More than Likely

Above: Brigit Forsyth. Photograph Rex Features

Above: Brigit declares open the Harmony House therapy centre and holistic training academy in Glossop, assisted by owners Mark and Katy Rogers

They say variety is the spice of life - and if it’s true, Edinburgh born actress Brigit Forsyth has enjoyed more than most during a successful career spanning almost half a century...Wide-ranging roles as diverse as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and the Queen in Alan Bennett’s A Question of Attribution have kept her busy over the past five decades, and fortunately there’s no hint that the flow of work is slowing down. Brigit, who has lived in the village of Broadbottom, on the fringe of the Peak District, for the past eight years, has worked on stage, and in film, television and radio since she left RADA in 1960 and loves them all, albeit for very different reasons. ‘I find them all fascinating, because they vary so much,’ she admitted. ‘Theatre makes huge demands on your life, and it can be nervewracking, though exhilarating, to face a different audience each night. I still enjoy television, and you need to use different techniques for film. ‘But I just adore radio, because of the variety of parts I get, it’s wonderful. On radio you can be so many different people, but that can’t happen on television, stage or film because of the visual element.’ Born into a creatively-gifted family during the Second World War - her father was an architect and talented pianist, while her mother was a painter - Brigit was also musicallyinclined, and played the cello from the age of nine, though she abandoned it when she went to drama school. ‘Acting was something I had always wanted to do, but never thought I’d be allowed to, even though my parents were very supportive,’ she added. ‘I very stupidly gave up the cello because I wanted to be an actress, and somehow it seemed unsexy at the time.’ However music’s loss was acting’s gain, and after two years at RADA Brigit worked with various repertory companies across the UK before making her television debut in the mid-1960s. Since then, she has appeared in programmes as varied as Doctor Who, Dr Finlay’s Casebook, and, more recently, Poirot, The Bill, Casualty, Heartbeat and Waterloo Road. In 1998, Brigit made a one-episode guest appearance in Coronation Street, as Ken Barlow’s dating agency client, Babs Fanshawe, but she is probably most widely remembered as Bob Ferris’s feisty fiancée, subsequently wife, Thelma, in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, back in the 1970s. ‘People still remember her, even though it’s 35 years ago,’ she said. ‘I don’t have a problem with that, it’s wonderful, but I’m afraid I don’t have any funny anecdotes about it because it’s so long ago! All I remember is that I had just been doing a really heavy psychological drama, and thought it would be nice to do some comedy for a change.’ Brigit’s all-time favourite television role was Francine Pratt in the gritty BBC TV series Playing the Field in 1998. ‘The characters were terrific, and it was a great opportunity to play Francine, it was such a meaty role,’ she revealed. ‘She thought she was Joan Collins, but of course she wasn’t at all, and ended up losing all her money.’ Favourite stage roles have included Lady Bracknell on tour with Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre : ‘She doesn’t have a single dud line’, and actress Coral Browne in An Englishman Abroad and the Queen in A Question of Attribution, which both featured in Alan Bennett’s Single Spies at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. ‘The strange thing was, I looked extraordinarily like the Queen when I was wearing the wig and frock and carrying the handbag,’ reflected Brigit. ‘I had played Princess Margaret once before, so was aware there was a certain resemblance to the Royal Family.’ And when Brigit played Coral Browne once again, this time on radio, she received a postcard from Alan Bennett himself, praising her for the ‘freshness and vitality’ she brought to the role. Married for quarter of a century to the late television director Brian Mills, she has two children and has lived in the North West for 30 years:‘I consider myself a resident here now’. Outside work, she loves going walking with friends in the Peak District. Particular favourites are Win Hill and Kinder Scout: ‘Kinder is fantastic, so atmospheric.’ Happily, Brigit also rediscovered the cello several years ago.‘I hadn’t played very much over the years, but then I was left a good cello by my aunt and so started again,’ she explained. ‘One thing led to another, and I also started to write arrangements for a friend, as well as playing internationally acclaimed cellist Beatrice Harrison in the premiere of The Cello and the Nightingale at York Theatre Royal. ‘Sheer fear made me practice a lot. It’s so difficult to act and play a musical instrument at the same time. I think it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I’m so glad I did it, because it rekindled my interest. I now play with a local amateur orchestra, the High Peak Orchestra - you could say it’s my second string!’ Mindful of the actor’s continuing need to keep fit and combat stress, Brigit has been a keen advocate of the Alexander Technique for the past 30 years, and also uses complementary therapies such as massage and Reiki used by former international rugby player Mark Rogers and his wife Katy at Harmony House therapy centre and holistic training academy in nearby Glossop. ‘I look upon the treatments as prolonging health,’ she said. ‘I’m not interested in the cosmetic side of things. I went to Katy for a Reiki treatment, having been disappointed to feel no benefit from a previous visit to somebody else. This was a completely different experience, and I continued to feel the benefits of the treatment for several days afterwards.’ Brigit’s ‘hands on’ approach to health obviously pays off, for she retains an obvious passion for both life and her work. When I briefly interrupted her busy schedule between assignments, she had recently played a biopsy doctor in Jimmy McGovern’s The Street, a woman battering her Alzheimer’safflicted husband in The Royal Today and a homophobic mother in Waterloo Road. Not to mention a stint as guest speaker on a Caribbean cruise and taking on the role of Madame Peloux in a Woman’s Hour radio serialisation of Colette’s classic novel Cheri. ‘It’s amazing to me to think that, in two years’ time, I will have been acting for 50 years,’ she admitted. ‘The time has absolutely flown. I’ve loved every minute of it, have had a brilliant time and have been very lucky. If I had the choice, I’d love to do another musical. I played Mother Lord in High Society about three years ago, and it was a lovely part. I have had such a fantastic variety of roles. It has been wonderful, and it just seems to go on.’