GOING BACK TO HER ROOTS
Phyllis Logan’s dark, intriguing new role offers a chance to return to the land of her bir th…
Phyllis Logan was catapulted to fame as Downton Abbey’s Mrs Hughes, the doughty housekeeper in charge of the Crawley family’s retinue of staff. Previously known for her star turns in Lovejoy (1986-93) and the acclaimed Mike Leigh movie Secrets And Lies (1996), Phyllis’s profile went global as fans went mad for Julian Fellowes’ upstairs-downstairs saga of an Edwardian aristocratic family.
Phyllis recalls with awe how American fans treated the Downton cast like superstars. “Once, my husband [actor Kevin McNally] introduced me onstage as a surprise at a screening of a new Downton Abbey series in Atlanta,” recalls Phyllis. “He said to the crowd, ‘I know her as Mrs McNally, but you know her as Mrs Hughes.’ I came on and the place just went ballistic. That was amazing. We got to meet all these wonderful people – we were even invited to The White House. I’ve got a photo of me with Michelle Obama. How mad is that?”
And when the Downton cast reunited this year to film a second movie after the success of the first in 2019, Phyllis says they were thrilled.
“We’re all, ‘It’s happening again? Yay! Pop the champagne corks,’” she says. “We just love it, we have such a laugh. You know the character inside out and Julian always comes up with something you can latch on to.”
The second movie is due out in March 2022.
Downton Abbey invigorated the career of Phyllis and every other actor in the cast, and its effect continues. Yet as much as Phyllis enjoyed the praise and career boost, she admits that there was one downside.
“For a time afterwards, I was being approached to play housekeepers,” she explains in her soft Scottish accent. “There were a lot of offers of period dramas playing staid women, but I thought no, it’d be nice to branch out into something a bit more challenging, perhaps.”
We’re meeting Phyllis over Zoom to talk about her latest role. Out of Mrs Hughes’ brown wig and severe black dress, she is a youthful 65-year-old who’s more attractive and stylish than her starchy alter ego. It’s no trouble for Phyllis to look different in her latest role, in the second series of BBC2’s black comedy-drama Guilt.
As viewers have already seen, Phyllis plays Maggie Lynch, the disabled wife of notorious Edinburgh gangster Roy Lynch (Stuart Bowman).
At first Maggie seemed a soft, kindly character – living a quiet life in a care home and seemingly estranged from her no-good husband. Soon we realise that that is far from the truth and that Maggie is in cahoots with her husband for nefarious purposes.
“I had watched season one of Guilt and just loved it,” says Phyllis. “The twists and the turns and the characters are so full on, but it’s so rooted in a reality of the underworld of Glasgow and Edinburgh. I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to be involved with it.”
And Phyllis is particularly
“Guilt is so rooted in a reality of the underworld. I was thrilled to be asked”
delighted to feature in a Scottish production. Born in Paisley, east of Glasgow, she moved to London almost 40 years ago to pursue her acting career, but admits she feels nostalgic for her homeland.
“Because I’ve lived in
London since 1982, I always harboured romantic notions that I would go back to Scotland one day and buy a wee bothy up in the Highlands,” she says with a laugh. “But the reality is that I’ve lived in London twice as long as I ever lived up in Scotland, and I’ve put down roots.
“I’ve got a husband and a son and then my son went to school and you put down roots and realise it’s never going to happen. That’s why it’s great to work in Scotland, especially to get paid to go back!”
Phyllis has been with Pirates Of The Caribbean actor McNally since they met on an acting job in 1993, although they didn’t marry until 2011. Their son, David, born in 1996, is a musician and composer.
Midway through her seventh decade, Phyllis is still in demand as an actress and seems very at ease with herself.
“In your sixties you don’t have that pressure on you to be perfect any more,” she muses. “I’m not saying that we should all just walk about in a bin bag with our hair all over the place, but you can just be how you are.
“About getting older, I just think, ‘I have come this far and that’s great.’ You can be happy in your own skin.”