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Former EE star Anna Wing (Lou Beale) talks about EE, Emmerdale and Corrie


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Old 05-10-2004, 12:53
Pop Princess
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http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/ne...l&siteid=89488

I STOPPED WATCHING ALBERT SQUARE.. NOW I LIKE EMMERDALE

Oct 5 2004


At 90, the matriarch who once ruled EastEnders says the show is too tacky .. and is happy to miss the show she once starred in.

By Rick Fulton, Showbiz Editor

EASTENDERS legend Anna Wing has branded the crisis hit show tacky and lightweight. Her comments will pile on the agony for the programme,which although it won Best Soap at the Inside Soap Awards also recorded its lowest rating figures last month.

Anna, who will be 90 at the end of the month, was one of the Albert Square originals and played battle-axe Lou Beale until 1988.

The self-confessed soap fan even admitted she was one of the millions who deserted Walford for Emmerdale.

She said: 'I think it's slightly tacky at the moment, but you can't expect things to be perfect for ever.

'I was rather committed to watching EastEnders, but for the first time I missed it and watched Emmerdale.

'I also think Coronation Street has had a lovely validity about it.

'I don't want to be disloyal, but I think you need a few mature people in a soap because they give it backbone and body.

'Coronation Street has held its own over the years and that's because it's had fantastic characters.But if all the main people are young it gets a bit thin and inexperienced. It gets too lightweight.

Anna isn't alone in her feelings for EastEnders. Fans have been angry at the depressing storylines and the new characters, particularly the Ferreira family.

Although there have been some good new characters, Alfie Moon (played by Shane Richie) went from a loveable cheeky chappy into a sad, cuckolded loser.

And, in one of the most silly ideas Sonia married Martin Fowler (Lou's grandson) the man responsible for killing her ex, Jamie.

So it was no wonder that, when the London soap went up against Emmerdale, it recorded a ratings low of 6.2 million while ITV's soap scored 8.1 million.

EastEnders executive producer Louise Berridge has quit, as has Mal Young, the controller of Continuing Drama Series, who had the ultimate responsibility for the soap. New executive producer Kathleen Hutchison has a mountain to climb. Anna, born in Hackney, and thus a true East Londoner, knows just what could turn EastEnders around.

She said: 'When you get to my age you get a bit soap orientated. Coronation Street is like a rock for me.'

And here's the lesson. Anna says: 'You do need the older bodies because they give it strength. I think you have only so many storylines in a soap - love, death, infidelity, romance, illegitimate children, crime - then you have to consider what else they do.

'EastEnders needs maturity. The young stories they keep doing can get a bit thin, because they are repetitive.

'And I don't like that they don't laugh enough. The real Cor Blimeys laughed like anything. I can remember you could have a leg off and people would say: 'you've still got one left.

'They would make fun of terrible things. In World War II after the bombing there would be nothing left but they'd be saying things: 'I've still got me loo stood up.' However, unlike some, Anna thinks bringing Dirty Den, played by Leslie Grantham, back from the grave was a good move. It certainly raised the ratings - the episode of his return netting the BBC1 soap 17 million viewers.

She said: 'I thought that was quite reasonable. He was immensely popular. But what went on later was a different ball game.'

Anna , of course, is talking about the actor's sordid Internet revelations where he was seen posing naked and discussing other EastEnders actors.

The shamed star is only just back at work after being suspended from the show as punishment.

Anna added: 'I had slight reservations about him coming back, but that's all I went to say about it.'

Lou Beale died in August 1988 peacefully in her armchair after Anna asked the show's producers to write her out.

At the time, she claimed she didn't like how the show was portraying real East Londoners, especially as her parents ran a fruit and veg business in Hackney.

But her daughter Pauline, played by Wendy Richard, still talks about her and every so often viewers will see her photo in the Fowler house.

Anna said: 'I see the photo with great humility and hope they'll keep it there. If they take it down I'll be done for.

'Back in 1988 they were knocking us and I was offered a play and thought it was time to move on. In some ways I think I was stupid. How many people of 70 get offered a job possibly for the rest of their lives?

'Julia Smith who created the show said I could have been in it for ever and ever until I popped off for real.

'She wept when I left, but although I don't exactly like change I just want to grow and explore new things.'

The play was Caryl Churchill's Blue Heart, which Anna toured around the world and even performed in, aged 82,at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1997.

She's been in the business for 68 years. As a young actress she starred in Billy Liar back in 1963 and, after EastEnders, had television parts in French And Saunders,The Detectives, Casualty and Real Woman in 1998 with fellow ex-EastEnders actress Michelle Collins.

DESPITE her advancing years Anna is keeping as busy as ever and has appeared in two films this year. Tooth with Harry Enfield and The Calcium Kid with Orlando Bloom.

She has also filmed new ITV1 comedy-drama Roman Road ,which stars Alan Davies of Jonathan Creek fame and Scots actor John Gordon Sinclair.

She laughed: 'I'm only saying one word but they want to pay me. So I'm lucky.'

Anna, in fact ,is a revelation. As a fan of EastEnders from the beginning I was expecting the gruff battle-axe Lou who tutted at the world and shook her jowls at anything that upset her.

But Anna, the actress is nothing like Lou. She's actually a friendly, excitable, still in lust with life old lady who peppers her sentences with the luvvy's favourite word - darling.

She starts our interview by saying: 'Hello dear I'm terribly well but I'm a bit out of breath because I've been doing my washing.

A lot of people think I'm a bit of an old bag but I'm not really.

'I'm very humble because I have been so lucky to do the job I want to do - - how many people do that?'

She's a proud gran to five grandchildren and has two sons by two different men.

Her first son is Mark Wing-Davey, 56, who is famous for playing the two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox in the television series The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and is now a renowned theatre director whose latest venture is Bat Boy:The Musical in London's West End.

Back in the Fifties and then a dark-haired beauty her heart was broken by the poet Philip O'Connor and it took her 15 years to recover. Their relationship produced her second son Jon O'Connor, 51, who is now in education.

Anna said: 'I had two sons by two different men who have both gone to heaven. Jon's dad was a wicked poet who had 10 children by six different woman and produced the most beautiful children.

'And I'm pretty proud of Mark, he's such a nice person. If you become well-known and are nice that's a bonus.

'Not everyone who gets well known is nice - some get stroppy and above themselves, don't they?'

Anna now lives in London's West End and has to go up five flights of stairs to her home, but she claims she's as fit as ever - just not as quick. Her problems began two years ago when she fell at a London train station. She broke three fingers and injured a leg. She said: 'I sued them and got £1000 for each finger. 'It was two years ago, but it's left its mark. I'm still marching up the street and live five floors up but I'm starting to slow a bit.'

Anna still keeps in touch with her EastEnders pals.

She went to Letitia Dean's wedding two years ago and, last month, she went to the 53rd birthday of old friend and ex-EastEnder legend Gretchen Franklin's 93rd birthday party.

The actress, who played Ethel, has to use a wheelchair, but Anna claims her brain is still 'as sharp as a button.'

She added: 'June Brown who plays Dot was there too.

'All sorts of people paid homage. We all knelt at Gretchen's feet.'

Anna added: 'I still get fan mail and there are builders opposite who are always shouting 'Hello Lou' from the roof. It's lovely.' Tooth', which stars Anna, Harry Enfield and Phyllida Law, is out to buy on VHS or DVD on October 18 from Rebus Home Entertainment.

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I think she is right about the young people in EE, and is similar to a thread someone started here about EE's need to please the teenage audience. I like the sound of the 'Real Cor Blimeys' too! I think EE has a reputation for being quite miserable but back in the early days that were on UK Gold a few years ago there was a lot more humour.

Last edited by Pop Princess : 05-10-2004 at 13:32.
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Old 05-10-2004, 12:54
Richie_lecturer1977
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Let's see if she means it, or if she is going to be dragged from a canal too on a hot-wired electric buggy, like the webcam fiend (expect for the last bit).

Last edited by Al220385 : 05-10-2004 at 13:22.
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Old 05-10-2004, 13:18
abomination2112
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Anna Wing?!?!?!?!?!?

say it don't spray it!
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Old 05-10-2004, 13:29
aladdin_sane
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Didn't know whe was still alive!!

BTW, aren't you supposed to just post a link to articles to avoid copyright issues? (Sorry to be pedantic )
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Old 05-10-2004, 13:32
Pop Princess
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Originally Posted by aladdin_sane
Didn't know whe was still alive!!

BTW, aren't you supposed to just post a link to articles to avoid copyright issues? (Sorry to be pedantic )
I added the link. Thanks for the reminder
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Old 05-10-2004, 14:08
WalfordWill
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Ahh what a nice lady, everything she says of course is right, EastEnders is flooded with talented nohopers with storylines about as long as me arm and as interesting as paint drying. Louise Berridge doesn't seem to realise the damage she and Mal Young did to Enders.

I noticed that too, in the early days of EastEnders there used to a lot of humour, they'd all sing rand the piana in the Vic! lol
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Old 05-10-2004, 14:10
WalfordWill
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Originally Posted by aladdin_sane
Didn't know whe was still alive!!

BTW, aren't you supposed to just post a link to articles to avoid copyright issues? (Sorry to be pedantic )
I knew she was still alive but what shocks me more is that....Ethel is still alive! wow fair play to her
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Old 05-10-2004, 15:16
julieannu
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Who would have thought that Lou Belae is Zaphod Bibelbrock's mum?
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Old 05-10-2004, 15:23
Bellaaahhhh
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Originally Posted by willhung
I knew she was still alive but what shocks me more is that....Ethel is still alive! wow fair play to her

Nah, I remember the funeral..........................Gretchen Franklyn who played the part of Ethel is still alive alive oh though.
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