Sue Johnston

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2002

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Sue Johnston has rarely been out of work since she made her name in Brookside. Her versatility is clear, with credits including such varied programmes as acclaimed drama Goodbye Cruel World; the 1950s feel-good nostalgia series Sex, Chips and Rock 'n' Roll; cult comedy The Royle Family and, most recently, psychological thriller Waking the Dead. Her early career was with the Pilkington Glass Factory, where she got a job in the pensions department specifically so she could join their amateur dramatics group. After rebelling against her parents wishes and attending drama school in London, Sue acted in repertory theatre until her mid-30s.

Having a son brought new responsibilities and, realising the bonus of a regular income and regular hours, she auditioned for Channel 4's Brookside. She became a household name and recognised as Sheila Grant wherever she went. She left after eight years and never looked back: her first role was as a motor neurone sufferer in Goodbye Cruel World, for which she was Bafta nominated and she has been in demand ever since. She was also Bafta nominated for her role as lovable put-upon mum Barbara in The Royle Family, which in 1998 and 2000 won British Comedy Awards.

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

Favourite track: You'll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers Book: Dickens by Peter Ackroyd Luxury: BBC Radio 5 Live

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2002, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My cast away this week is an actress. We probably know her best these days as one of the
0:35.3	nation's favorite couch potatoes dispensing endearing platitudes from her permanent
0:40.0	position in front of the Royal Family's television set. Before that we saw her as the long-suffering
0:45.6	Sheila Grant in Brookside, the part which brought her to public attention in the first place.
0:50.8	She was in her late 30s when she started appearing in the Merseys soap. Before that,
0:55.1	she'd slogged it out in radical theatre groups and provincial rep, determined to fulfil the
1:00.0	dream she'd had ever since appearing in a school play at the age of 15.
1:04.7	Now the star of many different stage and television productions and the winner of an award for
1:08.7	best comedy actress, she still lives for her work.
1:11.6	I want to do it, she says, until I fall over on stage or become
1:15.1	a Thora Herd. She is Sue Johnston. So you still love acting just as much, Sue, do you? What is it that makes
1:22.0	you love it so much? I much to do it all the time?
1:24.4	I think it's a lot to do with losing yourself becoming somebody else.
1:29.3	I find it maybe a bit like being a psychologist in that you have to dive into characters and find them out.
1:37.1	But you've dived into so many grim characters really it seems, not only Sheila Grant who on Brookside went through the mangle
1:44.6	endlessly battered, divorced, homeless whatever but you were the impoverished
1:48.9	miner's wife in Brastoff weren't you and you were a sufferer from motor
1:52.3	your own disease in Goodbye Cruel World I wonder you brast off, weren't you, and you were a sufferer for motor
1:52.5	and your own disease in goodbye cruel world.
1:54.5	I wonder you've not been traumatized by this endless run of grim
	...

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