Denise: Face to face with evil – ‘You can’t crush the human spirit’
What does it mean to live as the survivor of horror? Denise Welch talks about her new show, meeting six people who have faced pure evil
Outspoken actress Denise Welch will always say acting is her first passion – but the mumof-two, married to artist Lincoln Townley, is now narrating a new series, Survivors, on Crime + Investigation, meeting people who have come face-to-face with unspeakable evil – and not only survived to tell the tale, but rebuilt a life in the aftermath. Here, Denise, 62, talks about the past year, her crime obsession and her own life...
Denise, can you believe it’s more than a year since lockdown started?!
A year of Zooms and not seeing loved ones... crazy. But I feel it in my bones, we’ll be out of this soon. There’s a lot of scaremongering going on and so I’ve just made it my mission to try and be as positive as I can – a lot of people look to me for mental health issues, having been an advocate for so long. I have my down days when I feel overwhelmed. Selfishly, I’m dying to fly somewhere and get in my bikini and lie in the heat (and yes, I would probably be posting those snaps on social media!) – but the bigger picture, I think, is promising.
So what drew you to
I have a fascination with the true-crime genre, I’ve spoken about it on Loose Women! Not a gory fascination, more a desperate need to understand why certain people commit horrific crimes. Secondly, I always sit on the sofa with Lincoln watching a crime programme in which the victim survives – and we’ll say, ‘we’ve just watched a whole show about the perpetrator – but what’s the emotional, let alone physical, impact on the survivor? What turns a victim into a survivor?’
You meet six survivors in your show – how was that?
Incredible. They all have very different stories, but how they’ve all dealt with the hand they were given and moved forward is amazing. A few were nervous, having never spoken on camera before – I just said, ‘Look, I’m not a journalist. You talk, I’ll chip in now and again.’ (Anyone that knows me, knows how hard that was!) My jaw was nearly on the floor, most of the time.
Which cases stayed with you long afterwards?
Oh, all of them. But as a mum, Kayleigh White’s story. She was stabbed in a random attack, and in hospital was given a one per cent chance of survival. She was 17 – to meet her now, she’s bubbly, ambitious – a wonderful young woman any mum would be proud to have as a daughter. You’d never imagine she had survived such horror.
What struck you most about her case?
That this could happen to anybody. There’s always someone ready to say, ‘Oh but she shouldn’t have been
walking in a dodgy area, at night, wearing this, doing that…’ which is appalling. But this girl was walking in broad daylight at 2pm on a sunny afternoon to her best friend’s house, in a built-up area. She spotted a group of guys in the middle of an altercation, walked straight past and suddenly, felt an arm around her, and she’d been stabbed through the back. She nearly lost her life. Bethany Marchant’s story also resonated a lot...
Tell us about Bethany…
It’s a domestic violence case. Normally, there are red flags – but Bethany’s partner Stefan, the father of her child, had showered her with love and attention. He didn’t tell her what to wear, or not to see her friends. They’d split up – and she’d gone back to pick up some belongings. He closed the front door, and subsequently subjected her to three hours of torture. He’d installed CCTV inside the home, everything was recorded. The producers have seen it. They say it’s the parts where you can’t see what’s happening, where you can only hear what’s going on, that are truly bone-chilling.
Yet she survived…
She did. When she eventually escaped, the nightmare took another turn – but I’ll leave you to watch to find out. She’s a young mum, runs her dance school again and is speaking out to help others. These stories highlight situations to be aware of and how often the justice system has let people down – but they’re also about the indomitable spirit of some humans – and the cruelty of others.
Could we see more hardhitting documentaries from you?
Yes, please! I love this type of programme. I’ve never wanted to be Davina McCall, hosting a big, shiny prime-time show – that’s Davina’s bag and she’s brilliant at it. This is my thing. I’m even going to be on stage with all the survivors at the first CrimeCon event, for crime buffs in September!
Finally, how are you and Lincoln these days?
He’s cross that he’s still not been drafted in to play my boyfriend’s body double in Hollyoaks… Apart from that he’s great! He’s the hardestworking person I know, and my knight in shining armour – who doesn’t want one of those?
● Survivors With Denise Welch begins Monday, 19 April, 9pm, on Crime+Investigation.