Imelda Staunton

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2005

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actress Imelda Staunton. Imelda Staunton is one of the UK's most versatile and popular actresses. Through a career spanning nearly 30 years she has consistently refused to be typecast, moving effortlessly from playing brassy Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, to the oppressed Sonya in Uncle Vanya, to a grieving mother in Peter's Friends. Her most recent film role was in Mike Leigh's production Vera Drake - she played the eponymous heroine, a 1950s housewife who unbeknownst to her family carried out illegal abortions. She won huge acclaim for her performance, including an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA award for Best Actress.

Imelda Staunton was born in Archway, London, in 1956. Her mother Bridie was a hairdresser, and the family lived over her shop, whilst Imelda's father worked on the roads. It was an elocution and drama teacher at her school, Jacqueline Stoker, who encouraged her talent, adapting plays for her and putting her in for school drama competitions. She also encouraged Imelda to apply for drama school. At the time, Imelda had never heard of RADA - but she was offered a place there and studied alongside Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson and Timothy Spall. Imelda Staunton lives with her husband, the actor Jim Carter, and their daughter, in London.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

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Transcript

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0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:42.2	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:45.3	The program was originally broadcast in 2005, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.
0:50.7	Music was Sue Lawley.
1:08.1	My castaway this week is an actress.
1:29.1	She has a no-nonsense approach to her profession, the reason why perhaps she's encompassed so many roles so successfully. Most recently, she won a BAFTA and an Oscar nomination for her performance in Mike Lee's film Vera Drake, playing the eponymous heroine, the caring cockney mother, who's also a backstreet abortionist. On stage, she's been nominated for a mass of Olivier Awards,
1:34.2	from Guys and Dolls to Uncle Vanya, and she's won two for roles in an egg-born and a Sondheim,
1:40.1	so she's nothing, if not versatile. Born in North London of Irish parents, she enjoyed a happy Irish childhood, which included playing the spoons, went to Rada and did her turn as a stalwart of
1:45.8	provincial rep before her career took her to the West End and continued success. She works hard
1:51.5	and thinks carefully about the parts she plays, but she says, I can't be doing with people
1:57.0	wittering on about their acting. In some respects, there's not a lot to it.
2:01.7	She is Imelda Staunton.
2:03.8	I'm sure I'm misrepresenting you, Imelda, in quoting just that.
2:07.1	But there is an element of that, isn't there?
2:09.4	You know, actors can whitter on.
2:12.2	It's not what you do.
	...

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