stage.

I don’t know who I found the nerve to press that buzzer - but I’m so glad I did!

Peter was kindness itself.  He ushered me into the dressing room and started chatting to me, telling me his wife was in teaching and things like that.  He warned me not to start the interview until he said to do so.  He didn’t want to see the questions because it would make the interview seem too contrived but we did check up on a few details.  One very funny moment occurred which broke the ice.  I had written some of Take a Break’s suggestions in a kind of shorthand (FATAL!)  One of them was, “Would you ever have PS?”  Trouble was, I couldn’t for the life of me remember what that stood for when we came to the actual interview (in retrospect, I could have just skipped the question … don’t know why I didn’t)  Peter went through everything from pizza service to public sex!  It wasn’t until I got home that I discovered I actually wanted to ask him if he would ever have plastic surgery!

He advised against reading the questions out verbatim as it would sound stilted.  I started the tape, opened my mouth - and out came the worst introduction anyone has ever heard!  

I said, “I’m sitting in the Liverpool Empire Theatre (we were actually in the Playhouse!) and sitting opposite me is Nellie Boswell’s boyfriend from Bread, namely actor Peter Byrne,” in a really high pitched voice which made me sound as though I was a recording being played at high speed.

Peter smiled kindly and told me that was fine but said, “Well, fancy man is what they call me.”

We did it again - better this time - but I still said (twice more) that he was Nellie Boswell’s boyfriend.  That man had the patience of a saint.

Apart from a couple of classic hoopers, the interview went really well.  There was a long pause when Melanie Hill (who took over the role of Aveline from Gilly Coman) was mentioned because he told me that she was married to Sean Bean.  I’m ashamed to say that I had absolutely no idea who he was at the time (hence the silence as I wracked my brain).  I do now though.  Peter was a true professional and covered the silence with a joke.

I think the worst mistake I made was that when I turned the tape over, he suggested that we repeats the last question.  I said OK but for some unknown reason went straight onto the next one.  I honestly can’t put that down to nerves because Peter couldn’t have been nicer if he’d tried and I had relaxed by that point.  He’s got a really calming voice and by that time he’d almost hypnotised me.

He gave me such a good answer to my penultimate question that I completely forgot what my last one was supposed to be!

At the end, he told me that I had done a really good job - my main good points were that I listened to what he had to say and picked him up on all sorts of things.  The result of this was that it was more like a real conversation than a question and answer session - in fact, I found that I was asking questions that weren’t on my list because I was so relaxed.  I didn’t interrupt every two seconds (like Derek Jameson apparently did) and I maintained eye contact.

I was recently asked which has been my favourite interview so far.  That’s a very difficult question because I can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed almost all of them.  If I was pressed, however, I would have to choose 5 joint favourites, with this being one of them.  It’s actually easier to say which I least enjoyed - Dave Bartram from Showaddywaddy.  But that’s another story.

More about that later.

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Reading For Pleasure

September 8, 2018

Here is part of an interview between myself and Elizabeth James.  She is also a writer - and yes, we are related:

Elizabeth:  Thanks for joining me, Danielle.  Have you always wanted to be an author and can you remember what inspired you?

Me:  Thanks for having me.  Yes, writing has always been one of my greatest passions.  It started with an unbridled love of reading.  I love the English language - the way the words sound and the shape they take on, if that makes sense.  I'm lethal for using long words when short ones will do.  Why say you're sad when you actually mean devastated or depressed ...?  English is such a rich language that I'm always looking for the perfect word.  I may not be able to draw or sing but who needs that when I can paint a picture with a thousand words?

As for what inspired me, I have always loved reading.  When I was about ten I was given a wonderful Enid Blyton book which, sadly, is not the most well known.  The Little House At The Corner was a real eye-opener and I knew from reading that book I wanted to follow the main character, Lizzie, and become a writer.

Elizabeth:  How did you achieve your goal?

Me:  It has not been an easy ride.  For many years, although I loved English, I never had the confidence to try to be published.  Then I did some freelancing (don't bother - no money in it) before being commissioned for my very first book.  After that, I didn't really try too hard - again, I doubted my abilities.  Then, disaster struck when I had a major accident which left me unable to work.  That was when I wrote my first full-length novel.  After that, I didn't look back.  I've completed several books of various genres - not just for children.  My latest is a fairy story with a difference.  Although I love the first book, this one has received the most positive feedback which was a surprise, initially.  I learned a lot through writing those two books.

Elizabeth:  Such as?

Me: Well for a start, the introduction is critical.  For example, the first book begins on Christmas Eve and we hear children singing their favourite hymn.  A young girl is staring out of the window ... all very pretty and festive but not ... exciting.  I did go back to it and tried to turn the first two chapters around but it didn't work.  Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morison famously told us that if there is a book we really want to read that hasn't been written, we must be the ones to write it.  I followed that advice.  The imagery in that first chapter is beautiful, really evocative of Christmas ... However, with the second book I launch straight into the high point of the story which is where a fairy is on trial.  It's much more evocative and sucks the reader straight in.  They have to know what happens to her.  

Elizabeth:  Are there any series in the offing?

Me: Funny you should say that because several of the books - including the two I have mentioned above - are part of a series.

Elizabeth:  Is that how you planned it or -?

Me:  Not at all.  The first book I ever wrote I realised there could be a follow on.  My partner and I worked on it together - he suggested a prequel and I could see exactly where a sequel would go.  A similar thing happened with the second book and before I knew it I had a trilogy for both stories.

Elizabeth:  What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Me:  I have to be honest and say dialogue.  Some people may think it strange but I had dreadful problems making the characters speak until I contacted a fellow writer.  She wrote the amazing So You Wanna Be a Writer? and its follow on, So You Wanna Be a Writer We've Heard Of?  The author, Jane Wenham Jones is a fount of knowledge and advised me to free write and see if that helped release the voices of the characters.  It was one of the best tricks I've ever come across - and not something I had ever tried.

Elizabeth:  Can you explain the process?

Me:  Well, I can explain what I, personally, do.  I blank my mind and write until I can't do it any more.  More often than not, when I read it back the characters have created their own voice.  Because I am the author, all the characters had my voice and that had to change.  Free writing developed the characters to such an extent that I realised one was sassy, another was silly, a third was shy and so on.  Actually that technique led to one of my favourite scenes in a book for adults.

I was doing a charity write-a-thon - NEVER AGAIN.  I think I must have been exhausted because I closed my eyes.  When I opened them a few hours later I discovered that I was about 30 pages further on and thought I'd just been leaning on the keyboard.  I was just about to hit delete when I realised I'd written something.  Of course a lot of rubbish was in there but I also discovered a gem of a scene.  I'd been puzzled by why anyone would remember just one customer in the hundreds that must pass through a shop's doors each week.  Apparently I'd found the solution when a young lad (who wasn't in the original story) decided to take a joyride in the MC's wheelchair.  The shop owner wasn't going to forget what happened in a hurry so it made sense that she remembered the MC.  

Elizabeth:  Are there any parts of the writing process you find difficult?

Me: I love writing first drafts but recently discovered how much I hate editing.  I often have to 'murder my darlings' as they say.  The latest book is a case in point.  I have taken a trip down Memory Lane on more than one occasion in the first draft.  Sadly, all bar one of those scenes had to go.  I was determined to keep one - the golden rule is every scene must add to the story.  This one scene does but I have been wrestling with how to keep it for weeks.  I also hate when people tell me the book is wonderful on the first draft - but don't point out my mistakes.  For example, in this book (which is on the fourth of approximately 18 drafts) I discovered that one of the heroines appear to change their mind about what job they want ... then the MC bestows a blessing on the main heroine - one she doesn't really want.  It didn't make sense.  I made a silly mistake at the end of chapter three which nobody noticed - out of ten beta readers, only Amanda George who I mentioned earlier, spotted a time anomaly.  I state quite categorically that it's early morning ... the boss leaves the factory but he returns home after the children have returned from school and done their homework!  Where has he been in all that time?  Originally that scene was supposed to take place 15 minutes later.  Amanda is AWESOME at spotting mistakes.

Elizabeth: Why so many drafts?

Me:  Because I find it very difficult to pick up every issue at the same time.  Some I spot because they stand out like a sore thumb but others are harder to locate.  So I correct the spelling and grammar on the first two pass throughs, then try to spot any missing words.  The fourth draft is when it gets messy - I am looking for where things need to be completely reworded.  As I edit on paper, this is where it can get confusing and I may (as in the case of the current book) be forced to reprint so I can work on a clean canvas, so to speak.  

Elizabeth:  Why is it important for you to edit on paper?

Me:  Interestingly, I never used to do that.  OK, confession time.  I wrote my first book in just under three months, finishing it on the day it started, Christmas Eve.  I was so proud.  I spent the week between Christmas and New Year editing it and contacted an agent in the first week of January.  Miraculously, I got a bite.  The agent concerned told me to send it (clearly my elevator pitch - though I didn't know that as what it was called at the time) had been good enough to get me through the door.  Looking back, I'm kind of surprised by how innocent I was.  I was convinced I had an agent at my first try.  Imagine how I felt when a few weeks later I received a call from the agent who said, "I wanted to let you know you're about to receive a very disappointing letter.  I cannot take you on with the manuscript in this condition."  He went on to give me a load of what turned out to be awesome advice.  He knew I hadn't edited on paper - in fact, it turned out that I hadn't edited at all.  "You have just proofread your story.  Editing is different.  Look, read it through and you'll see what I mean.  You must work on it - be proud of your achievement and polish it up before resubmitting.  This book will be published, I know it."  I was heartbroken and basically gave up for several years after someone else read the first chapter and vilified me ... looking back I shouldn't have let that upset me because she wasn't even the demographic I was aiming the book at.  However, I had a steep learning curve and this was all part of it.  

A few months later I took the book to work by accident.  I usually prefer to write by hand and took my notebook.  I have no idea of the little girl's name but she told me the book was awesome and wondered where she could buy it.  That made me think: she had no reason to tell me that - children have no filter.  They tell you bluntly what they think.  I nervously read through and cringed at what I saw.  Simon, the agent, had been so right.  There were typos, horrific grammatical errors, scenes that didn't make sense, plot holes you could drive a truck through - and, frankly, freaky sentence structure.  No, I wouldn't have taken me on either.  But I could see it had potential and worked on it.  It's now in great shape and I'm immensely proud of it.

Elizabeth: Does it bother you to receive criticism?

Me:  That really depends on where it's coming from.  I'm fine if it's constructive and coming from a place of love or a desire to make the book better.  However, if it's criticism for its own sake - in other words, I hate this book type of thing, then no.  Look, I'm a writer.  Not  everybody is going to like every word/book I write.  I have my views on other books myself - ones that are hugely popular which I don't like and vice versa.  But it's all about respect.  Remember that the author worked hard to entertain YOU, the reader. If you don't like something, scroll on past.  If you do, say something.  

Elizabeth:  I have so many more questions but I know you need to get back to writing - 

Me:  That's OK - you can do another interview at a time to suit us both.  If you run out of questions perhaps the readers can suggest some!

Elizabeth:  Great.  For now, I have two final questions.  Firstly, do you have any hobbies other than writing?

Me:  Well, I am literally never without a book in my hand.  I like ebooks because you can carry a big, thick, heavy tome anywhere but it's not ideal because you can't read when the battery runs out. I loathe thin books - the thicker the better for me.  I think the biggest book I own is over 1000 pages long. I read every genre except horror, LGBT (although I have no issue with that genre), dystopia and erotica.  I love a good memoir but you don't need to be famous to get my interest.  Outside of reading, I love doing celebrity interviews and going to the theatre.  For me, nothing can beat the buzz of sitting in a theatre, waiting for the curtain to go up.  I think there's a little minx in me because I love it when things go wrong!  

Elizabeth:  So do I!  We'll talk about theatre another time.  For now, what advice would you give to any aspiring author out there?

Me:  I am asked this a lot.  I always tell people - children especially - follow your dreams and NEVER give them up.  It's not going to be easy but don't let anyone or anything put you off.  Take every opportunity to write and enter all the competitions you can - it teaches you about discipline.  I think the key (for me anyway) is the language we use to ourselves.  I have now banned can't, won't, shan't etc from my vocabulary and replaced them with can, will shall etc.  These negative words don't actually exist - they are combinations of two separate words - can not; will not and shall not.  They are attitude.  By changing them to the positive you are giving yourself permission to succeed.  Think about what you're telling yourself and listen to that internal dialogue.  My nature is not to believe in myself but if I'd listened to it I'd never have written so many books and made my own dreams come true.

Elizabeth:  Thank you, Danielle.  Until next time ...

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Introduction to Transcripts

 

Many people have asked me why I started to do these interviews in the first place.  Well, there are several answers to this.

I have always wanted to do an interview with one, specific actor - Mike Holloway from The Tomorrow People.  I first met him when he appeared in Joseph many years ago and have followed his career ever since.  It took me 12 years to pluck up the courage to ask if I could do this interview and, to be honest, I was shocked when he agreed.  He told me I could do it if I could find anyone who wanted it.

The following day I rang the Disability Network which is an audio newspaper for the blind.  Brian Hartgen agreed, in principal, to accept the interview - but only if it was good enough.  I tried to contact Mike to organise something but he’d done a disappearing trick.  No matter what I did, he was untraceable.

A few weeks later, I was lucky enough to be able to go to a Meet the Cast of September Tide night.  This show had a few well known faces including Michael Praed, Suzannah York and Peter Byrne.  Michael and Suzannah were very nice and told me to contact Lizzie Ann Meachin (Publicity Manager of the Liverpool Playhouse) to organise something but Peter made a snap decision.  He later set me up with my second interview - Eileen Pollock (Lilo Lil in Bread) - who set me up with Charles West.  After that, I never looked back.

In all honesty I was - and still am! - star struck.  It is every girl’s dream to be able to spend half an hour in her favourite actors company, and these interviews gave me the opportunity to do just that!

I have learned an awful lot through doing these interviews.  Perhaps the most important lesson is that nobody is exactly the way you expect them to be.

Doing the interviews was an eye opener.  The people I was most nervous of often turned out to be the nicest ones - Gilbert O’Sullivan and Dame Edna are a case in point.  I was very nervous doing those but, in both cases, my fear was unfounded.

I am still in touch with a few of my ‘subjects’ (for want of a better word … maybe the most appropriate adjective would be victims!) - most notably Nickey Darby and Brotherhood of Man.  As a direct result of my interview with the latter, I regularly get invited to see the technical run throughs and receive complimentary tickets to their shows.

I would say that 99% of the people I interviewed are extremely nice.  I think there have only been two or three people I haven’t liked at all - Dave Bartram and Andrew O’Connor - but you can’t like everyone.

Perhaps one of the reasons my interviews are so good is that I do enjoy the process of researching their past.  Some might say that’s because I’m insatiably nosy, but I am genuinely interested.  I love reading anyway so it’s no hardship for me to buy the autobiographies.

I use a variety of sources for me research - the agents/managers of the ‘stars’ are usually more than willing to provide me with a biography of their client; the internet (where appropriate); books and newspaper clippings.  However, I learned very early on in my interviews (my second one actually) not to be too trusting when it comes to press reports.  I have found myself in embarrassing situations twice - with Eileen Pollock and Gilbert O’Sullivan - because I believed something the press have said about them.  Usually the stars themselves are very nice about it - in fact Eileen Pollock thought it was hilarious.

In all honesty I have sometimes been very naughty in how I’ve gone about getting the interviews.  Most of them took place at the Liverpool Playhouse but, unfortunately, Lizzie Ann Meachin and myself did not get on and many times I was unable to get the interview I wanted.

In desperation I began waiting to meet the star themselves and asking them directly - this worked perfectly because every single one of them agreed without hesitation.

For example, I was asked specifically to interview Jenny Seagrove.  She was lovely but insisted I speak to Lizzie Ann, who then said she’d refused - I knew she hadn’t.  Brian Hartgen intervened but Jenny was leaving the Playhouse the following day so there was no time.  Luckily she returned just a couple of weeks later and on hearing of my plight, she agreed to it immediately.  It transpired that she hadn’t even been approached and thought I’d lost interest!

On a few occasions, I decided on the spur of the moment to ask for interviews.  I always carried a ‘spare copy’ of the letter I had ‘sent’ to Lizzie Ann around with me as security, plus a letter from Brian to say that he was interested in the interview but I only needed that once.

The part I used to really dread was contacting the agents.  I discovered that, if the agents have said I can do the interview while their client is in Liverpool or wherever, there is nothing that anyone can do about it.  Again I found it very easy to get the interviews but the agents themselves - with the sole exceptions of Lee James (Voulez Vous, Kevin Day’s manager and Lee Sheriden from Brotherhood of Man) were very intimidating.  However, if I could prove who I was doing it for, they did usually get back to me and arrange a convenient date and time.  It didn’t take me very long to overcome my apprehensions about approaching them but the first few were awful!  the only company I have given up approaching is the Richard Stone Partnership - I have never yet got an interview out of them.

I do have certain ‘rules’ of my own which I always try to adhere to.  I will never approach an actor unless he or she is either entering or leaving the theatre.  Many’s the time I have been in Uncle Sam's or somewhere and looked up to see one of the actors I’ve either interviewed or want to approach.  But I feel that this is very rude - the actors have a right to a private life.  If it is someone I’ve already met or who comes up and invites me to join them, that is a different matter but that doesn’t happen very often.  I have only broken this golden rule once and, although the person concerned was very nice about it, I felt very, very guilty afterwards.

I always give the stars the chance to say if there is a subject they do not want to discuss - and then I stick to any promises I have made.  This, I think, is why I get on so well with Gilbert O’Sullivan.  He told me he gets sick of the story of him suing his manager being brought up and being asked where he has been.  As a result, I didn’t mention it at all which he was delighted about.  See the introductions for other examples.  If somebody wants to see the questions in advance, I do let them - which I was recently told was wrong.  Most, however, say they don’t want to know what I’ll ask in advance.

I try to always send them a copy of the tape if they request it, and a thank you letter.  If I ever needed any further information, I would feel I could approach them again if I have followed this rule, although it’s not always possible if I can’t find them again - Eileen Pollock and Kevin Day, for example, just seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Three years ago I had to present a lesson in how to interview celebrities for an exam.  In all honesty, I hadn’t given it very much thought and I’d certainly had no training in the area, so it came as quite a shock when I analysed the process.

Firstly, I have to be decisive enough to know which celebrities would give me the best interviews.  very often, I basically choose people I would like to meet - although, on occasion, I have done people that either I’ve never heard of (such as Simon Ward) or whom I haven’t previously liked.  My opinion of them is often completely changed when we come face to face.

The next bit is the hardest part for me, which is approaching them and asking for the interview.  Kate O’Mara actually swore at me when I asked her!  However, generally speaking, most are really nice.

The research is the crucial part and on the rare occasions I have been unable to get any background on the person - either because there is none available or there is no time - it has usually been a difficult interview.  I think this is the main reason why the Gilbert O’Sullivan interview was so disjointed.  There is surprisingly little information on him and even his fan club didn’t send me very much.  I have already mentioned some of my sources but another one I use quite frequently is watching chat shows with the stars on.  This is very useful because it can be a good guide as to how good a ‘subject’ they are - how they react to questions.  You also have a chance to watch their body language which is often very telling - I can usually identify whether or not the interviewer and interviewee are getting on within the first minute or so.  When I’m doing the interviews I always try to maintain eye contact.

Before I leave the house I have to check that my equipment is working - I have got my fingers burned twice when I haven’t done that.  Not only is it very embarrassing but it is also unprofessional.

I have had to become very organised (although I’m sure my Mum would take issue with this!)  To the best of my knowledge, I have never been late for an interview (which is probably a first for me).  I don’t mind the star being late but if it’s you, the interview will reflect that you are panicking.  If it gets off to a bad start - and one or two of mine have - then, as a general rule, the rest of the interview will be disastrous.  Once you start flapping, you make silly mistakes.

I need to be very flexible in my questions.  I do have a list - 10 of which are the proverbial ‘ice breakers’ and the rest ‘the person beneath the glamour’ (which is the most popular part).  However, these questions are not written in stone.  I have often found myself asking questions which are not in my original list because they follow on naturally as part of a conversation (Peter Byrne is the best example of this!)  Occasionally, I have had to adapt the questions because I only have a limited amount of time (Martin Fisher only gave me ten minutes.  I was told Dame Edna would give me ten but she ended up giving me almost an hour!  I generally have about 30 minutes to an hour).  Jenny Seagrove had to cut the interview very short when we were doing it because her wardrobe assistant had been taken into hospital with an ectopic pregnancy earlier that day and she had to teach someone else the job ready for that night.  I had all my questions planned but had to cut the interview by more than half an hour - at least she didn’t cancel, which she could have done.

In some ways, Mike D’Arbo was the most difficult one - not that he was in any way unpleasant.  I had gone there expecting to interview Paul Jones for ten minutes - and ended up doing Mike for almost an hour.  I only had ten minutes worth of questions but he said he wanted to carry on.  That was a very interesting interview because it was almost completely improvised.  I know absolutely nothing about him whereas I did know something about Paul.

I have learned to be extremely patient - I will ask time and again until I eventually get what I want, even if it means waiting for ages outside a stage door in freezing cold weather.

The transcripts serve a couple of purposes.  They are a great way to preserve the interviews - a couple of my favourites have been lost or the tape has gone faulty.  At least if they are bound in book form, I do still have a copy - and a brilliant reminder of the day I met them.  They have stood me in good stead, too, for my Communications Studies course at Edge Hill in Ormskirk.  Much of my material can be adapted to help with the coursework which saves me a lot of time.

Also, the way I have transcribed them, you have a rare insight into how I am feeling as I am doing the interview.  This makes it more interesting to the reader (or at least me, as this will never be published) and gives the book a conversational feel.

Looking back, I wish I had taken more photographs - but you learn by your mistakes and, in future, I will take a photograph of everybody.

My main problem in putting these transcriptions together has been that I can’t remember the order that I did the all.

What I decided to do was put a few of the ones I feel strongest about such as my favourites, and one or two that I didn’t like quite as much (such as Dave Bartram and Andrew O’Connor, for example).  I included these because I felt very strongly about how the interview went.

I have included an introduction to each interview - except in Billy and Wally’s case where I joined them together.  The interview with Brotherhood of Man and Lee Sheriden were four months apart but, because Lee is part of the group, I have put the two of them together, but with a separate introduction.

If I learned anything while doing these interviews it is never to have anybody else present when it’s being done because this is extremely off putting.

The hardest task while doing these transcriptions has been which ones to choose, as I stated earlier.  The ones in this volume are among my favourites for one reason or another.

Each interview - both in this and subsequent volumes - has taught me something and, where possible, I have tried to relate the lesson in the introduction.  Doing them is a constant learning process.  I would love to do a whole interview without making a single mistake, but sadly that is not possible.  If only we could see the cutting room floor of all those chat shows with so called professionals such as Terry Wogan!  Even the professionals make mistakes which are later cut out.  Nobody can claim never to have asked a stupid question or made a silly mistake or whatever.

The difference with both my interview tapes and the transcripts is that you get a warts and all version - which I love.  They contain all the mistakes - but, to me, that makes it more enjoyable.  We are all human so why waste precious time and energy pretending to be perfect?  The important thing is to learn from the mistakes, which I try to do.

Incidentally, I never did get that interview with Mike Holloway and it’s now over 20 years since I asked him.  There are still so many others who I would like to do - Sam Kane from Brookside, Ryan Styles from Whose Line Is It Anyway? (This originally read Greg Proops but he’s proved himself to be a vile individual and I wouldn’t interview him if you paid me a million pounds and threw in a trip to Disney!), Barry Mannilow, Julie Andrews and, of course, many of the big American actors/writers and singers.  All in good time though.  

I am already preparing the second volume so watch this space.