Hannah Gordon

Edinburgh-born actress Hannah Gordon, best known for her roles in Upstairs, Downstairs, The Elephant Man and Telford’s Change, shares her pet peeves.

Porridge is the ultimate hideousness. People think that all Scots live off the stuff but I hate it. At school we had to eat it every day – it was lumpy and inedible, and brought everyone out in spots.

I lost my parents when I was very young and was sent to St Denis boarding school in Morningside. I didn’t like it much but was very lucky because all the other girls used to invite me to their homes for the holidays and many have remained my closest friends.

I was in cloud cuckoo land when I first started acting. I didn’t realise what a tough profession it was. I had no experience and didn’t know any actors – we didn’t even do school plays. For me ignorance was bliss because I wasn’t put off. It somehow worked out and I was very lucky.

I used to go to a health farm for three days before starting a big job. The last thing I did before I drove through those gates was to cram a whole Bounty Bar in my mouth. I would never eat a Bounty Bar at any other time, but it was always my last indulgence.

I don’t like the full moon. I don’t like that great, big enigmatic thing staring at you in the night and I don’t sleep well when the moon is full. You could say it’s my imagination – it probably is – but even though they are very beautiful, I just don’t like full moons.

I hate the taste of whisky. I really do, it tastes like medicine. The only thing I like, and I’m quite ashamed to admit it, is a whisky mac.

When I was a child I used to get The Beano delivered each month. Nowadays Scottish Field is my equivalent to The Beano and I receive it with as much excitement. My husband Robert will call to say, ‘your Scottish Field has arrived’ and I rush home to read it. We live in Surrey now so it keeps me in touch with Scotland.

Every time I got a new job, I used to buy an egg cup. It didn’t matter what sort – one that was pretty, old, or just a really interesting one. I don’t know where the idea came from but I still eat my boiled eggs in them.

To relax I go to the cinema. I like the idea that you don’t have to dress up, you can just wander in, suspend all disbelief and be absorbed. Even as a child, when the rest of my class would be going off to rugby matches and things like that, I used to go to the cinema. My late husband, Norman Warwick, was a cinematographer and his world was films, but I don’t think I married him because of that. I have always found the cinema captivating.

Balquhidder in Stirlingshire is my favourite place in Scotland. We had a cottage there for about fifteen years that looked down on Loch Voil. It is the most beautiful place. We made lovely friends there and I have such wonderful memories of it.

I once had to eat a ‘hundred-year-old egg’. I was taken out to dinner in Hong Kong and it would have been rude not to eat this Chinese delicacy. I don’t even remember what is tasted like because I had worked myself up into such a frenzy. I get worried about having eggs in the fridge for a week. I still don’t know what it was and I don’t think I ever want to.

When I played Mary, Queen of Scots, I felt a strange presence. When visiting Holyrood Palace I looked into a mirror which had been given to Mary by the young Dauphin shortly before his death. I was later told that there is a curious story surrounding that mirror – those who look into it will suffer the same fate as the king. After that I was always on edge playing her.

Have I mentioned Gregory Peck? I used to think he was the best thing since... life itself.