|
|
 |
Felicity Kendal guest-stars - Radio Times, 17 May 2008 |
|
|
|
 |
|
As Felicity Kendal joins Doctor Who for a special period murder mystery, Nick Griffiths talks to her about acting with wasps.
When Radio Times calls Felicity Kendal for our interview, it's almost perfect that the former star of The Good Life and Rosemary & Thyme is "in the middle of a garden centre in the country. And we've had a flood, but there you go."
So we hook up an hour later, once Kendal has returned to London, where she's starring in Noël Coward's The Vortex, in the West End's Apollo Theatre until 7 June. That play and her Doctor Who story, The Unicorn and the Wasp, are both set in the 1920s. Any similarities, then?
"They're both richly written - the dialogue in both is lovely and funny and witty and real - but the stories couldn't be less similar, and that's probably on purpose because one doesn't do the same thing twice," Kendal replies.
Admittedly, Gareth Roberts's Who tale does involve, as the title suggests, a unicorn and a wasp (a giant one), as well as upper-class ladies and gentlemen embroiled in a murder mystery attended by the queen of crime fiction herself, Agatha Christie.
Kendal plays Lady Clemency Eddison, host to Christie (Fenella Woolgar) and a cast of suspects that includes - as well it should - a vicar. "She's a romantic woman with not a great deal of brains," Kendal explains of Lady Eddison. "She's rather of her period, very much a country lady. And she's a bit mysterious. She has a slight penchant for insects. And she likes a tipple, but that's because her life hasn't turned out the way she wanted it to."
Speaking posh didn't faze Kendal ("I automatically speak very straight English, so I don't think I have a problem with pronunciation") and neither did acting to "nothing" when required to face a giant wasp, which would be added by computer later. "If they say 'This is what you have to imagine,' you tend to imagine it. It's only an extension of what you're doing all the time. If a collection of people are all facing the same blank space going, 'Oh my God, that's terrible!', you tend to join in with it."
Even the thought of the universally loathed wasp failed to ruffle Kendal's feathers: "I know people run away screaming, but I grew up in India, so insects aren't a big deal with me, I suppose. There was one on my hand driving back [to London] today and I just put it out of the window."
Richard Briers, Kendal's on-screen husband in The Good Life, was in an episode of Torchwood earlier this year, so did she talk to him about appearing in sci-fi?
"It's rather sweet that we're both doing something similar. But I was in theatre last year and then again this year, so I haven't actually been watching a lot of television that isn't on very late at night."
And will she have young relatives watching on Saturday? "I have. People are more impressed that I've done this than most things that I've done. All sorts of young people will be watching it thinking that I really am the bee's knees now. So I feel that I've made it!"
**
Read our exclusive interview with Gareth Roberts about writing this episode - or take a look at our full Doctor Who guide.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Advertiser link |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| EMAIL A FRIEND |
|
| Want to share this page with a friend? It's quick and easy! |
| Email a friend |
|
|
|
|
|
