Celebrity Interview - Lynda Bellingham
Oxo Mum with a taste for success
Lynda Bellingham Oxo Mum with a taste for success
Form many people she is best known as the "Oxo Mum" but - as Annabel Milnes-Smith discovers - Lynda Bellingham has enjoyed a versatile and varied acting career.
Lynda Bellingham is a very fine actress, but no matter how many roles she plays the chord she strikes with the public will always be that of the adorable Oxo Mum. She relates to all members, of all families, on many different levels, and one gets the feeling that over the years she has unwittingly, through the loving family advertisements, healed many a family rift. Lynda Bellingham was born in Montreal (Canada) and, aged 11, moved to a farm in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. From that moment, all Lynda aspired to be was a famous horsewoman, on her beloved pony Tiddlywinks. However, this was not to be, as she contracted hay fever and all hope of this career was gone.
Then she realised another dream. While attending Aylesbury High School she appeared as a slave in the school production of Macbeth. The school did not see her budding talent, and never gave her the opportunity to play a leading role. Lynda did. She gained a placed at the Central School of Speech and Drama and, as they say, the rest is history.
Over the years, Bellingham has played numerous roles in theatre productions, television, film and radio but it has not always been plain sailing. Says Lynda, "One of my earliest roles was when I starred alongside famous crime writer Lynda La Plante in a theatre production of Diet for Women, based on the Aristophenes play, where all the women withhold their favours to stop the men going to war.
"We all had to wear rubber boobs and bottoms to accentuate our femininity, together with army boots. He lined us all up including myself, Lynda La Plante and Lesley Joseph. He then proceeded to give us army beards and blankets, whereupon we then had to sing. Needless to say it was a diabolical production. We toured the country, and following the Liverpool production we actually received an official complaint. The language was dreadful as well. We swore like troupers. I thought that it would be marvellous touring, and it would do wonders for my career. However, quite frankly, not a lot!"
Lynda has two boys, Michael and Robbie, is divorced, and a single mother. "I have been single for 10 years but I do quite like it. It's very hard the longer you go on, but I do think women are better at it than men."
What is the favourite part you have played?
It has to be Faith in the Future, which is series I did with Julia Sawalha playing my daughter. We won best comedy in 1998. It is quite interesting now where they say sitcom is dead. I think it is really quite sad. It is a fashion thing. ITV decides that they should not go on, but there are a lot of people in middle England who would be glad to see a good sitcom. ITV just regard them as not important enough.
You starred in The Bill in the unlikely character of a villainess for six months last year. What was your best day in the role?
Funnily enough, it was the day I was killed. My mother when she watched me on telly, and whenever she saw me killed, would say, "Oh look she's died: that means she will be unemployed once again!" Anyway, we were in a field all night and there were police cars all over the place. It was a big deal being a night shoot in the middle of nowhere, and then it rained. Subsequently I had to fall down dead numerous times in rather large puddles. On these occasions when you know you will be filming all hours, you have to adapt, and my way is by becoming a great caterer. I made lots of smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, with buckets of champagne. Roberta Taylor, who plays the Chief Super, and who is a similar nature to me, had a great party with the rest of the cast when we finished at four thirty in the morning. I had a ball that day. It was great fun."
Did you feel very typecast, playing the role as the Oxo Mum?
I had great reservations about doing it. In 1983 when I started filming them, it was seen as not the done thing to do commercials. I did not want to do anything hard sell, but it became like a soap. It caught on. As the campaign went on I was quite proud of it. Obviously it did not make me an international film star, but if a job on any level is well done I regard it as a success.
Did your contract forbid you from buying competitive products?
No it didn't. I was terribly loyal, but people stopped me endlessly in supermarkets and peered into my basket in the hope to catch me out! At Christmas, they would very sweetly give me a year's supply. Now I take a bit of delight when I feel people watching me and I deliberately go and get Knorr. "Why shouldn't I," I say to myself? Naughty Knoora!
You worked with the great Albert Finney in Uncle Silas. Was that not rather daunting?
What can I say: he is dreamy. He is such a pro. I was so nervous about meeting him, I said to the production assistant when I got there, "Look, I don't want to disturb Mr Finney but I would like to go through the lines, if he is not too busy. I don't want to go myself, but if you could just whisper in his ear." Five minutes later, this voice boomed across the field, "Get your arse in here Miss Bellingham." He was having breakfast, but made me feel completely comfortable. He positively twinkled. I think Albert is the complete lesson in the sense that he works to live, not lives to work. He just has such fun in his work, and that's what I think it is all about.
What makes you laugh?
A programme on Radio Four called I Haven't Got a Clue, with Humphrey Middleton, and Absolutely Fabulous. I love clever humour and wit -things that make me laugh out loud.
What makes you sad?
Everything, even watching King Kong. I mean a big gorilla in love with Naomi Watts. I think I have a problem here! I am very sentimental, but even more so since I have had children.
What makes you tick?
I get off on the discipline of work and have huge ambitions.
What work are you doing now?
I have just finished filming an episode of Holby City playing a mother of two sons who end up in hospital. Following it, I saw a window of opportunity and tried to persuade them to let me come back as a psychotic bunny boiler. They weren't very impressed. I just wanted to stalk Robert Powell, who I know very well.
You have just bought a property in Spain...
I have a small cupboard, as I call it. It is wonderful and very quiet. I found myself in Spain with a girlfriend of mine who is a make-up artist and loved it. However, the minute I bought it, I was in the West End for months, so I have not spent anytime there, but I now hope to find some time to work on it.
Have you ever been offered any Hollywood roles?
No, but I still have hopes. I did a film three or fours years ago in Russia about Nicholas and Alexandra. At the moment the rights of the film are being held in a bank, but hopefully they are going to be freed up and it will be shown in Europe. It is a 12 million dollar picture, and quite spectacular. You only need one job to crack it. I am pleased to be a happy working actress but it would be nice obviously to fast-track my career with a blockbuster.
So it's back to our old friends, the Oxo TV adverts; the pathos engendered by that long-suffering look that Lynda gives to camera, when her family return for lunch, still tugs at the heart-strings of millions. On that basis alone, this writer feels that Lynda Bellingham's blockbuster is not far away. She is a treasure.
