Hello, welcome to Retrospection, a nostalgic look at past film and TV. My name's Colin. My name's Paul. In this special episode, we're very lucky to be joined by Judy Mavison, an actor known and beloved by film fans the world over.
Judy's starting films like The Exposition of Ava, Lost for a Vampire and Twins of Evil. And she also appears in episodes of The Professionals, The Sweetie and Blake Seven. We'll join our conversation just after Paul has asked how she is fairing in lockdown. Well, it's been frustrating, like everything.
I'm really lucky. My situation is really lucky. I've got a garden, I've got a house, I've got family with me, but it's frustrating, you know? It's just frustrating not being able to...
I mean, I feel awful saying it because people are so badly off. But I feel bad not having any fun, really. Not putting in the red lipstick and going out. That's the thing, that you can't go anywhere because there's nowhere to go.
Maybe you don't have the houses, not going to go. No, no, even if you do put the high heels on on the red lipstick, there's nowhere to go. So thank you for agreeing to do this. As I was saying, I was afraid to tell you that we haven't interviewed anyone before, in case it got you off.
No, it wasn't. Are you happy to see it get straight into it? It's a bit like, I don't know if you've seen any of those lockdown programs, like, have I got news for you? Because it's all a bit, you have to wait for somebody else to do the chuckling, or you have to wait to see if they've finished.
And you're not quite sure. I'm glad this is not a Zoom one, I must say, because I think that could be very awkward. You know, like the Russell Hardy thing, and have I got used to you and they're all doing it on Zoom? It's all incredibly awkward.
Yeah, and I've also discovered that one thing, we've noticed, is that celebrities and comedians, they really need to improve their internet connections. Yeah, that's true. That's true. But also just hearing them laugh at their own jokes and nobody else laughing.
It's a sad situation. Yeah. Hopefully you won't go on for too much longer. No, that's true London's doing quite well now, I believe.
It seems to be, yeah, I mean, I'm quite coastal London. I'm in Reddit. On the streets, people seem to be walking around, obviously, social distancing, but it does seem to get a little bit back to normal. But that is worrying in itself really, isn't it?
Yeah, that is worrying. That's really worrying. One of the things that I do is walking, obviously, that's the only thing you can really do. And I live very near Hampster Teeth.
But it's very alarming going for walking on Hampster Teeth, because it is so crowded. And so many people running, so many bicycles, so many family groups, not even family groups, people not really taking notice of this, this distancing thing. So it can be quite a walk becomes quite an anxiety trick, really. You need to take a big stick with you, Judy.
I thought of that. I thought of that. I think I can stick it out two meters long. I have that trick for that.
I have to think about it. It's worth a try. Yeah. I might get violent with it.
I'm fine. I'm fine. Don't get any started on those joggers that just run by, you know, everything coming out of every orifice and they don't bother to make any sort of distance at all, because I think it's fine. They'll be gone in a minute, which could be true.
But then you're left in the plume of their excretions, which is not the tracker. You don't want to be in a wake, do you? No, exactly so. No, that's right.
I don't actually want to see you get angry because I've seen you get violent in your movies, and it's quite something to say. There's a really the best that's getting angry. I mean, yeah, I'm looking back over. I don't want to introduce a course in the last few years.
And looking back, too many times, I was the good girl. And it's not really what I like to do. I quite like to be the bad girl. Do you do that very well as I'll mention as we go through all of the many things that you've done.
But what was it a dream impact in the first place? Well, I think I fell into it a bit. I did it a lot at school. We had a rather weird thing.
I went to a girl's high school. We had a rather weird thing called elocution lessons. And you'd be taking out of lessons in a group and you'd do drama. And we did lots and lots of drama exams during my high school, lambda exams and reciting things.
And we did school play. So it came from that. And then I went to a college that my elocution teacher, such as weird word that elocution, especially as I spoke about this, I really didn't need any correction. And she knew a new college that was opening up.
In fact, it was called a new college. And it used to be the drama school of the Royal Academy of Music. So it was quite posh. But they were starting a branch of drama for the Royal Academy of Music.
I don't know if I was saying anybody before, but we were in about the second year of it. And it was, that's what it was. It also gave your teaching degree. So I have unqualified teacher, which is rather odd.
Because the Essex County Council, I came from Essex, I'm an Essex girl. And they only give you a grant. We all had scholarships and grants in those days. Unlike the kids today, which is very, very different.
They gave you a scholarship if you get a qualification like a teaching degree. And there were two drama schools in London that did that. One of them still goes, I think Rosebruford. The one I was in the Royal Academy of Music's drama section got subsumed in the middle of the university, I believe, after we left.
Was that something that you ever thought of doing? The teaching side of it? Well, I went through the college three years. Not quite knowing what I was going to do.
What I was going to do, there was a division in our college. There were the ones that were going to be definitely going to be actors. And that was quite a small group. And the rest of them actually all did want to be teachers, teachers of English and drama.
And I was in the middle. I wasn't quite sure. I always had what everybody now refers to. And it's so accurate.
I always had a slight imposter syndrome. But as far as I thought, perhaps I shouldn't be acting in the early days. I thought maybe I'd fallen into everything I've been too lucky. And she may have read, but I was at college with a couple of really, really good actors, Helen Merren and Paul Freeman.
And they were definitely always going to be acting. And they were both spectacular all the way through college. And I think I did feel I perhaps wouldn't be a successful and naturalist. But actually I was really, really lucky because what you did when you finished college is right round to the reps.
The reps in those days were wonderful. They could give, I think, something like 10 or 15 new equity cards a year. And I was unbelievably lucky because I got into the slow-vick, which was the top repertory company at the time. And so I just sort of went from there.
And everybody else in the company, all young people in the company had all gone to the slow-vick theatre school. And they were all very dedicated actors. And they were all very intense. They became my very, very good friends, actually, obviously.
But at the first, they were unbelievably intense into serious method acting, really. And I was confused. I was quite confused whether I should be there or not. And the new phrase, the phrase I think is so accurate is this imposter syndrome.
I kept thinking I don't fit in. But actually, I did. And I've been really lucky throughout my career. So I took off, but it was a bit by accident.
Was it just a case that I'll just keep going and the longer that you kept going, the more you realised that it was for you? Well, yes, but actually the longer I kept going, the more I kept getting jobs, really. People kept getting jobs. And I got a really, really good agent, actually, through somebody who was a real bit with me, an actress called Janik Key, who was a fabulous actress.
And she got this wonderful agent in central London. He was quite the best, I think, agent for young people. If I, you know, the role list of, her name was Hazel, my own management, and the role list of people were extraordinary. She had at the time people like Judy Gies and Malcolm McDell, Richard, her son of her.
And all sorts of people, she had so many people. And I was lucky to, again, it's all luck as far as I can tell. Good company to speak in there. Amazing.
So you can speak to Hazel, the agent. You've got to be the office and there would be, you know, some big start there. They'd be Malcolm McDell discussing, you know, how he was going to be working for Kubrick and things that. It was all quite glamorous.
And it was, of course, what it was. It was the 60s. So to be a drama school, a drama student and then an actress in the 60s and the early 70s. I mean, I couldn't think of a better life, really.
And you did some amazing tours with the thing in the company as well. So you did your up Israel and you did Broadway at one point. We did. That was at first.
That's why I got the job actually. They decided they needed another young actress to do bits and understanding. And that's how I got the job. I went down to Bristol, forced down there by my father.
So you've got to give it a go when I was invited to go. And they invited me to stay on. And we went to America first all over America. We flew to America.
We did three weeks in Broadway. I went to Los Angeles, San Francisco, went everywhere. And that was an amazing experience. Absolutely amazing.
And then we went to Europe, beta and then Israel, which was sensational. So can I ask how old you were at that point? I was 21. So that must have been amazing for a 21 year old to be.
21 year, 21. I had to work out. Went to college 18 as a three year course. It was my first job.
Yes. It was amazing. It was one of the great things about it. It was being one of the younger cast members because we weren't doing very much.
We were understanding really. And we were walking on and being courtiers. And funnily enough, the very, very first thing I did that I got paid for professionally was running on the stage on my own in Romeo and Juliet, sitting the scene, running along the back ramparts when the curtain went up, running along and screaming. And as a change of scrutiny, Kenny screamed, you'd answer, said yes and get it to go.
And then that's what I was doing throughout the run, along with a lot of other things. The first thing I ever did professionally was a screen on stage, which was ironic considering the label that I still have. All that work in the theatre, and all those two must have really set you in good stead for sharing a greagrry pack in the show. That was something of nothing, except, of course, it wasn't because it was wonderful to be in the same room.
That's what I always say. It's not enough. Janik Key and me, we were sent along by Hayes, we were auditioned. I think Lee, Jay Lee Thompson, who just said he wanted some students.
He wanted two students to have a couple of lines. It was in a lecture hall, it was in a lecture room. And just asked questions, really, of Anne Haywood, in fact, who was a lecturer. And so we went so long, and it was just days filming in this lecture room.
And so we didn't audition. It wasn't really a part. It was a glorified extra. But he walked this man, Gregory Peck.
I mean, really, it was, I'm not easily starstruck, but I was very starstruck by him. He was beautiful to look at. And for a sort of actress actor, he was very interesting to watch because he's always thought to be quite the same, but he never was. He did several different takes.
And he was different in everyone. He was remarkable. He was really remarkable. And I don't know if, I mean, I recently, I'm one from a young lady called Hannah Brooks, who runs a Facebook fan page for the Vampire Lovers.
She discovered on eBay, I think, still, but I've never seen, she's spent a month ago, still, I've never seen a Gregory Peck and me and a couple of other people, students. Yes, yes. I've never seen it before. And I, you know, I always couldn't remember him coming around back and talking to us as in that still.
So yes, I actually bought it. I bought it off eBay. I had to have it. I had to have it.
It's now been framed, not framed, but it's put behind glass in my sitting room. Very nice. Wonderful. You're still.
I didn't know quite. One that I didn't know existed. I didn't know where it came from. I never seen it.
Yeah, it was exciting. Just four weeks ago. Well, Colley was hoping to actually see the Chairman just before the interview. He's just bought it on Blu-ray, haven't you?
But it hasn't turned up in time. So it's a possibility. You wouldn't see it. You obviously wouldn't see it because it's just a flash in the pan.
I mean, you can't see it really at all. Our bit was cut. Our little bit, Janik and me and the other students, it was cut. But interestingly enough, just quickly it's not very interesting.
It keeps saying interesting enough and being really boring. But what I would say to you is that I did a stint, quite a big stint actually, as a, which you surprisingly might chat about later, as a continuity announcer. And in the television shows, in the ITV studios, you had to, they had all the presentation people, the people pushing all the buttons had to preview every movie that went out. And so I was like, you know, for various things, including, I suppose, some sort of sense of you.
And something I got called when I was on duty in my little studio, I got a call, Judy, come and see this. And they see, they've been running through the chairman and they said, this is you. And they managed to stop it and see me in my little funny yellow shirt that I wore. And I said, how do you even see now?
I didn't know that existed. But there it was. I'm sorry, Colley. I mean, if you're looking for me, it will be, you know, you won't see it.
I'll tell you that. That's enough. You'll know that. That's the main thing.
There is actually some very, very nice young man in America has made a sort of compilation of several of mine and all separately. And he's done one of the chairman. So he's put my little bits of the chairman, which don't really exist, but he's put them together in a little tiny YouTube thing, I think. That's lovely.
Something that you did around that time as well was the emergence of Anthony Purdies, I know. This really intrigues me because I can't find a copy of it anywhere. It's kind of amazing. It was amazing, actually.
That was something I got in Hazel for my management's office. I came Patrick Dromgoole. He's actually a director of Harley television. He's a fantastic director.
And he did a lot of wonderful things. And he also worked a lot with Freddie Jones. And he worked a lot with Charles Wood. That amazing writer.
Charles Wood Wood wrote this. It was a sort of curiosity, really, a little film. And Freddie Jones was playing a farmer's laborer. And the story was just that his mother and his sister were getting very fed up with him because he was in his 40s.
And he needed really a woman because he was very frustrated. And he was a farmer's laborer. And goodness knows what he was getting up to. So they went to the local gypsy camp and chose a young lady, which was me.
So it was a very, very curious thing to do. It was a wonderful thing to do. Still in the world, very much so in retrospect. One of my most favourite things I ever did.
I had to do a Somerset accent. I worked with Freddie Jones very closely in it. And it was brilliant. I mean, it was brilliant.
And you can't get it. But I have got a copy of it, which I got from somewhere, not Harley television. But I think I tried to remember who it was a museum and an archive museum down in Wales. A very nice man sent it to me, sent me a copy of it.
If I said it, I wasn't going to put it out anywhere. It wasn't for publication. I think we're interesting enough when Freddie Joe, when Freddie died quite recently, the director of Hunter John Gould's daughter contacted me. She works at the BBC and she said, you don't, by any chance, have a copy of the emergence of Anton Pertig.
And I said, just I do. But I'm not supposed to let it go. She said, oh, Freddie's family really, really want to see it. So I gave her a copy.
She made several copies of Freddie's family. And then she gave it back to me. So there were a few copies floating around. I'd love to see it one day.
Yes, quite. It's very strange. It's rather weird because it's in black and white and it's quite short. I think it's about 40 minutes.
And many stills from it. It looks fascinating. It absolutely was. I'm not sure.
It's very strange to watch everybody's sort of talk. It was muddy and dirty. It was wonderful to go. Definitely one of my favourite things.
I got so incredibly well. I mean, we were very close. We spent a lot of time together. He was fascinating.
I've heard lots of stories that he was extremely nice and man to work with. Yeah, interesting too. Yeah. The main question is, really, do you still do the accents?
It was probably, all those years ago, I was very young. It was probably very much a mama set. When I think back on it, it wouldn't have been particularly accurate and probably would have really upset everybody who lived in Somerset. But it was very easy to do because you were working with such good accents.
Definitely heard was my mother. There were various actors in it that were very, very fine actors. Freddie Jones, of course, did a perfect accent. So it wasn't really that.
And we were doing it in a farm, filming it in a farm in Somerset. So it was all around you. So it wasn't that difficult. But in retrospect, it was probably not that good.
But it was good enough. I'm sure it was fantastic. After that, you said you went to Spain and made it was a cadaver. Now, discussing like a real deal, like, it's just a tale all the way after these things.
I was chosen to go to Spain. It was wonderful, another amazing experience. And with another amazing director and an amazing cinematographer, they both came over, the cinematographer who is very classy amongst Connescentia's names, Fernando Arebus, and Vicente Arendo, the directors. They came over and they saw lots and lots of girls.
I'll never quite know why, but I got the part. And yeah, I spent a lot of time in Spain filming that because you went over there to do costume fittings and make up tests and then filming it. And then afterwards, it was shown in the Santa Bastion Film Festival. So that was quite a big deal at the time.
So yes, that was all very sorry. I actually really thought my career was going to be just living like this, colour speaking you up and being pampered. Well, you won the part from over 500, are there? No, that's really gone up in London.
Does it go up? I don't know. I don't know. I had it originally down in my head.
I mean, I was told at the time it was 200. But you know, it probably wasn't 200. He probably just looked through photographs first of all. And then chose, you know, normally they would choose maybe, I don't know, maybe 10, maybe to meet and chat to.
And I didn't actually have to read for it at all. And in fact, I never read the script I just realised. I mean, I'm talking to you about it. I never read the script before I got to Spain.
It was outlying to me. And yeah, that was it. And I did get chosen. And I do think it's a bit weird in retrospect.
I still have still suffering, as you can tell from imposter syndrome. That's why you think it's a bit weird, because you didn't feel like you deserved the part are. Well, I mean, I did at the time. I took it all.
I was just a jobbing actress. You were going from one thing to another. I was really, really lucky to be very, really out of work. And I took it for granted, really.
I just thought it was normal life, really. That's what you did. Go with the 500 figure, do you need to tell me that? I don't think so.
In fact, finally enough, I've just been in touch. Somebody's put me in touch with the first time in 40 years, or how many years it is, with the cinematographer Fernando Arevas. I have several emails from him. And I think he'd be horrified to hear that.
I would say five. I think he was the one who did it. I'm not the one who did it. I don't know how many he interviewed, but certainly the director interviewed.
But I was told, I think, you know, also the other thing is about it's gone up to 500 or 200. But the other thing was Hazel Malone. She was absolutely wonderful and really successful. But she definitely exaggerates all the time.
She definitely said, darling, it's chosen for this commercial. And they've seen 300 people for it. And you've never, and probably they hadn't told. She'd make you feel good by doing that.
So actually, who knows? Speaking of the director, I'm only thinking that you were kind of put through the ring around that film as well, weren't you? Was it quite a difficult shoot? Either the director had an accident.
I didn't. I wasn't. I mean, I loved every minute of it. I was oblivious.
He did have an accident. And I have read subsequently about the problems that Fenty had with the producers, Sidney Pink and another one, American. And yeah, I've read much more about it. It was difficult he had.
He had the rights taken away from him. But I knew nothing of that. It's a bit like later on when we touched on Nuss from around how same sort of thing was going on, you know, a very, very difficult time was going on. But if you're just an actress there, I was oblivious to it.
Obviously, I wasn't oblivious to the Fenty on his on his stretcher because he was filming from his stretcher. Yeah, but he was lovely. I mean, it was all dealt with terribly well and he was carried backwards and forwards. It wasn't for the whole shoot.
It was for some of it. He was on a stretcher. I actually put out a photograph of a little snapwriter with my brownie camera of him on his stretcher. But it didn't seem to impinge on my enjoyment.
It's a wonderful film. It's got a great other world we feel to it. And I think a lot of that comes from your performance. Thank you.
I actually do think it's a wonderful film in retrospect, especially as I've spoken to some people like you, actually, who actually do say that. There's a lot of appreciation for it now, which I'm really gratified by, I must say. And I've seen it much more recently and it's weird. I mean, I can understand that people might find it a little bit full of long ears because it is one of those moody things.
But you just have to go with it. No, no, I think it's fascinating film. I've got to say a lot of it comes from your performance. And for example, just off my head, the scene in the little cafe with the long pauses between the dialogue and you're just looking at each other and you're playing with the little things on the table.
It's a fascinating film. So nice to say that, Paul. I'm so glad. I do think it's an acquired taste, but I mean, I sort of agree with you.
It was lovely to do. I mean, I was quite involved with it. I was quite involved with it. And that's why it didn't seem that it's funny you should say I was put through the ring because I don't just remember that I think I was called back.
I think I was called back. I think the producers decided it wasn't sexy enough. And I think I finished the film. I think I had to go back to do more nudity, in fact.
And I'm only just remember that talking to you, Paul. And I think that was a bit stressful. But I don't remember it. I tend to block out anything very difficult.
I loved working with those guys. I loved working with Carlos Estrada. And I'm a guy I got on really, really well with. We had huge sort of record and fun and captaincy.
And I'm sure you've read that. I think thought she was just the most amazing woman I've ever met. I mean, the most beautiful woman without a doubt, an entirely interesting and fascinating. And I was still very young.
And I was working with these amazing people. Please, what you said about it. I really appreciate that. Thank you're only a few roles in it this point in your career.
You've already established yourself as someone who will take risks and the kind of projects that you do. Was that an intentional thing? Not at all. No, no, not at all.
No, you'd job the actress again. That has come up. You just offered things. You went for things.
You were auditioned for things. An awful lot you didn't get. Some you were offered. And then you decided to do it.
You know, chatting to your agent about it. And you decided to do it. So there was no plan. But it's funny again Paul, you should say that because there have been a few things written as a lovely guy who is a professor in New Zealand has written the most wonderful thing about lots of things.
He's a wonderful writer actually. My career and also with the homosexual side of my career is I seem to be a lot of woman together and my sexuality really. And that never really occurred to me. There's no plan.
There is no plan. I think they're all very famous and successful actor. You're turning down scripts. There isn't a plan.
You just work, you know. You just Google where the work goes. Because the next few films that you do with the Hammer movies, Twins of U one last Refampo, was that How That Happened Then? It was just a case of you going for the part and getting the part?
I've actually got my C-v down because I've got the order of it. Yes exactly. Exactly. I believe I'm not sure if I wanted to explain or something.
but I did have an availability check, was my agent said you haven't availability checks with Empire Lammers, but you can't do it, but it's part of a trilogy. But maybe she said they'll ask you for the second thing, and they did, so I went to see the producers curiously enough. Not John Huff, he wasn't at the audition, but I saw the producers, and then I got that part, yes I got that part, and then they asked me back to terms of evil because I think, you know, I knew my lines, such as it was, I don't think it was my hardly in line, and you'd ask for an empire, but you know, you turn up on time, you do what you're supposed to do, and they ask you back for efficiency, they were good like that, how much they would, and they had quite a sort of little repertory go, didn't they? You know, I've read lots of stories that Hammer was very much a kind of a family atmosphere.
Especially with the sort of smaller parts, I think about my wonderful friend Lou Anne-Pietis was in several of them, Pippa Steel, Kirsten Lindholm, all the small part players, just very much like a repertory company, really, they will ask back. They were very loyal in that sense, and I think it was, I think they were a joy to work for. You mentioned earlier about the difficulties on set with Prince of Evil that were going on in the background that you weren't necessarily privileged to, did it not affect anything that happened in the next world? Not as far as I was concerned, not at all.
I was surprised to read about it, actually afterwards. Especially I was very surprised to read Round of Bakes, you know, I think he said it was the worst film, you know, with AIDS or something, which of course isn't. It's just not what it says. And I think, I do think, there's a sense of humour there, which is curious, because he had a wonderful sense of humour, and Mike Johnson too, and Jimmy too, they all got on really well, they were very funny.
The girls got on really well, you know, all girls, school girls, I mean, it was just fun, it was a wonderful weather, wonderful audience, wonderful hair, everybody giggling all the time, and what's not to like really? Yeah, I think we were just shooting for about six weeks, and it was huge fun. They are two of my favourite animals, particularly the last of our vampire. I do remember getting the name wrong in a tweet once, and you corrected me the next day.
I think this was last year, I said that I was watching the vampire lovers with the great music in Madison, and you corrected me the next day. That's nice of you to mention, but you know, that correct? I think I was drinking a little bit of wine that night, and you shouldn't tweet when you're drinking wine. No, that's not the reason for me.
I still haven't actually learned it at the time, so I do it, I think you just have to look at the time and these tweets go out and see. I think that's kind of what you said to me the next day. LAUGHTER I quite like it. Very, very likely, yes.
I'm glad it's your face. It's quite a taste, I must say. I mean, some people hate it. There's a group of...
I won't mention the names, there's some of them, my friends, my people, I know quite well, there's a group on Facebook that definitely do not like last for a vampire, and hardly want to hear this, because they all know who I'm talking about. They hardly want to hear the name, because it's just considered, you know, it's considered definitely not a good one. But I think, again, there's a sense of humour, really, I always think of it as sort of Disney-ified hammer film. It's so beautiful, and it's sort of vaguely jokey and...
And it's got a song, a montage in the middle. So I mean, it's definitely a quite a taste for it, isn't it? But that helps the Disney-ish thing about it. You know, it's something having a rather dark song coming on.
It's a rather wonderful one. It's like an e-aworm. I watch the movie the other day again, and when you hear that song, you can't get it over your head for days, it's just staring ahead. LAUGHTER It's very clever.
I can't remember it, actually, but as soon as I finish this, I'll go and listen and see. LAUGHTER You don't need to, it's... No, no, maybe I don't need to. You're seen in Prince of Evil.
Was that a difficult film? That's seen to film? Being stuck to the stake with fire all around you? Are you perfectly safe?
Do you feel perfectly safe? Yes, I did feel perfectly safe. And various people have said, you know, there were flames, there were proper flames and things. I was no CGI or anything.
And I did feel safe, and I can't remember why. I mean, it just all seemed fine. It was, you know, to a certain extent, I think, after, you know, the imposter syndrome passed, I did, and I have in my past, taken my work, reacting pretty seriously. And it was a wonderful scene to do with a wonderful, wonderful actor.
And I was really into it. So, I mean, if I was a bit scared of it, I was certainly quite sort of easy to act frightened with his crushing. Kind of ironic for such a nice man. Yeah, but he was a great actor, and that's what was so impressive because he was so gentle and quite spoken, and just lovely to be with, you know, on the set when we weren't working.
But like all the great actors, you know, it's very easy to give yourself up to the work when you're working with a wonderful actor. I worked with some wonderful actors, you know, Freddie Jones as we were touching on earlier, you know, those guys, Peter Cushing, wonderful to work with, because you were really in the moment, because they were. Yeah, I can't believe that completely would be because she's one of my all-time favourite actors. Brilliant, but also lovely.
There's a couple of times you said this, that the actors around you, if they're at the top of their game and go to their performance, they make you a better performer too. That's exactly right. I think that is also exactly so on stage as well, in fact. With all the great actors, they're so much better when they're with other great actors.
And I mean, it's exactly right. And once we just go on for stage, working with Richard O'Sullivan and Youth for Joyce, night after night after night, in two national tours, every single night was a joy working with those actors, because they were so brilliant. I think it's the same. I think that's the craft of acting is playing off other people, really.
So you're constantly learning? Yeah, picking up atmosphere and picking it all up. And Peter Cushing was absolutely terrifying. And it was almost, if anything, more terrifying, because he had been this gentle, quietly spoken and recently bereaved, as I'm sure you know.
So he was quite delicate. He had to be quite delicate around him, even though he was incredibly nice to me. But then when he suddenly appears in that doorway, and then he starts, he pulls the cross off and things. I mean, it just wasn't hard to be pretty terrified.
I can imagine. And this is a kind of tongue-in-shoot question. I'm sure you'll get it, Julie, when I ask you. But was it more or less terrifying than working with Mike Raven?
Mike Raven wasn't a terrifying tour. He wasn't terrifying at all. I mean, you've got the vast difference in talent, haven't you? He was never ever frightening, Mike.
Mike Raven. But then I don't think, in my scenes with Mike Raven, I'm really enjoying that film a lot. I don't think he was... Bruce Otero, what was your terror?
I mean, I think Mary Maud had more reason to be frightened of him. I mean, in performance. Yeah. I didn't have to be...
I didn't. I was no actor here being frightened of him. I was his girlfriend, wasn't I? I was angry with him, I think.
I think that my series is the reveal villain of the piece. Not Mike Raven's character. No, she is. I mean, that's exactly right.
That's why it's a nice part to do. It was a really, very nice part to do. Well, I like those sorts of things I like to do, really. But I love to see you in the round, because it's a very predatory character that you play.
And I love to see you in the breakfast type, but where you don't really have any dialogue, you're just kind of sat there looking at everyone and just sort of smirking to yourself. Or you think of the Mauds idiots. Yeah, exactly. To tell you that you haven't seen it for a long time.
But I've seen some stills from that, which I think... You know, sort of doing to Kate that. I haven't seen the actual film for quite a long while. I know it's around, but I haven't looked at it.
Yeah, that's true. I mean, I think as she was a good character for a player, she was the harder number. You know, there were three of us young women there. And I actually think I had the best part.
You did have a bit of that. Was it difficult to do the thing when you were throwing the rocks around on Lacey? Because that looked like a whole... Well, that had quite a lot of derision.
It had quite a lot of derision. And the actual shaving would work. I mean, I'm not a sportsman at all. I think loads of people have laughed at that scene.
No, it wasn't difficult. I just couldn't throw it. I think the actual rocks that got thrown and landed on Ronnie were thrown by the assistant director, I think. And I was doing those three little throws that I know that people have laughed at.
And I think it was quite difficult throwing stones to make it look lethal. I'm going to have a note, you know, before I have to go back and look, you know, you're throwing skills. Yeah, no, no, don't bother. Give it a miss.
OK. And then you did the Russian blood show, which I think is a fantastic little... I don't think it's hard. I don't really think of it as a horror movie.
I think it's more of a thriller. It's kind of a whodunit, really. Whodunit, isn't it? Yes, it is a whodunit.
You saw it's the other day, didn't you? Did you do that? Yes. When you were a search, did you're a search?
Alvar. Yes. That was a very... I enjoyed that.
I enjoyed all the stuff I did. Did you know it's quite fun being on any old film set and things? But I think the part was pretty nothing, it was one of the very few things I survived in. I was watching it with my wife, and I told my wife at the end, and I said, you should survive this one.
Yeah, no, I think so. I think that was one of the few. Yeah, I think it was an not terribly interesting part, particularly as opposed to Nazi-encrease world of terror, which was pretty dull. I think Robbie and As with also...
I think we neither of us had very interesting parts in that. Mm-hmm. Well, actually, what Robbie asked with again a little while later when you did confessions of a window cleaner, didn't you? Yeah, I did.
Did that come later? I can't... You have to... No, but I'm like that.
Yes. He was one of the guys with Hazel Malone Management, and I'd worked with him before on a corporate video, actually, with Robin Stewart and another young lady. He remembers, he remembers far more about everything than I do. We would...
We would do an corporate video for... I can't remember what it was for, so because we'd just gone along and done that. And I knew him from being with Hazel Malone Management. Mm-hmm.
So I knew him a little bit. Not very well, but there we are. A little bit. I actually was going...
I was actually doing lockdown. I was turning out a whole pile of stuff, and found a very old address book, which was terribly intriguing to me. It had things like capacity and phone number in those hands, and things like that. And I had lots of interesting things, but also had Robin's number in it.
So I sent him a picture of it and said, look, what I just found. And he remembered where he was, which place it was. It was a flat in, I think, in John's ward. And he said, and he said, why is it in black biro and everybody else?
He's in blue. Well, I didn't have an answer for that. So we must have mixed in the same circles at some stage. I think I went to a few parties in his flat.
He seems like he was probably a very fun person to be around. He is a fun person to be around. I actually... I mean, I'm a hesitate to say this, because he needs to know this again.
But I think he's a very, very clever actor, in fact. I think the stuff he did with in Confessions is terribly difficult to do. That sort of light comedy. And I think he does it all terribly well.
And he's very lively and on the ball. And I said it before, and I'd say a hesitate to say this, because he really doesn't need any more praise in his life. But he's underrated. He's done a lot of brilliant work.
Asmeeth makes an unlikable character very likable, and that's a skill. Oh, that is nail on head there, Colin. I cannot agree with you more. And he actually tells stories about other people who turned it down.
There's a list of really good actors who turned it down. And when he did that, you know, and you hear, you know, he sort of half tongue in cheek, you know, this guy turned it down. And then, you know, I was the last one they came to. But I look at that list and think nobody would have done it better.
That's in him, in those... I haven't seen any of the others. I really haven't tried it. I've only seen Confessions of War and Opina.
And to work with, he was in that little scene that I had with him. Music's so lively and so again, very... It's very good to work off, in fact. And as I say, I think it's animated.
But, you know, he can cut this bit out for, he just doesn't need it for things. He's a little horror film called Horror Hospital, that was D Yeah, if you would, I don't like Michael Forman's much in it, to be honest. And yeah, it was very much... I didn't really enjoy it.
And I don't enjoy seeing it. I'm talking about myself really here. And yeah, now I'm... That's how I feel about it.
I mean, again, it was just a job. At the time, it seemed to be incredibly busy. I seem to be doing various things. I was probably doing a couple of commercials.
I was also filming almost exactly the same time, a couple of days on PERSIS progress. And they're both being filmed at L Street. So, you know, I was buzzing on down to L Street doing this bit in that bit. And it seemed quite enjoyable.
Very much a sort of joyable job in actress sort of activity. But I didn't really enjoy it. Not for any real reason. I mean, I got on very well with our guest and he had...
I can't remember whether it was before or after, but he employed me on a little bit in the adventurer television thing. And I thought everybody was quite nice. So something horrible that happened. I shouldn't really mention it.
You can cut it out. But after I got home, when I lived at my little house in Hackney in East London, there were a few horrible phone calls. And you didn't have a mobile phone in those days. They were a few...
They called dirty phone calls. And it was clearly from somebody who'd been on the set, because they were able to specify various things. And that left a very bad taste in my mouth really. And I just made it feel horrible.
Somebody, one of those, one of the members of the crew, I think it was, first of all, you have my phone number, which would only be on the call sheet. And he was mentioned, I didn't mention this before. It's probably a bit sort of not very nice really. It wasn't very nice at the time.
I remember being quite upset about it. Especially if you got up, how did your opinion of the film as well? Probably it did. It sort of came...
I think it did. I've only just thought about this, but I think it did. I quite like the film. It makes me chuckle.
So... That's what it's for. Calling those my sense of humour. I mean, I'm all full-pleasing.
And people don't need to know this either. I mean, I just think it's just been kind to people and about people. Being politically correct. But I've always said this right from the start, because it wasn't the 70s.
And I was quite a social political... I have political thoughts, as I do, as I always have done. And I felt that the women were the ones that were taking advantage of this young innocent boy, all the time. So it wasn't him taking advantage of all these women, which is what some people think it is.
It's not at all. Each episode is the woman seducing him. Him being a bit amused about it. So it is quite...
From that point of view, it's just a feminist film. Paul and I have always argued the point that if you watch a lot of the Carreon films, the female characters are stronger, more intelligent, and more uncontrollable than any of the male characters. There you go. Yes.
That's probably right. Yes, I think that's definitely true. That's right. It's a shame they were paid so much less apparently.
About the women actors in it were paid much less. Yeah. That doesn't strike me. It is on record, I think, as that's the case.
That's still something that female actors are dealing with today, though, isn't it? Of course they are. They're perhaps less so. Sit in the last couple of years since a few famous women have taken a stance against it.
Yes, they are, exactly. Just touching on something that you said a little bit earlier about sexuality in films and that kind of thing, you did do a lot of new y'all semi-new roles, you know, moments in films that you did. At the time, did you ever feel that that was exploitative or felt perfectly natural? Strange.
It's difficult to know whether or whether my view has been clouded at since. But my point of view now is that Linda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren, even Judy Dent, all in the 70s, did nude scenes. It was strong. It was normal.
It was normal. You know what we didn't count on? I mean, I didn't ever really like it very much. I was always vaguely shy, I think.