Retire? At this rate I’ll be on TV in a Zimmer
SUNDAY MIRROR Vera star Brenda Blethyn on fighting ageism at 70
I go home. It’s her, not me – she doesn’t look like she’s even got a mirror.”
Brenda came late to acting, and was in her thirties when she got her TV break in the Mike Leigh play Grown-Ups.
It was 1984 Channel 4 sitcom Chance In A Million that took her mainstream, starring with stage pro Simon Callow. And she is stunned by her journey from working class roots in Ramsgate, Kent – where she still lives with her art director husband Michael – to the social buzz of Hollywood. She is uncomfortable namedropping, she says, adding: “I only mention it because it’s pertinent. “It was at a Hollywood agent’s house, everyone who was anyone was there – Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery, Sidney Poitier. I sat in the garden between Sean Connery and Michael Caine.
“I suddenly found it very funny, Brenda from Ramsgate sat there in Hollywood knocking back champagne squashed against 007.
“Michael Caine asked why I was laughing. And he totally got it. He said, ‘ Yeah, same ’ere girl’.”
Between shoots, Brenda finds time to back Macmillan Cancer Care’s coffee morning project, even throwing a fundraiser on set. She says: “All of us have some cancer experience – but I never hear a bad word about Macmillan.
“When my aunt was ill she had a Macmillan nurse call frequently and she was absolutely wonderful. I don’t think that’s a one-off.”
Brenda Blethyn is supporting Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, Friday September 30. See coffee.macmillan.org.uk
Whenever you can, it’s best to sort things out via a polite discussion over the phone, in person or by email.
Most complaints of this sort are generally relatively easy to resolve – such as reasons for being late or your child getting into trouble for a missing homework. In these cases, a simple email is appropriate.
There are three different ways you can complain, depending on where your child goes to school. But if you think your child is in danger, call your local council or ring the police on 101.
If your child attends a state school: Follow the school’s own complaints system. If you are having trouble, call them up as they are obliged to have an official complaints process. Complain in writing to the head teacher, the school’s Board of Governors or the Department for Education. If you are complaining about how the school is run, then contact Ofsted.
If your child attends a private school: Follow the school’s complaints procedure. Complain in writing to the head teacher or the governing body. Raise anything else with the Department for Education.
If your child attends a Special Educational Needs school: Talk to the special educational needs co-ordinator. Follow the school’s complaints procedure. Complain to your local authority if you’re not happy with how your complaint in dealt with.
■Let James help you complain via Twitter @resolvercouk or visit website resolver.co.uk