Alison Steadman adopts a New York accent as she jokes with the photographer for her photoshoot with HELLO! "What are you making me do?" she says.
He has offered her a pair of sunglasses that she wonders might not suit her, but her playful nature prevails and she puts them on anyway. The actress, who marked her 80th birthday in August, has the spark of the comic characters for which she is best known: the drama-prone mother Pam from Gavin and Stacy and Mrs Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.
Turning 80 might once have daunted her, but she says now that she is "glad to be alive". It is a gratitude tinged with sadness. She recently became the last of her generation with the death of her eldest sister Sylvia, who was 12 years her senior and suffered with dementia. Alison’s other sister, Pamela, who was ten years older than her, died in 2022.
"I miss both of them, and I miss my parents,” she says. “It's life. That's what happens."
"I still consult my mum"
She lost her mother, Marjorie, to pancreatic cancer 30 years ago.
"I still consult my mum," she says. "She was known as the wise old owl of the family. If I'm having difficulty or I'm wondering what to do about this situation, I'll say: 'Mum, what should I do? Tell me, tell me, give me some help, please.'
"I like to think I can hear her voice, saying: 'Yes, you can do it.'"
© Niall HodsonAlison drenched in champagne
Her 80th birthday is proving no impediment to her career, which includes forthcoming appearances in the adaptation of Julia Donaldson's The Baddies – expected to be a highlight of the BBC Christmas schedule – and the fourth series of the sitcom Here We Go, alongside Rivals star, Katherine Parkinson. It also seems to have been no impediment to her ability to hold court and entertain a crowd, regaling the HELLO! team with witty anecdotes, including a champagne disaster aboard a flight home from Canada in business class.
It is while recounting how she celebrated her birthday with family and friends at a restaurant in Highgate, north London, near her home, with a “few bottles of champagne” that she is prompted to recall the memorable encounter.
The air steward offered champagne to other passengers, but ignored her. "He walked right past me, then called the woman in front 'Miss Steadman', gave them all drinks and started walking [away]."
Alison managed to summon him back to ask for a glass.
"He comes out with this champagne, opens it, and it went BOOM!' she says, deadpan. "I suppose it was the pressure of opening it on the flight. It went over everyone, including me. We were just soaked in champagne. It was hitting the ceiling. I mean, it was ridiculous."
© Niall HodsonAlison was born on August 26, 1946, in Anfield, so close to the Liverpool FC stadium that growing up she could tell the match score from the roar of the crowd. Her mother would skip about the house in jubilation when the roars were distinctively from the home fans.
Two early roles, both directed by Mike Leigh, to whom she was married from 1973 to 2001, thrust her into the public gaze. One was Candice Marie, a "ditzy vegetarian married to a madman", as Alison puts it, in Leigh's 1976 camping satire Nuts in May.
The other was Beverly, the overbearing suburban housewife in Mike's play Abigail's Party, which she first performed on stage in 1977 before it was televised. It has recently been revived in the West End with Tamzin Outhwaite in Alison's part. Alison reports that it was an amazing production, which was a relief "because I have seen a production before that was pretty rubbish".
She recalled drawing inspiration for the character from a beautician she saw in Selfridges, whose advice about applying lipstick made it into the show. Alison recites the lines, which she knows by heart.
"I felt very proud to have been part of that. I remember at Hampstead Theatre, before it was on telly, men used to come up to me in the bar and they'd whisper in my ear: 'God, I know that woman.'"
She was celebrated for her appearance as Mrs Bennet in the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, renowned for Colin Firth's turn as Mr Darcy in a wet shirt. Although she couldn't say it at the time, her shrill calling for her daughters came directly from her aunt Mary. She can only admit the influence now that Mary has died.
"She was a real Mrs Bennet kind of lady. She was nuts and I loved her to bits. She had two sons who were living at home and she'd go: 'Co-o-olin! Ste-e-ephen!' She would never just say: 'Colin, come and get your meal.'"
© Niall HodsonAlison's royal encounters
Alison has met the King, but that was before she portrayed Pam as having a bedroom fantasy about being Queen Camilla being seduced by Charles. What would he think?
"I think if Charles has seen it he's probably blanked it," she says. "He was charming. He was very easy to chat to. You didn't feel: 'Oh, no!'
"I met the Queen a few times - not Camilla, Elizabeth. I don't think she was entirely clear who I was."
Their first encounter was at the Royal Academy in London, next to a room where a rock band was playing. The Queen asked Alison: "Aren't the microphones loud nowadays?"
Alison agreed. "And with that she smiled and nodded and walked off. That was my big moment."
Their second encounter was for Alison's OBE in 2000, when Elizabeth told her that she was going to pin on the award and asked what she was doing at the moment. Alison replied that she was filming in Yorkshire.
"And she said, 'Oh, Yorkshire.' That was it."
Despite being a national treasure – a label that makes her feel "slightly awkward" even though she knows it is well meant – she is seldom mobbed by fans and often travels by Tube.
"On the escalators, if I'm going up and they're coming down, they'll [wave]. I like that. I always think: if it wasn't for them I wouldn't have this job, so thank god they like me."
She and Michael have been together for 30 years. Is there a trick that helps to keep their relationship a happy one?
Alison says that they share interests, and love birdwatching in particular. "Long-tailed tits are my favourites,” she says. “If they come to the feeder, I always shout out: 'Long tailers are here!' Michael always comes in."
Gavin and Stacy is definitively over, although the cast bonded so well that they remain in touch.
"We have a WhatsApp group," Alison says. "So we're always [in contact]. [For example] something funny will happen to Rob Brydon, and he'll put something on the WhatsApp group.
“It was such an amazing time – 18 years of doing the series. It was sad when we finished and we knew that we wouldn't be doing another. It was called the finale, and that's exactly what it was."
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