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Helen as the formidable Sylvia
Helen
Fraser is currently well-known for her portrayal of 'Bodybag'
Sylvia Hollamby in the very successful Bad Girls, and she's
delighted. What does this latest success mean to her?
"Money!" she laughs, "it gives a kind of
security being in a regular role with a regular wage which is
always good, and often unusual, for an actress." Helen
also likes the recognition she gets from the public which is
reminiscent of the attention she got after her earlier film
and TV successes in the sixties and seventies. And the more
mature Helen gets a lot of recognition and admiration from the
younger players on the set. She has the nickname of 'The Dame'
amongst the cast of the show - indicative of the respect she
commands as a result of her wide and varied experience in
film, TV and the theatre over four decades. Helen points out
that another of her characters had the moniker 'Rigor Mortis'
in the Doctor comedy series of the early seventies. "I
seem to get a lot of characters with nicknames like
that", she explains. Talking of Rigor Mortis and the
Doctor series, I point out to Helen that George Layton, who
wrote those hilarious Doctor scripts, is these days to be seen
appearing in an advert for people 'of a certain age'
recommending that they take out an insurance "for when
you're not around anymore", a euphemism which I find very
amusing and for which George seems barely to be able to stifle
a smile in the advert. Helen and I laugh and agree he must be
doing it for the money!
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| Four
publicity shots of a young Helen |
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Helen
was born and raised in Oldham, Lancashire, her father a dental
surgeon. Helen had two
older brothers. Oldham was unremarkable, some might say
boring, although Helen remembers her childhood with fondness.
But her mother had ambitions, not for herself but for her
youngest, Helen, and this is why she worked so hard, despite
her husband earning a good income in a good middle-class
profession, to make some extra pennies towards Helen's future. Mrs Fraser's heroine was actress Evelyn Laye and
she wanted her daughter to emulate her heroine's fame and
fortune if she could. So, "As soon as I could walk",
according to Helen, she was propelled into dancing classes by
her mum. The tutors there suggested that Helen should go to a
special school as they recognised a talent, so at the very
tender age of nine Helen was packed off south to Tring in
Hertfordshire, which might as well have been a million miles
away from Oldham. "It was the first time I saw daffodils
growing", she says. Helen tells me she has returned to
her original home only once in all those years and, as is
often the way, it was a mistake because what was once a lovely
family home is now a collection of bedsits. Helen attended
stage school where she learned the disciplines of tap, drama
and ballet. Her heroine was Moira Shearer and one of her
favourite movies The Red Shoes.
Helen left drama school at fifteen. "My first job was in
the chorus of a panto. They wanted me to do secretarial
training or cookery classes as a backup, but I resisted".
Off Helen went to London, and RADA. "It had to be RADA
for me and I had to take a test but although I was rather shy
I was very confident and the test didn't worry me at all and I
passed rather easily." Helen found herself along with
contemporaries like Tom Courtenay, John Thaw, David Warner,
Ian McShane, Roy Marsden and many other names famous today.
"I tell people that I went to RADA with all the
detectives - Morse, Dalgliesh, Lovejoy...."
I ask Helen about her first TV roles in series like Z Cars,
which at that time was live television. As she had done a lot
of stage work she was not fazed by this. She had just had her
northern accent 'elocuted away' at drama school and she was
immediately in demand for a string of northern roles!
"Director John Schlesinger saw me in rep and decided he
wanted me for A Kind of Loving. I was to work with him again
later on......"
Helen played Billy's fiancée Barbara in the classic Billy
Liar. "It was filmed at Shepperton but I did all of my
filming for it on location up north. I never got to work
directly with Julie Christie although we both appear in the
movie, of course, and I didn't really get to know her. Like
Tom (Courtenay), she seemed a rather shy and private person.
Tom is very 'what you see is what you get'. Billy Liar was
also directed by John Schlesinger who specifically wanted me
for the role." Helen tells me of a few instances where a
main actor or actress in a movie was changed during filming
for one reason or another, or where, in one instance, the
writer, for their own reasons, didn't want Helen for a part
but the director held out for her. This seems to happen a lot
in ' the business' and the film-going public would be
surprised at the chopping and changing that go on behind the
scenes before they get to see the finished production.
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| Helen
in Billy Liar and (top right) A Kind of Loving |
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I
ask Helen what the sixties meant to her. "I was a face in
the sixties. I appeared twice on the cover of TV Times and was
recognised a lot as a result of my film and TV work,
particularly Billy Liar. In fact people still remember me for
it today. I loved it. I met my husband on the set of Billy
Liar. He's a soundman." I ask Helen for clarification as
to whether he's a Soundman or a Sound
man. "He's
both", she replies. "The sixties were a great time
for TV. There was Armchair Theatre and Play for Today and The
Wednesday Play - a great time for actors and writers."
Since the days of A Kind Of Loving and Billy Liar she has been
busy more or less non-stop - "I've had a few troughs but
mostly I have been in work on TV, film or stage. When times
were quiet, I conjured-up some work for myself with my
one-woman shows. I have done two shows which toured the
country about the music hall star Vesta Victoria and another
about Cicely Courtneidge called Vitality, after a famous song
of hers. The former was probably more interesting to research
as she was a rather colourful character. The shows lasted for
about two hours". I remark on how that must have been
stressful and tiring and Helen agrees it was exhausting but
says that she was at ease with the one-woman aspect of the
shows. I point out that this apparent confidence at the RADA
entrance exams, at auditions, on live TV and one-woman shows
seems to follow a pattern. "Well, it's what I do and it's
the only thing I do well. It's what I was trained for",
she says.
Helen
in Pinter's The Birthday Party
Helen appeared in another cult classic Repulsion. The movie
had been 'moved' to London in the same way as that other cult
classic Blow-Up had been, as a direct consequence of London
becoming the film capital of the world in the mid-sixties.
"Director, Roman Polanski spoke little if any English,
only French and Polish. Catherine (Deneuve) spoke only French.
Rehearsals were .........difficult! Roman was passionate about
the film but couldn't always articulate what was required.
Catherine learned all of her lines phonetically. It's funny
because I saw Repulsion again recently and you can spot the
slight pause between me stopping my lines and Catherine
starting hers. I like the look in that film - I had a Mary
Quant-type of hairstyle and it's very much the swinging
sixties."
Catherine Deneuve
When I ask Helen a question her response is often preceded
with a little sigh, as if to suggest that the question is a
little challenging. This is somewhat explained when I ask her
what characteristics she shares with Sylvia Hollamby.
"We're both very impatient and Sylvia sighs a lot and I
seem to be doing that a lot these days. I am not as bad as
Sylvia but I think over time one can become a little bit more
like one's characters! I believe in discipline and, like
Sylvia, that if you do the crime you must do the
time." How did her role in Bad Girls come about?
"Well, as you may recall, I appeared on Coronation Street
as a character called Magenta Savannah! I had been seen by a
Granada executive while appearing in rep up north. People
thought I was going to be Jack Duckworth's love interest, but
that wasn't the way the storyline went. Magenta actually
hypnotised Jack in one episode and I had 20 pages of script to
learn in that episode. Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn who play Jack
and Vera were astonished and somewhat impressed that I was
able to learn 20 pages of script so quickly and so accurately.
I didn't get to join the regular company on 'The Street' as my
role was with Jack, but I must say Bill and Liz were very
welcoming. Anyway, I was in 'Corrie' for a while and then the
part ended. I thought this was a shame to 'waste the part' and
so did an executive at Granada - she said to me not to worry
because another not dissimilar part in a new show would be
there for me in the near future. She was referring to the part
of Sylvia."
Press book and Lobby Card from Billy Liar
What
makes Helen laugh? "Dick Emery, The Two Ronnies,
character-based comedies". Helen worked with Dick Emery
on seven series and she has a lot of affection for him.
"He was lovely to work with. He was married six times. He
had an eye for the ladies, but I was safe because I wasn't
long-legged and blonde." Helen played his daughter and I
remark that she often played girl-next-door or wifey roles.
"Yes, until Bad Girls came along, that is. I got a copy
of a Best of Dick Emery DVD and was enjoying it when I suddenly
appeared - I really wasn't expecting to be in the
compilation but it was fun to see it again."
Helen has some pet hates - Wheelie bins -" They're taking
over the world." Mobile phones - "I don't want to hear
another person's conversations." Computers - "I
can't get on with them."
And as for tear-jerkers for Helen, "Classical music,
movies like Brief Encounter and any Margot Fonteyn
performances always set me off." I ask her if she was at
all interested in pop music and she says she was a Beatles fan
in the 60s but she didn't have a favourite Beatle. "I
loved Bill Haley in the 50s - I was a great jiver."
Unfortunately she has never had a chance to display this
particular talent on stage or screen. "Several of these
reality/celebrity shows have contacted me asking me to appear
but I have resisted until now. The Celebrity Fitness Club asked me but I
turned it down." I ask jokingly if she was a candidate
for Celebrity Love Island and she says that one passed her by.
"I have been asked to do Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes
and I am definitely considering it as there are one or two
singers I would love to have a crack at." Helen is sworn
to secrecy as to who these might be. "I don't really like
the reality trend on TV. These days anyone can be a star. The credits
say 'starring this and starring that', but there aren't many
REAL stars around." Who are her icons? "Audrey
Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman." Helen then cites Meryl
Streep and Robert Redford as examples of two of the few
contemporary stars - Helen's husband worked on the sound in Out Of
Africa.
What parts would you like to have had that you didn't get, I
ask? A customary sigh and a pause for contemplation is
followed by a thoughtful "I wanted to be in Far From The
Madding Crowd, but that was one part that John Schlesinger
didn't have for me." Maybe it was because he had already
cast her in two of his movies that he decided not to again, I
suggest and Helen agrees.
In Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, now a cult classic,
Helen had already worked on the piece in rep. "Pinter
didn't want me for the part as he had someone else in mind,
but I got it nevertheless. I had worked in stage management
and knew the play very well so was able to surprise
William Friedkin, the director, by knowing the play maybe
better than he did."
Dick Emery
Cicely Courtneidge and Leonard Rossiter
Helen worked on a number of comedy shows with a number of
great comedy actors and she subscribes to the often-held view
that comedians are commonly tragic figures. "I think that
it's often the case that they have a lot of self-doubt and
wonder when their bubble is going to burst. I worked with Leonard
Rossiter on Billy Liar and two episodes of Rising Damp and a
Christmas Special which they repeat a lot and he was a lovely
man but you could see he was a workaholic. Watching the performance
people would not realise that Leonard had rehearsed and
rehearsed to get to that level of performance, which seemed
almost spontaneous and improvised. Dick Emery was the same -
he worked too hard and burnt himself out. We got on well
because I knew that as a comedian he wanted and needed the
laughs, not me, and it was all a matter of timing for him. We
had that worked out well."
Helen tells me "I don't have any real ambitions anymore.
I have been to Hollywood," (Helen appeared in Start The
Revolution Without Me with Gene Wilder), "played at the
National Theatre, I've done two successful one-woman shows,
been in a top TV series - Bad Girls has the biggest permanent
set in Europe, you know - and I appeared in some films that
seem to have stood the test of time. When asked by younger
actors what advice I'd give them, I always say take ANY acting
job you are offered, no matter what it is. Just accept
anything that comes!! In my experience, that small part might
lead to something a lot meatier and more significant a few
years down the road."
So how does Helen relax? "Ooh, well as you know I have
been catching up on the gardening today, but as I'm impatient I
tend to want to just get the job done. I love dinner parties -
small parties with a few friends. I go to the cinema a lot and
the West End musicals - I'm going to see Guys and Dolls again
soon. And cooking." How would she describe herself?
"Um .......nosey, impatient, a good friend, loyal."
Helen as Mimi in Start The Revolution Without Me and as Lulu
in The Birthday Party
Helen
as Mary Ream in The Uncle
I ask Helen about her live stints on Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire and Loose Women and how it was 'playing herself'.
"Well, Millionaire was terribly nerve-racking. Chris
Tarrant was lovely and I did alright but it was difficult
knowing that it was for your favourite charity. I did two
shows on Loose Women, and the first one I didn't enjoy that
much because you know what it's like when a lot of women get
together - they all want to put their views across and they
were all a bit self-important. On the second show I was
invited to talk about Bad Girls so I was in my element and you
couldn't shut me up!"
Is she nostalgic or does she tend to look forward? "I
look back with fondness. I think I am more at ease with myself
now. When people are younger they are more
self-conscious." What's Helen's philosophy on life? She
sighs a little and says "My mottoes would be live every
day, grab every chance and do unto others as you would have
them do to you."
Helen has just agreed to appear in panto in Middlesborough for
the 2005/2006 season. "I have rented a house up there so
we can have all the home comforts. I am playing 'Baroness
Hardup' in Cinderella. I wasn't sure whether to agree to do it
- it's the constant dilemma of an actor not knowing what
they'll be working on at any time - but in the end I wanted to
do panto again and so there I am." I remark that I love
panto because of the tradition and the fact that people know
what to expect but also because there are jokes on two levels
- for the children but also for the grown-ups. "I'm not
sure who is playing Cinderella" says Helen, "I think
it's one of the young girls on Coronation Street."
"I also have the Stars In Their Eyes coming up,"
says Helen, "so I am going to need a lot of rehearsal for
that......."
I
would like to thank Helen for her time and cooperation with
this interview. Thanks also to Heidi at Sue Terry Voices for
helping to arrange this. For more information on Helen and her
work, please visit:
The
Official Bad Girls website www.badgirls.co.uk
Everything
Bad Girls www.badgirlsonline.co.uk
Sue
Terry Voices www.sueterryvoices.co.uk
Helen's
listing on the Internet Movie Database www.imdb.com/name/nm0292136
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