‘Good Life’ girl leads quiet life

Press, 4 July 1978, Page 12

‘Good Life’ girl leads quiet life

By ,

JUDITH REGAN

Felicity Kendal, star of the TV show, "The Good Life,” prefers to move about quietly — even anonymously — in her private life. “Acting to me,” she explained, “is portraying other people's personalities and characters, and not just extending my own. And the trouble with a television series, of course, is that audiences tend to identify you with the role that you play. “I suppose ! am rather like Barbara (her role) in some ways. But, I think I'm actress enough to play a real super-bitch just as convincingly if I was asked to.”

She has been acting since she was a child. Both her parents were in the theatre, and, in fact, she was just nine months old when she was first carried on to a stage as Titania’s changeling in a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” When she was six her family moved to India and formed a touring Shakespearian troupe. “So, by the time I was 16 I had appeared in almost every one of Shakespeare’s plays. She came to England 11 years ago, when she was just 19, after appearing in an Indian film called '“Shakespeare Wallah,” which got a London distribution.

But, although she received rave notices from the critics for her per-

formance, she was out of work for months before being offered a part in a play with Sir John Gielgud. “I got it only on condition that I lost 10!b and went blonde — I was very mousy and serious at the time,” she said. “But, by that time I would have agreed to almost anything. “Having my hair bleached was easy, compared with the dieting, though. But I starved myself for three weeks, and was delighted when it worked and 1 got slim.” She has managed to keep the weight off ever

since, and, in fact, has lost even more, and now at 30, she is a tiny 7} stone in perfect proportion for her height of sft 2in. “It would be nice to say I could eat anything,” she said, with that familiar, cat-like grin. “But, it isn't true. “I do have to watch my weight, especially when I’m doing television, because the cameras always make you look much bigger than you are. “I eat lots of salad and fresh vegetables. Fortunately I love them, and I don’t let myself be tempted by sweet things. And, although I like a glass or two of wine in the evenings, I try to avoid spirits.” The TV cameras play

havoc, too, with a fine English rose skin like Felicity has. But she guards against this by using a regular moisturiser. "And 1 love experimenting with makeup.” she said. “I think it can make such a difference to one’s looks. “I must say I’m not a bit like Barbara in that respect — most of the time she is very ‘au naturelle,’ with no makeup and her hair pulled back with an elastic band or tied in two bunches. "I like to put a ‘face’ on, especially for a special occasion. And, although I

usually wash and blow-dry my hair myself, 1 do see that it’s well cut, and I have regular highlights put in.” Although it is her appearances in “The Good Life” which have made Felicity a star, she made her second film when she starred with Rudolph Nureyev in Valentino. “We got on terribly well together,” she said. “He even made me forget about dieting because he had a terrible passion for Chelsea buns that turned out to be infectious.” And, of course, she has played lots of other television roles — the young Danish princess Alex in “Edward VII,” an unhappy wife in “Marriage Counsellor,” Dorothy Wordsworth in Ken ' Russell's absorbing two-part study of the Lake District’s most celebrated poet, and a marriage-hungry 30-year-old in “Song of Summer.” “My big ambition in that is to marry a Prince,” she said, “but then I go and complicate things by falling for a plumber.” She is obviously a lady of many parts. But, somehow, it is as Barbara in “The Good Life" that we always think of her.