Alison: I’m too scared to ever return to stage
ACTRESS Alison Steadman revealed that her crippling stage fright means she will never appear in a theatre again.
Best-known as Pamela Shipman in Gavin & Stacey, Alison’s glittering career has seen her play hostess Beverly in Abigail’s Party and the monstrous Mrs Bennet in Pride And Prejudice.
But she said she will never return to her first love – live theatre. Liverpool-born Alison, 73, told Radio Times: “I’ve got a bit of stage fright now. I don’t think I’m going to be doing theatre again.
“I remember being in Uncle Vanya in 1979 with Ian Holm.
“He’d had stage fright and we talked about it. I was thinking, ‘Gosh, I wonder what that’s like. How does that happen?’
“And now I’m there myself. Initially it made me sad, but now I think, ‘Accept it. You can do telly.You can do radio’.”
Alison was married for
years to writer and film-maker Mike Leigh. Her first big TV success was as Beverly, the suburban housewife in her husband’s Abigail’s Party in 1977.
She played Madame Arcati in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit in 2011 and until 2014 was still appearing in theWest End.
But it is the dulcet tones of Pamela that eventually made her a household name.
Speaking before last year’s
Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special, she said: “I was incredibly nervous about reprising the role of Pam because my hair is so different.
“I am a bit older and fatter and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Can I get the Essex voice back – can I get into character?’
“My memory is not what it was – as you get older your brain gets slower.
“You have to work harder on
your lines – it’s boring. Instead of learning them in a day it takes me a week – but I was determined to do it.
“We had a couple of rehearsals and as soon as I got Pam’s sparkly jumper and leggings on it felt so good to be back in the Gavin & Stacey world.
“And by the time we got to Cardiff to film I was on track again. It was like a family getting back together.”