Blog - September 2011
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Hello all...long time no hear..
I always have great intentions of doing a blog every other day but life gets in the way...or just watching Andy murray at the US Open in fact. But there's always washings to hang up, dishwashers to empty,food shopping to do, dog to walk, beds to make, daughters to shout at for doing none of the above- and all of them plus my work, a father who has been unwell and a few Zumba classes too...well they all seem to take priority over my blog!!
But here it is...I am knackered from staying up to 2 am watching Andy triumph over "Deliciano" Lopez and that was after a party thrown for my husband Bobs 60th birthday ( yes I live with a pensioner now!....well 2 at the moment as the lovely Brigit Forsyth is staying with us while rehearsing The Missing for the National Theatre of Scotland...I'm surrounded!!!). The 'do' was thrown by my sisters Louise and Diane...so I was a wee bit fragile in the first place!!! His big event to celebrate is later this month!!
Anyway, I finished panto in Aberdeen then went onto film the new series of Nesbitt ( out on the 28th of September) and decided to take as much time off as I could could and have a summer. I hadn't stopped for so long that it has been fantastic to be in my garden with a cup of tea, to be in Dunkeld, to stay with pals in North Berwick or have a fantastic trip to Glenborrodale...actually just to have a social life has been terrific!! I had hoped to see more of my daughters but Hannah has had her Higher exams as well as the SYT summer school and loved it and Katie has been working hard and then off in Mexico on holiday...so its been me Bob and the dog...though Bob has taken the birthday to be a great excuse to do more fishing...so actually its been me and the dog!!!
In many ways the break has been good because my dad has been very ill and I have been able to do my bit...he is 83 now and doing well but its been a hard few months for him and us...
Busy as ever with all my political and charity events...After a huge success and fab time at the Falkirk Comedy Festival ( a huge thanks to all the over 500 folk that turned up...you were fab)I then went to Parkhead to see the majestic Henrik Larson make a return....what a night...55000 people there and all the money going to Africa...and all of that when riots were going on elsewhere. Gave me some hope about humanity...
I went onto help launch the Jimmy Reid foundation which was just fantastic and a fitting tribute to a man I was lucky enough to call a friend and a great hero too. Well done to Robin and all the team at SLR for getting this off the ground.... then hosted the Princes Trust dinner and auction event in Perth on the 19th of August and went to Perth Races for the first time...a great day out and got a bit too pished with my dear pal Andy Gray...laughed all day!!! And it all raised over 200k for kids and young people in Scotland.
So its been a busy old time for doing nothing eh?
Blog - Work
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I hit the work trail proper in November when I am back at HMT...with Alan McHugh, Jordan Young in Jack and the Beanstalk ( which I have never done before and Alan has written me great new role in it)...directed by the fabulous Alex Norton.
Until then I have a few events...
September 8th
Documentary for TV about sitcoms.
September 13th
Women in Scotland, From Austerity to Ambition Edinburgh.
September 16th
Charity Ball for Nil by Mouth in Glasgow.
September 28th
Rab C Nesbitt Series 10 BBC 2. ( also look out for Mocumentary anchored by John Sergeant...very funny...and then a showing of my favourite episode in Spain on BBC 3. Check listings.
Thursday September 29th
Wigtown Book Festival.
October 1st
Moira Fund Ball ( I'm a patron of the Moira Jones Fund) also later that evening at the UCS at 40 at the Mitchell Theatre Glasgow.
October 6th
Braidhurst High School Motherwell 50th Anniversary evening. Various other bits and pieces through October in for panto stuff like London for costume fittings, music rehearsals etc as well as writing and readthrus!!
November 4th
Prestonfield House CHAS Ladies lunch.
November 4th, 5th 6th
The Ceilidh Place Changing Scotland conference.
November 7th
Kilmarnock book festival.
Then PANTOLAND till mid January!!!
Blog - ZUMBA
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I am also "Zumbad" out my box ( 4 hours last week with the lovely Nicole, Shirley and Karen) so I can barely walk but its good for me and I do feel really fit....and I love it...all middle aged women need to dance...we used to do it when we were young and we don't get the chance as we get older. Maybe thats why we dance the way we do at weddings and get over excited and embarrass our kids... because we don't get the chance to practice!! Well the Zumba phenomenon has sorted that out for me!! Brilliant. I am getting a lot of comments about me and Zumba as many of you saw anrticles in the Press about a class I attended in Milngavie. Sadly because of complaints about the music from a resident ( who is also a church elder) the class has now been cancelled after a year and everyone is gutted -especially Nicole and Shirley who run it. Around fifty people turn up at 11 am every Saturday morning to laugh and dance and enjoy excercise but sadly not any more due to this complaint and the poor minister was put under so much pressure that he gave in. But I would like to set the record straight I did not call the press ( i don't think I have done that in 30 years). I was asked to give a quote for the local paper...did so through my manager and all the other papers picked up on it and made up lots of it too!!! Twas ever thus...
Blog - SUBO
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I have also been beavering away with the lovely Alan McHugh...writing the Susan Boyle musical!!
Yes folks it is happening!! Contrary to all the press nonsense and speculation about a movie...the truth is that it is the stage show about Susans life which is fascinating.
We have been working on this for over a year...it all started with Susan saying that she thought I should play her if there ever was a film. i was very flattered but laughed knowing how Hollywood worked...that I didn't have a chance but that someone like Cher would end up playing it!!! Ridiculous and totally worng but hey its Hollywood. So I forgot all about it but mentioned it and all the press surrounding the story to the wonderful Producer Michael Harrison and said that though I would never get the movie I would be right for the stage show and said we should go after it ( thinking in 5 years time!!). Michael called back 10 minutes later and said that we should do it now!! I laughed and said that there was no way that we would ever get the rights ( I would only ever want to do the show if Susan and her management approved of it and me) and i assumed that Simon Cowell and Sony would just say NO.
But after a few months of Michael persevering we got meetings and a deal has been done. Susan and her team own half of the whole thing so there is no exploitation going on ( as some have suggested!) and Susans input has been essential. its been wonderful getting to meet her and to get to know her. She is great fun and smart with a terrific sense of humour as well as a great openess towards the whole project. it is important to me and our team that we don't present a "Then this happened," episodic sort of tale or one that is overly safe and sugary...but we also don't want a show that is full of misery and darkness...we want the story told accurately but creatively and theatrically with fab songs, cast and band....a good night out all round.
We start rehearsals after panto in February....open in Newcastle in March and then tour forever it seems....dates are on the website...
We are delighted that Cameron Mackintosh has given us the title "I dreamed a Dream" and are now around Draft 6 of the script and will be arranging readings with actors soon ( never a better learning curve for a writer than when its all read out loud!!!). We have a fab director in Ed Curtis, Musical Director is Kennedy Aitchieson and casting is under way... so its all moving on... etc.
Susan is involved in it all and I was delighted when she showed up with an ITV film crew to hear bits of it and one of the songs...nervewracking and we both ended up in tears...she started to cry and that set me off.... as its very moving at points...I don't know how I would feel if my life was being acted out in front of me...very weird... but she liked what we were doing with it...so far..so good...look out for the documentary coming out soon and a special appearance by Susan in Rab C as well as the likes of Jon Sessions
and the fabulous Richard E Grant and Andy Gray.
So thats all the news..
All the best,
Elainex
Blog - June 2011
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It’s only now that I have finally updated my website that I realise why I have been so tired! I didn’t feel as though I had the busiest of years last year, but now that I look back and have updated my CV, I realise that it was actually a bit mental!
The good thing was that during the year I managed to get some time off and it was great to be able to recharge the batteries. After 18 months of touring and a West End run with Calendar Girls, a new series of Rab C Nesbitt, and then a panto run at the wonderful His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen, I knew that I needed to lie down for a bit. AND I actually did it too!
I so enjoyed having the time to be with family and friends, have a break in Portugal, a great weekend in Rowardennan with my sisters and all the kids, and a few trips to my beloved Dunkeld. So when I started on rehearsals for the tour of Calendar Girls in London in July I was fit and healthy and RESTED!
I had also managed to do a lot of things for charities close to my heart and that felt so great, especially the event I organised for the Paul O'Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre in Glasgow. This was the unit that helped save my sister’s life and I wanted to do something for them. I had a dream the first time we came to Glasgow with Calendar Girls to have the real ‘Calendar Girls’ come up from Yorkshire to attend a fundraising lunch and then come and see the show at the wonderful King’s Theatre that night. But it was too difficult in the first tour as it was all too new and I didn’t know the women as well as I do now. So I put the idea to the back of my head but, lo and behold, when I was asked to take over from Lynda Bellingham to play Chris for the ‘Celtic’ tour, I decided to get it organised ....and we did. The lunch sold out, the wonderful girls and their hubbies drove up from Yorkshire and stayed for two nights in Glasgow, and the cast and many friends and family turned up. The help of my manager Lynne and her assistant Susan, as well as the hard work and support of both my sisters Louise and Diane, and the team from Glasgow University was invaluable. That night, as the real girls – Ros, Chris, Tricia, Angela and Beryl – stood up in the theatre and received a standing ovation, was one of the best days of my life....and what a welcome from a Glasgow audience...amazing.
I went back to HMT in Aberdeen to play my first ever baddie Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty and I have to say that it was brilliant. I had a great time...knackered but great...a fantastic script by Alan McHugh, great cast with old and new friends like Jordan Young, Johnnie Bett, Sarah Collier, Sophie Boyne, Donna Steele and Michael MacAveety.....a great team and a Box Office triumph, even in the snow. It seems that the central belt of Scotland got it colder and with more snow too. I kept getting texts from people saying how terrible it must be in Aberdeen, but actually the snow was much worse in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We only had one day when a show was affected, which was lucky compared to what so many other shows had to go through. It did mean that I didn’t get home for a couple of weeks as I couldn’t risk the drive (serves me right for buying a fancy rear wheel drive...it will be snow tyres for me next year I tell you!!) But our Musical Director James had to sleep in his car overnight on the M80 and others took seven and eight hours to get to the theatre...aaaah the show must go on eh? And it did!
So I have had a bit of a break, only stopping for the West Sound Radio Burns Supper in January, which was a great night. I have loved getting my house back in order...not that my hubby isn’t great, but it isn’t the same is it? My microwave and oven were close to being declared health risks and all the chores that there has been so little time to do – skirting boards, pairing that pile of single socks that have sat in the utility room for months (where the bloody hell do the other socks go?), throwing out stuff and getting it to charity shops and all the little things that no-one but you ever sees, has finally been getting done – and it feels great. Whenever I have been home over the past two years, it’s only been a fleeting visit so all the stuff I wanted to get sorted just felt too much. The priority was to be with my girls and family and friends...not pairing socks! But it got to the point where I couldn’t stand it and I know that I am home for a while now.
So the husband was packed off to his best pal Bob Wyatt for a fly fishing adventure in New Zealand (he is 60 this year and it was his Christmas pressie too) and I set about cleaning the house and getting it in order...and there is something very satisfying about that.....and heading to bed with a good book every night! The girls are getting used to me being back...and the madness and strict routines of a menopausal mad mum!
Katie graduated last July with Honours and we were so proud of her...and she is now working full time and putting me to shame with her diet and fitness regime...she is becoming the Zumba queen! And Hannah is sitting her Highers...so there’s been a bit of prelim panic going on....but she has done well and faced it all. She is doing so well with her Drama and I fear we may have another Thesp in the making......aaagh!
So hubby is safely back (though he has just had a tonsilectomy and is in a lot of pain while I am doing a dual role of Florence Nightingale and Nurse Ratchett!) and I am now into the third week of filming with the new Rab C Nesbitt series...the tenth one...can’t believe it. We have some great guests coming in from the wonderful Richard E Grant to Susan Boyle.......she and I have been working on a project together and it’s been great getting to know her. I finish filming Nesbitt at the end of March....so I will do an update on other stuff then.....
I am attending the Women of Influence lunch this month which is always a great day out and the Scottish Variety Awards ball too.
And of course we have the Scottish elections....yippee......can we really face a world with Iain Gray as our leader....let’s get out there and do the best for Scotland and, in my view, it certainly won’t be by voting Labour! They have left the people of this country adrift for too long and I don’t think their betrayal of ordinary working people should be forgiven but sadly I fear that in certain areas of Scotland it is all too tribal and a monkey could be elected with a Labour rosette on...sad, sad, sad...but we should be cheered that George Galloway has come to rescue us eh? A man who hates the Scottish Parliament and actively campaigned against it, now can’t get a job anywhere else so has carpet-bagged his way back here to get a job....he may have spoken brilliantly at the Senate in the US and is a clever and wily campaigner but I worry about his principles and whether he gives a stuff about the people of this country. I hope he does....cos we might just be cynical enough and daft enough to elect him....well we let George Foulkes in, so why not George G......
