As many of you will know, Margaret starred in six Carry On films between 1965 and 1974, always playing the busty dolly bird opposite the likes of Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw. Margaret also appeared briefly in classic films such as Goldfinger and The Beatles film A Hard Days Night. Along with Valerie Leon she was the go-to actress for many productions during the 1960s and 70s when a spot of glamour was required. She has an impressive CV ranging from Steptoe and Son to series with Spike Milligan.
Maggie Nolan was something of an enigma for many years. She left the country in the late 1980s, abandoning acting for a life in rural Spain. Nothing was heard about her until she returned to London shortly before this interview with website The Den of Geek was published in 2007. Although the interview is really to publicise Margaret's career as an artist, it covers much old ground and is a fascinating glimpse at the person behind the classic Carry On image.
It is clear that Margaret has little time for the Carry Ons these days, particularly those in charge at Pinewood. Her language and comments are both frank and refreshing to hear. Despite these negative feelings towards the films, it was still good to see Margaret take part in the Carry On Forever documentary earlier this year. Many of her comments about working conditions and actors pay ring true with us and confirm much of what we already know but it's always a story worth telling.
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Anyway, it's a very interesting interview and well worth a read. You can do that by following this link
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Whilst there is a lot of honesty in this 2007 interview, Maggie has had time to reflect on how harsh some of the comments seem, especially how her opinion in the interview sits in relation to the acclaim the Carry On series continues to achieve to this day.
ReplyDeleteShe has on a number of occasions requested the strongly worded sections be removed from this interview, requests that have not been acknowledged by or acted upon by the Den of Geek team.
She does indeed have some affection for her time on the Carry On's and especially the people she worked with. She is also all too aware that these films seem to define her acting career and as she has had many roles in other things can get tired of all the silver bikini or catwalk sneezing talk.
She did not mean to insult the Carry On canon as such, however being the person she is, she was deeply affected by the inequality of certain situations and how obviously detrimental it was for other colleagues.
As part of her website team, I felt it only right to post this as this is the impression I have got from conversations with her.
Thank you for taking the time to share these comments, much appreciated.
Deleteso interesting to hear. folk seem to forget she was highly intelligent, a g8 actress and moved in circles in 60/70.s london with some of the biggest stars of music , film n art culture of the time.her feelings r understandable....but boy ...i did love her in that siver bikini strip- wrestling scene with barbara windsor lol !!!!!...only human !!!
ReplyDelete