All my work got chopped .. you do feel abandoned
Times are tough but Jane McCarry’s still gamely battling on, finds
STILL Game star Jane McCarry saw most of her work stop in lockdown and has even considered going back to teaching.
But she’s also going to be taking part in a virtual festival later in the year, drawing on her childhood experiences for Tamfest, which is inspired by the Robert Burns poem Tam o’ Shanter.
Jane was due to go on the road with Still Game spin-off tour Still Gaun! with Paul Riley and Mark Cox and then appear in panto with Mark.
She said: “Basically I had work till January and all of that work just got cancelled.”
Jane has launched a podcast – Three Down One Across – with Paul, Mark and another friend David Goodall, is due to host a dinner later in the year and has voice over work lined up. She could even go back to teaching drama in schools. Jane said: “I would teach again if that’s a possibility. I think we all have to do everything we can to survive.”
She is also busy helping to care for her mum Jean, who is 92.
Jane said it’s been tough for many – and those in the arts who are often self-employed might not be eligible for help, while others have lost businesses and jobs and homes are under threat.
She added: “I get employed by other companies so you don’t get anything, you qualify for nothing. You do feel a bit abandoned.”
She’ll be filming for virtual festival Tamfest and is due to appear online around Halloween, but the festival has already started with workshops and activities which will run through the summer.
Jane said: “My Aunt Agnes was a real character and was obsessed with Robert Burns. She used to take me to
Brig o’ Doon in Ayr and the graveyard and the old kirk and she would tell us the tale of Tam o’ Shanter from about the age of seven or eight.
“She would spike up all her hair and take out her teeth. Those were the days when she had got a set of false teeth for her 21st birthday – how mad is that?
“We’d go round Burns country and she would tell us all the stories about him. I genuinely have a love for Robert Burns and I love Halloween.
Jane plans to film herself in a graveyard interviewing people about Burns and Halloween for Tamfest.
She turns 50 in October but doesn’t think she’ll be able to celebrate properly. “Tons of people I love in my life are 50 this year,” she said. “We can’t do anything – we’ve had a
socially distanced glass of wine in the garden.” She is mum to sons Alexander, 15, and Iain, 18. “Last year I took the boys to New York and I feel that was my 50th birthday.”
She was due to talk about her experience in Still Game on stage for Still Gaun! but the show has been postponed to next year. And even though she doesn’t think Still Game will be back, Isa remains with her.
She said: “I don’t think the boys will do any more. But she will always be in me, before I ever played her because of all the older people I’ve known.
“My mum and dad were older and I was an only child. A lot of time I spent with older females like my Aunt Agnes – so many different characters. She was already in me – they just brought her out as the writing is brilliant.”
But she admitted it’s also good not to look like a pensioner. “It’s not a great look,” she laughed.
“I think people are still surprised that I’m not older, that I’m not in my 50s yet. People pick up on my voice. Young people hear my voice and turn round and ask, ‘Are you Isa?’
“We’re not allowed to do anything in character but obviously there’s an essence of that that comes through. I’m not trying to be Isa but if I’m playing an older Scottish woman it’s very hard for her not to sound like Isa.” ●To get involved in this year’s Tamfest, visit tamfest.co.uk
Young people hear my voice and turn round and ask, ‘Are you Isa?’