Funny Girl(116)

To her mother, it must have looked as though she could do anything she wanted to do. She could move from one end of the country to another, change her name, live on her own, sleep with whoever she wanted to without marrying them, drink tea at the Ritz, make babies disappear overnight, probably bringing them back again, if she felt like it. And it was true, she could. But it seemed to her that to take advantage of all of these opportunities, she had to turn something off inside her. She had to pretend that nothing mattered, as long as she got the life she thought she wanted. For some reason, she started thinking about how Everyone Loves Sophie or Everyone Loves Suzy would end, six months or five years into the future: Sophie or Suzy would meet someone, and want to have a baby with him, and Tony and Diane would run out of things to say. That was how half the stories in the world ended. She wasn’t sure it was the best ending, but it was the only one people seemed to be able to think of for girls like her. And Sophie had met someone, in real life, and she was pregnant by him, and he made her happy. You couldn’t keep asking to have the pages crumpled up and thrown in the bin, especially if they made sense.

‘Well,’ said Brian, after he’d finally understood. ‘I’ll still be here when you’re ready to come back.’

‘Thank you,’ said Sophie.

Brian couldn’t interest Dennis in Freda, or Suzy, or any of the girls who had sent him photographs, but one evening he saw Caviar and Chips, an ITV show about a working-class family that wins the football pools, and he had a bright idea: he approached the girl who played the family’s teenage daughter, a pretty young actress called Jackie Chamberlain, and told her that he had a series for her. Then he talked to ITV, and then he talked to Tony and Diane, and a few months later Everyone Loves Jackie, a series about a young, carefree, single girl with a cat and boyfriend troubles, was given a Thursday night slot. It didn’t last long, but then, that was the trouble with young people, Brian found: they would insist on getting older.





FROM THIS DAY FORWARD





Biographies


Bill Gardiner, who co-wrote Barbara (and Jim) with Tony Holmes, is the author of the novels Diary of a Soho Boy, The Gospel According to Nigel and The Closet. He is working on a film adaptation of Diary of a Soho Boy. His stage adaptation was put on at the Royal Court in 1969.

Tony Holmes has written more than twenty series for radio and television. After Barbara (and Jim) he wrote (with Diane Stafford) Everyone Loves Jackie, before going on to create Salt and Vinegar, The Green, Green Grass of Home and Would Like to Have Met for ITV. He is a frequent contributor to the radio series I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue and Just a Minute.

Clive Richardson has had a long career in television in both the UK and the US. He was Dr Nigel Fisher in ER, and for many years played Chief Inspector Richard Jury in the successful and popular Jury, adapted from the books of Martha Grimes. He lives with his third wife, the American actress Carrie Courtenay, in Hollywood.

Sophie Straw has been a much-loved star of British stage and screen ever since she introduced herself to the British viewing public in Barbara (and Jim). Her TV series include His and Hearse, Salt and Vinegar, The Green, Green Grass of Home, Would Like to Have Met and Minnie Cab. She is now probably best remembered for her work in the long-running soap opera Chatterton Avenue, where she played Liz Smallwood from 1982 to 1996. Her stage work includes touring productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, A Taste of Honey and several of the plays of Alan Ayckbourn, including A Chorus of Disapproval and The Norman Conquests. She was married to the producer and director of Barbara (and Jim), Dennis Maxwell-Bishop, until his death in 2011. She has two children. Her daughter, Georgia Maxwell-Bishop, received a BAFTA nomination for her performance as Adela Quested in the BBC’s adaptation of A Passage to India.

From the programme notes to the BAFTA tribute Barbara (and Jim): The Golden Wedding Anniversary, October 2014





24


Sophie tried to remember whether she had ever seen herself projected on to a big screen, and decided that she hadn’t. Except she’d had a small part in that peculiar thing with Ewan McGregor four or five years ago, playing the mother of his deranged ex-wife, and she was almost certain that she’d been to the premiere, and been coaxed on to the stage with everyone else, Ewan and Ros and Jim Broadbent. Had she not even stayed to watch the film? She thought she had. She could remember huge chunks of Barbara (and Jim), could have chanted along with the lines as she watched, yet half the time she couldn’t remember what she’d eaten for supper the previous evening. She didn’t care very often, because not many of the suppers were worth remembering, but her memory was annoying at times like this, when she wanted to remember.