SHEILA HANCOCK
PLAYS LEO’S MOTHER, MIMI. SHEILA, 83, LIVES IN LONDON. SHE HAS THREE DAUGHTERS AND SEVEN GRANDCHILDREN.
ON THE SURFACE, MY CHARACTER IS A BIT OF A BITCH, BUT I ALSO THINK SHE’S THE MOST SENSIBLE ONE!
She says it how it is and she has a very modern outlook. There’s this wonderful scene where somebody starts to be patronising towards her – we all know that when you get to a certain age, there are those people who start treating you like a child and put on a special voice – well, Mimi isn’t having any of it. She gets very dirty and really shocks the person with her response.
ONE THING MIMI AND I SHARE IS A LOVE OF PUZZLES.
She does the very clever cryptic ones and gets awfully cross if they’re too easy – whereas I look at the cryptic ones and if I do one clue, I’m ridiculously proud of myself! In fact, I once went on holiday with a dear friend, who’s sadly passed away now, and we spent the entire holiday buying the
Telegraph and trying to do it, then having to buy it again the next day to get the answer!
MIMI IS THE ONE CHARACTER IN Delicious WHO HATES COOKING, AND IT WAS A HUGE RELIEF – BECAUSE I’M DREADFUL AT IT!
I once did a play called The Arab-Israeli Cookbook and I had to make two entire meals in front of the audience – one Israeli and one Arabic – and people were so close to me that they could see I wasn’t chopping the ingredients up very well and I wasn’t stuffing things properly – it was a total nightmare.
DEEP DOWN, I DON’T THINK MIMI IS PARTICULARLY FOND OF GINA OR SAM BECAUSE, ULTIMATELY, THEY’VE USURPED HER POSITION.
I know there will be viewers who can relate to that! She worships her son, Leo, and there are indications that he has always been the centre of her life, particularly as a little boy. I have daughters myself, but the relationship is much the same – when you look back, those moments with them tend to be the happiest times of your life.
I THINK THE CHARACTERS IN Delicious FALL IN LOVE AND BREAK UP MUCH TOO EASILY, MUCH LIKE PEOPLE DO IN REAL LIFE.
If there’s one thing you should take from the series, it’s that relationships have to be worked at a damn sight harder than the people in this series do!
DOING THE SERIES WITH MATES HAS BEEN A REAL BONUS.
I’ve worked with Dawn and Iain before and I already knew a lot of Millie’s [Emilia’s] family, so I came into it feeling like I knew her. It’s easy to become quite isolated as you get older, particularly when you’re on your own, as I am now (or even get stuck with people who just want to talk about hip replacements!). Well, when I haven’t been filming, I’ve been putting my boots on, picking up my sticks and going Nordic walking, so I’m not going to let that happen just yet!