“It’s fantastic to be part of a female-led drama”
Sue JohnSton, 74, is single and has a grown-up son.
She plays Ivy-Rae.
It was an adventure playing Ivy-Rae because she’s completely different to the role I’m usually cast in. Debbie Horsfield doesn’t bow down to age when it comes to this character. Ivy-Rae goes dancing, she works and she runs around with men young enough to be her sons! She’s brutally honest with those around her and if you don’t like it, that’s tough. She also has a very upfront sex life, which you don’t see very often on television with women my age.
Ivy-Rae has an interesting relationship with her husband, Chizzler [Struan Rodger]. He introduced dancing into their relationship, but he’s now in a wheelchair, whereas she still loves to dance and has a fling with a Brazilian Northern Soul dancer. He is “Mr Smooth”. The actor who played him, Richard Calkin, is a professional dancer, so he could actually dance, which was great.
Learning Northern Soul dancing for the part was much harder than I thought it would be. That must be what doing Strictly Come Dancing is like! We filmed the dance scenes in a wonderful ballroom, which was filled with professional dancers all dressed up in uniform. There were men doing cartwheels, backflips and all sorts!
To be part of a drama that is overweighted with women is fantastic. Other than Pride & Prejudice, you don’t often see a woman with four or more daughters on screen, but this drama centres around four strong, interesting women and each of them get their moment. The women in this series are just great characters.
Robson Green was an absolute delight to film with too – he’s so funny. When we did a big dance number I had to film a sequence with him and Jim [actor James Murray, who plays Bel’s husband Wesley], and it was hilarious; I don’t know how we got through it because we couldn’t stop laughing. >>