Sherrie’s cutting Loose for movies
TV legend Sherrie Hewson has revealed the real reason for her shock exit from Loose Women.
As she celebrates 60 years in showbiz, she told how the show had taken over her life, pulling her away from her first love – acting.
Speaking for the first time since quitting live on air, the show’s longest- serving panellist told how she is planning a big return to her acting career – and even wants to have a crack at breaking America.
Sherrie, 65, said: “I had a chance to go to Hollywood early in my career but I turned it down – and I always wondered whether I’d done the right thing.
“I have a friend who’s a casting director in LA and he sent me an email saying I’d be perfect for work over there now.
“He said they love British a c t r e s s e s w ho are older as we can still move our faces.
“Acting has always been my passion and I take it really seriously, so I think it’s time for me to go back to that full-time.
“How exciting is that at my age to think I could still be having a Hol lywood adventure?”
Sherrie decided to quit Loose Women now because she finally “felt safe to go”.
Sherrie, who stars in ITV1’s Benidorm, will play Mrs Slocombe in an all-star BBC remake of Are You Being Served? later this year.
She leaves Loose Women on September 5, and is promising lots of surprises on her last day.
But a plan to make personalised £3000 watches for 50 ex- soldiers went wrong after a rogue apostrophe and an extra letter forced them to start again.
Veterans from the Princess Margaret’s Own Glasgow And Ayrshire Regiment were ticked off when they discovered the limited edition watches had a mistake.
The ex-squaddies had waited over a year for their limited edition Breitling watches to be inscribed with their regiment’s name on the face.
But the watches were delivered from Breitling’s base in Switzerland with ‘Margarets’s’ written on them instead of ‘Margaret’s’.
Nottinghamshire jewellers Andrew Michael ’s – the go- between for the military order – were eventually forced to stump up £ 300 to have each watch corrected.
Ex-squaddie John McCracken, 46, from Glasgow said: “Nobody was admitting responsibility. “Our organiser Kevin McGregor sent them the proofs and they okayed it. So the watches shouldn’t have lef t Breitling with a spelling mistake.
“They got sent from Breitling in Switzerland to the jewellers in England and they sent them to us. We were wondering, ‘ Who did quality control?’.
“I think the mistake was with Breitling but they’ll never admit it.
“They are one of the biggest watchmakers in the world so there’s no way they are going to admit liability.
“I feel sorry that the jewellers Andrew Michael has taken the hit for it.
“He deserves a bit of praise because he’s copped a £15,000 bill. I can’t imagine he’s made much profit – all over a misplaced apostrophe and an extra ‘s’.”
The ex- servicemen have only just started to receive the corrected watches from Breitling, which are endorsed by celebs including David Beckham, John Travolta and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The gaffe was discovered when eight Avenger II Seawolf watches were delivered in February, more than a year after they were first ordered.
Organiser Kevin McGregor was adamant he was not to blame.
In a Facebook post, he said: “Throughout the email traffic, it has always been spelt correctly and is also spelt correctly on our official poster. This is plain and simply a massive mistake on their part.”
Out-of-pocket jeweller Andrew Michael refused to say who was to blame for the watch botch.
He said: “There’s no point in me saying, ‘ He cocked it up or she cocked it up’ because that’s not the way I work. I’m not prepared to say if the cock-up was at the Scotland end or the Switzerland end. Somebody had to take the hit. The alternative was it didn’t get done and there were a lot of unhappy people. It was basically just a typo. It’s one of those things.
“The Swiss didn’t know that wasn’t correct. I don’t really want to start pointing fingers at anybody because the job’s been done, at no cost to the guys and the only bother is there’s been a time run- over.” Michael reckons he had no alternative but to step in to end the feud and pick up the £15,000 tab.
He said: “All right, so it wipes the profit out but at the end of the day, we have to keep people happy.
“I’ve been doing this for 15 years and you are only as good as your last order.”
Former Lance- Corporal John paid £ 3026 for his watch after serving in Iraq, Northern Ireland and Bosnia.
He said: “I’m chuffed it’s finally been sorted out. Most of the boys stuck with it apart from the odd few who jumped ship saying, ‘I don’t want it now’.
“Now they’ve actually seen the watches I think they’re wishing they’d stuck it out.”
Breitling refused to comment.