Where are they now? Susan Penhaligon
Ever wondered what happened to the stars of yesteryear? We take a look at the life of the glamorous Susan Penhaligon, once dubbed the British Brigitte Bardot…
She was a beguiling blonde with a true talent and over the Seventies and Eighties Susan Penhaligon was almost a constant fixture of the screen
– both TV and cinema.
Born in 1949 in The Philippines, where her father worked as an engineer, Susan was immediately entranced by the allure of performing, having watched her mother, who had been an actress in her youth, entertaining the troops.
Following a move to Cornwall when her parents separated, Susan started pursuing acting at boarding school in Bristol before landing her first professional performance onstage aged 21 where she created a press frenzy when she took her clothes off for a bed scene.
The publicity didn’t do any harm, as she landed parts in TV series such as Upstairs Downstairs and Doctor Who and films like Under Milk Wood, and No Sex Please, We’re British.
Labelled by a journalist as ‘The British Bardot’, Susan tried to crack Hollywood in 1973 although nothing came of her auditions. She was also up for the part of Demelza in the original Poldark, but was passed over in favour of Angharad Rees. But in 1976, Susan instead hit upon possibly her most well-known role as Prue in ITV’s Bouquet of Barbed Wire. This was followed in the early Eighties by the ITV sitcom, A Fine Romance, where she played Helen, the glamorous sister of Judi Dench’s Laura. “Judi is such a joy to work with, partly because she’s such a giggler. We never stopped cracking up.”
Since then, Susan enjoyed a 16-month stint as Jean Hope on Emmerdale in the mid-Noughties. She also pops up on the likes of BBC’s Doctors and Casualty and on theatre tours, including playing Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret with Louise Redknapp and Will Young last year.
“For someone who’s worked as long as I have, Emmerdale gave me a chance to redefine myself as a mature woman. I’m not the actress I was when I started, nor do I want to be.
“When I look back at myself on work I did in the Seventies and Eighties, it’s like looking at another person. I think ‘My gosh, I looked fantastic’ but I was so full of insecurities. I’m much happier now.”
Over the years Susan has married three times, first to actor Nicholas Loukes in 1971, then to documentary film-maker David Munro in 1974 and actor Duncan Preston from 1986 to 1992.
But today Susan lives on a Dutch barge moored on the Thames in West London, with her 38-year old son, Truan Munro. While she’s now enjoying a quieter life, she says she wouldn’t say no to the right job if it came up.
“I’ll probably be remembered as an actress very much of the Seventies, unless I’m lucky enough to go into another series when I’m older and have another kind of legacy. It would be great to get that chance.”