Carry On Blogging Interview: Julian Holloway (Part 2)

The other day I had the great pleasure of spending an hour on the phone with the actor Julian Holloway. Julian's enjoyed a long career on both sides of the Atlantic and of course in amongst over 140 credits on film, television and stage there were eight Carry On appearances, from Follow That Camel in 1967 through to Carry On England in 1976. 

In the first part of our interview, I asked Julian more about how he got started as an actor and how he became part of the Carry On team back in the 1960s. We also chatted about what it was like to work with the likes of Gordon Jackson, Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale. Now on to the second part of our chat…

We touched on some of your other work on screen in the 1970s and 80s earlier but I wanted to ask you about a couple of roles in particular. You appeared in an episode of Elizabeth R with Glenda Jackson I think?

Yes, I was in the first episode of Elizabeth R (The Lion's Cub) and I remember everything was running late in the studios, I think there was or had been a strike. The director had a heavy workload to get through and nobody was particularly happy. It felt like a bad kick off for the series and the filming could have gone better but ironically I think it was that episode which one the Emmy Award!

This got me through Standard Grade English...

You were also in one of my favourite dramas from the late 1970s, the BBC's adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, starring Anna Massey, Jeremy Brett and Joanna David. 

Yes that was very well done. The director Simon Langton stayed very loyal to the book and Hugh Whitemore, who I worked with several times, produced a crackerjack script! 

…I ask about it particularly as that version is pretty special for me. I wrote an essay on the book at school and the book I used was a version issued with Joanna David on the cover, from the production you starred in! My mother told me last night that she remembers coming home from work in '79 and watching the first episode on her black and white portable TV while she was peeling potatoes for dinner. She got so hooked on it she watched the entire episode and when my Dad came home dinner wasn't ready!

Well thank you mother from me!! There's a story about that series as the BBC ended up only having the rights to run it twice. The rights to the story were owned by the actress Jennifer Jones who by then was the widow of the Hollywood producer David O. Selznick who had produced the Hitchcock film version of Rebecca in 1940. So the version we made for the BBC has never really been seen again although I gather there is a version around somewhere online. It's a shame as I think the BBC could really have cashed in on all the DVD releases, especially given what a big star Jeremy Brett was, going on to play Sherlock Holmes. But the BBC lost an enormous amount of material made before the late 1960s. A lot of productions were wiped with the idea then of saving on film which looking back on it is really tragic.

Publicity for Carry On Henry: Sid James, Barbara Windsor, Gerald Thomas, Joan Sims & Julian 

Back to the Carry Ons now if we may … you worked quite closely with Sid James in Carry On Henry. What was he like?

Oh I got on really well with Sid. I'd known him before the Carry Ons as he had worked on a couple of films with my father (Stanley Holloway). I think they did The Titfield Thunderbolt and also The Lavender Hill Mob together. I definitely met Sid on the set of The Titfield Thunderbolt as that was made during the school holidays and I went down to see my father and watch the filming. 

Sid was great. I think he evolved a persona which fitted the Carry On formula. He made the decision to stick with them, that that was what he was going to do and that's what he did! His face was like a comfortable unmade bed! You knew what you were going to get and what he was going to do. I had no intention to hang around and become too much a part of the set up though. I wanted to do other things. I remember Kenny Williams telling me I had to get out and do more elsewhere. I think a lot of them got pigeon-holed with the Carry Ons and then weren't offered a lot of other work because of that. I never wanted to be tied to one thing or a long run. I remember in 1984 my agent rang up and said I'd been offered a part in Emmerdale Farm. He knew I'd say no! I think the actor who took on the part ended up staying for about thirty years and died in real life while still in the programme. I'd have hated that.

Dare I ask what Peter Rogers was like to work for?!

Cheap! No, he was a businessman. I don't think he looked after people as well as he might have and he certainly didn't throw money around. I think for quite a while the public had the idea that the Carry On stars made a fortune from the films but of course that wasn't true. There was no provision at the time for repeat fees if films or shows were shown again and people like Joan Sims really suffered as a result. I think it was terrible that she was treated so poorly. I remember when she died she was on the front cover of the Equity Journal with them saying it should never happen again. I'm afraid it should never have been allowed to happen in the first place. Joan was a wonderful, lovely woman though. 

Sid and Julian up to no good in Carry On Camping

I imagine the director Gerald Thomas was quite different to Peter?

Gerald was a very gentle, kind man. As a director he was what I would call a journeyman. His experience on the cutting room floor had trained him to know how he'd edit the film before he'd started shooting. Gerald would never be a daring director, no surprises with him. 

You spent a long time living and working over in America. It might be a difficult question to answer, but I wondered what you felt were the main differences in working over there from life as an actor in the UK?

I think there is a very strong work ethic over in the States and they take everything very seriously. It's extremely competitive, particularly in California where there are tens of thousands of actors. There is such demand for roles over there. I remember when I got my first ever voiceover job out there my agent was terribly excited and I didn't understand until he explained I'd probably beaten around 650 other actors to get the part! 

I think there is also a lot of hiring and firing that goes on in film and theatre and that makes it extra difficult as not only do you have to fight to get a part you then have to fight to keep it once you've got it! Luckily that never happened to me! Also the union out there, the Screen Actors' Guild is properly run and they really do look after their actors. 

Julian in an episode of The Saint in 1964

I wanted to ask you if you had a favourite part out of all the roles you've played on television, film and stage? Also do you have a favourite medium to work in?

Dull answer to that one! No! I'll give you a typical actor's answer to that - I still haven't played the part which has given me the most satisfaction. It all depends on the script at the end of the day. I do know I no longer want to do theatre. Eight shows a week is a young man's game and it's such hard work to keep performances fresh in a long run. I also don't like long runs - I joined the profession for the insecurity, not for security!

Finally, can I ask what your abiding memory is of working on the Carry Ons?

Fun. By and large working with mostly nice people and having a good giggle. Being with people like Peter Butterworth, Kenny Williams and Joan Sims was just such fun. Joan was the worst giggler out of all of them. She could quite easily end up in hysterics on the set! So, really just getting to work with a lovely group of people. 

Sid, Joan, Julian, Peter Butterworth & Charles Hawtrey publicise Carry On Doctor

I'd like to thank Julian for agreeing to the interview - it was absolutely wonderful and a real highlight of running and writing this blog. To be contacted by someone you've watched and admired for years and then two days later to be having a giggle on the phone is just magic. I hope you have enjoyed both parts of our interview. 


You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Carry On Blogging Interview: Jennie Linden

 

Jennie Linden is an actress with a career dating back to the 1960s. Jennie, probably best known for her role in the 1969 film Women in Love, opposite Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed and Alan Bates, has worked in all areas of the acting profession and has a fund of stories to tell. I caught up with her recently to find out more about her wonderful career and ask her what it was like to share a stage with a certain Mr Kenneth Williams...

First of all, I'd love to know what made you decide to become an actress in the first place?

 

I became interested in acting at the age of 4 after watching a Punch and Judy show with my granny.

As a young actress in the 1960s you appeared in many classic television series of the day - The Saint, The Avengers, The Champions and The Persuaders. Do you have fond memories of working on these shows?

Working in a TV series as a guest actor was always a joy. After all you not only got to work with the current stars – Roger Moore, Patrick Macnee, Ian McShane etc, but also met lots of other actresses and actors and made new friends, working with new directors.

 

One of your most famous film appearances was in Ken Russell's adaptation of Women in Love. What are your recollections of that experience?

Ken Russell was a superb film maker and his work will be recognised eventually, as major. He was a complex genius, not easy to work with but very stimulating and it was marvellous to be part of, in my opinion, his most balanced and sensitive film – Women in Love. His use of colour, each scene reflecting its worth, in sympathetic colours, was outstanding. It was like a series of paintings and very much in touch with the senses. You felt his work, rather than listened to it.

One of your co-stars in that film was Glenda Jackson, who i believe you went on to work with on stage with the RSC in the 1970s. What was Glenda like to work with?

Glenda Jackson was representative of the “new star”, out with the old. She provided just what was needed in the 1970s on screen and indeed at the National. She had the looks and ability and talent to do this. We worked together very well, as complete opposites, and got on together well, both on stage (Hedda Gabler for the RSC) and in Women in Love on screen and also in the film Hedda.

 

You worked with one of my comedy heroes, the late Kenneth Williams, in the stage play My Fat Friend in 1972 and 1973. What are your memories of working with Kenneth?

Memories of Kenneth are not always printable!! He was a wildly talented, confused, erudite human being. He was unreliable in the extreme, and often didn’t appear some nights in the show “My Fat Friend” leaving myself and a 23 year old understudy to carry the comedy. My, you should have heard the seats bang up! The poor audience had paid to see Ken and were furious at his absence. He found it very hard to stay concentrated on Charles Lawrence’s script, he would break off during the performance and go down to the footlights to chat up to the audience, much to their delight and my chagrin. Picking up the play again was like heaving sacks of coal! However I learnt a great deal from Ken and a part of me was really rather fond of him!

I think you also worked on stage with another of my favourite actresses, Dinah Sheridan. What was she like to work with?

Dinah Sheridan, a lovely actress. We were together in “Out on the Lawn”, a pre-London showing of an amusing play, at Watford. Needless to say it didn’t make it into the West End, even though it starred T.P McKenna! I liked her very much and also worked with John Gregson in a TV play with Jill Bennett.

 

As an actor who has a wealth of experience on stage, television and in film, which medium do you prefer and why?

I like all the mediums, you omitted radio, one of the best by the way! Film was most interesting to me, you rehearse it, and do it – it’s so clean! On stage you change it, alter it, rehearse it again, get stale, hate it, get stage fright, go off it and the run becomes a prison. Three months is the most any actor should ever do a play. TV is fun, invigorating, fast, challenging to the extreme. I loved it dearly but perhaps film was my favourite!

How do you think the acting profession has changed since you started out?

The acting profession lost its structure when Equity opened its doors to the world and its wife! Anyone can act? No, I don’t think so! Have a look at early films and even those of 20 years ago, like Sense and Sensibility, ALL the actors know exactly what they were doing, rehearsals were apparent, discussions were apparent, between director and artists, nobody let the film down at any point, a brilliant example of the very high standard I was lucky enough to work with then, in my generation. In my time the competition was massive, everybody who was any body could perform to a very high standard. We were trained to do “comedy”, costume plays, accents, dialects and movement, and to sing. We were expected to perform as actors and were not cast as the soaps are today. The part suits the actor because he just has to be himself.

 

So our careers had structure, you worked yourself up the ladder, you were only as good as yesterday, you had to prove your talent every performance. Today it is lazy, you play a Scottish character because you are a Scot and consequently do no work on the role. Todays work is based on how well you can mumble and therefore “appear” to be a really moody performer! Now and again we are given the joy of a true actor at his/her best and it makes me cry because it is so exciting to see them excel. Best series – “Call the Midwife” – all the cast can do the job. Best film series – “The Crown and Mark Rylance in the Hilary Mantel series. Just a few examples – Michael Kitchen is another one.

The absence of repertory companies does not help the young. Too much choice for the director ensues, the newcomer might only get one chance to shine in a TV production. 

Finally, why do you think many comedy actors like Kenneth Williams have maintained such high levels of popularity so many years after they have left us? 

Kenneth Williams was a “one off” – UNIQUE! Very talented, truly talented people in peoples’ minds. A very special performer is an event and like a musical composition, remains in people’s memory.

 

A chap said to me after viewing Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen “Of course well you can’t go wrong with Austen, can you?” I replied, ‘Oh yes you can, very wrong indeed, unless you are blessed with a talented trained actor. Anyone can act? I don’t think so! Like all musical instruments, there is only one way to play them…extremely well! 

I would like to thank Jennie once again for taking the time to answer my questions so thoughtfully. She provided a fascinating insight both into working with Kenneth but also the acting profession and how it has changed over the years.

You can find out more about Jennie by visiting her website here

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and also on Facebook