|
Downton Abbey star Phyllis Logan, who plays Mrs Hughes the unflappable housekeeper, is off to get ‘a new Elsie’ after our interview.
Elsie, it transpires, is her Downton wig. ‘It’s Mrs Hughes’s name, but I’ve given it to the wig too,’ she explains cheerily.
‘I’m overdue a new one. I’ve been lumbered with the old one since we started, and if I have it any longer it might walk away on its own. It’s a horrible thing, though I’m secretly quite fond of it.’
By the time Phyllis Logan landed the role of Mrs Hughes she already had a CV that went on for pages, but what's in store for her?
Phyllis pats her own hair â€" a youthful shaggy cut â€" and muses on what aesthetic alterations await old Elsie. Some blonde highlights, perchance? A touch of pink, à la Helen Mirren?
‘Ha,’ she laughs. ‘Time is marching on in Downton, and we’re now going to be in 1922, so all the younger female characters are getting more up-to-date fashions, and no doubt new hairstyles too.’ She sighs.
‘I doubt things will be much different for Mrs Hughes, though. The new wig will probably be just as severe â€" but a little more grey.’
She’s sworn to secrecy about what life has in store for Mrs Hughes in the new series, which has just started filming, but she will talk about what she would like to happen to Mrs Hughes.
‘We’ve touched a bit on her past (in the first series Mrs Hughes was stepping out with a farmer, but turned down his proposal), but it would be good to see some more of that. A love interest for her would be nice.’ What sort of love interest? ‘Ooh, I don’t know,’ she says, mischievously. ‘A toy boy?’
By the time she landed the role of Mrs Hughes she already had a CV that went on for pages, having appeared, over the past 30 years, in everything from Shoestring and Lovejoy to A Touch Of Frost, via Spooks and Lip Service.
In professional terms it’s been a dream, she says, to embrace a gutsy role written for a middle-aged woman. ‘You do despair sometimes in this business. You know the thing â€" the 50-year-old man who has a wife of 50, but she has to look 25 or 30.
'I think it’s healthy to say, “I’m 58 and, do you know what, this is what a 58-year-old woman looks likeâ€. So she ha sn’t succumbed to the Botox needle? Phyllis falls about laughing. ‘What do you think?’
In professional terms it's been a dream, she says, to embrace a gutsy role written for a middle-aged woman
Fun though she is, there’s a serious reason for our interview. She recently became involved with the charity Dementia UK, and is supporting their Time For A Cuppa campaign this week, which raises money for specialist Admiral nurses who help sufferers of dementia and their families.
Phyllis and other celebrities have given their favourite cake and biscuit recipes to Weekend â€" featured today â€" to encourage us all to hold fundraising afternoon teas.
As it transpires, she has a very personal interest in this issue â€" although, as she points out, ‘Haven’t a lot of people? I think everyone knows someone who’s battling with dementia, or caring for a relative affected by it. I’ve been staggered by how commonplace it is.’
Her personal experience is two-fold. ‘Or actually three-fold,’ she points out, ‘because the victims aren’t just the people with dementia, but their carers too.’
In the late 90s her mother-in-law (the mother of her actor husband Kevin McNally, with whom she has a 16-year-old son, David) was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
‘Margaret, my mother-in-law, had always been this funny, outgoing character. Then we started noticing things going a little wrong. She’d tell a story she’d told previously. At first you brush it off, because we all do it, it’s just one of those things about being older.
'Then she started to get confused, and distressed by her confusion and stopped going out. Effectively we lost her long before she died. I remember Kevin, in one of his low moments, describing her as “a huskâ€.
‘My father-in-law, who cared for her, struggled to deal with her. I do believe it killed him too, or at least was a big factor. Margaret died in 2009. He was dead a year later.’
There was worse to come, when Phyllis’s own mother, the n in her late 80s, also fell victim to a form of dementia. She and her brother and sister, with the help of cousins, made sure their mother â€" still living in Scotland â€" was cared for.
‘We organised this rota, took shifts effectively, in being with her. I’d go up for ten days at a time. But I also had a teenage son. Job commitments. Kevin was away filming Pirates Of The Caribbean. I remember thinking, “How do other people do this?â€â€™
Sadly, her mother never saw Phyllis in her Downton role
‘I wasn’t remotely qualified to nurse her but you do what you can. My mother was so grateful for everything. I’d be washing her or moving her and she’d say, “thank you, pet†over and over.
'She didn’t want to be a burden but I wanted to do it. You feel quite helpless in that situation.’
Hence her passion for this cause. Admiral nurses are similar to Macmillan cancer care nurses, except they deal with the complex problems that come with dementia. ‘I don’t think you can underestimate how much carers need some support.’
Sadly, her mother never saw Phyllis in her Downton role. ‘By the time it started, she wasn’t taking anything in. We had to put her in a home because her physical needs became so great. There comes a point where there is no option.’
Yet it was still a difficult decision. ‘It was, because we knew she wouldn’t have wanted it. But she cele brated her 90th birthday there, and it was lovely. Just three weeks later she was dead.’
When she was clearing out her mother’s belongings Phyllis found a chest of drawers that was full of newspaper clippings charting her career. ‘She’d obviously cut every mention out. It made me cry to think of her doing that.’
Her next task when she gets back on set, complete with new Elsie wig, is to organise an afternoon tea with her co-stars to raise money for the charity that means so much to her.
‘The thing you tend to appreciate is how easily it could be you who needs the support,’ she says.
‘If you find yourself caring for a relative with dementia, the chances are you’ll need help.’
Dementia UK’s Time for a Cuppa campaign to raise money for Admiral Nurses runs from 1 â€" 8 March 2013. For information on how to host an event or make a donation please vi sit www.timeforacuppa.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment