Cornflake commercial led to stardom

Press, 23 March 1988, Page 16

Cornflake commercial led to stardom

\ By

KATE BRYSON

i A . 1 , ■ ; r 1 1 1 I Appearing in a cornflake commercial may j not be the big ! break which ' every actress is ji looking for,' but for Kim Hartnian, star of the |top TV series “’Allo ’Allo" (Mondays at 9 p.m. on On£),! her chance to be injisuch a commercial | became the most important 'Step in hen career, I II; | • ’, Without it Kim might never Have landed the plum . role | as the . sexy Helga in the side-splitting comedy about the;'French Resistance. j i ; Kim had begun! her. theatrical career [; in the sixties as, 'she qays, ! “a dogsbody” at- her | local theatre in Warwick. From, there she went to train at’ a drama school inj Eondon! Then, at just 22, she married actor John Nolan and turned ) her back! on acting to become'i) a] fulltime wife and mother] I "It was I something ! I never intended to do,'” she says. “Right! up until Imy first child, Tom, v;as! born I thought I would stay at home for six weeks' Then get, straight back ) into work. j|] r I r “But as the six weeks grew closer! to the erid !1 found I was making 'excuses to try and || prolong the! time. 11 realised how much I enjoyed being at home and ! playing I with baby all day,” sheljadmits. the offers of work stopped altogether. Four years later, i soon after the birth of a daughter,' Miranda, Kim 1 noticed that she was in a rut; i • “When you are at home all day with two small children your conversation becomes j! very limited,” she says. , I "Suddenly I. began to hear myself telling my husband, John, what the woman at 1 the Checkout counter in ithe siipermar-

I !■' 'i ' 4j ket had said, and often the (only thing I had to lalk about was the tittlelattld from the milkman. ' “It’s notj that I don’t like being a riium -p I do,” insists the! 33-year-old aciressi “But I think motherliooq can! be totally time consuming and I 1 forgot jhere could be al life outside jit So I started to go or auditions once again and jwhen the commercial cropped up! I jumped at he £hance." I 'Since then Kim hasn’t ookfcd back.; The corncommercial led to norb ! commecjals and

small parts in radio and onj Ty and then she was approached by the producers of "’Allo ’AlloY to appear in their show. [The programme was immediately a smash hit, with filrning of the fourth !series about to! begin. | Ironically the cheery i mum character which Kim played in that brief ; cornflake commercial; is 1 closer to her own personality than the i character she has played for three years in “’Allo' ’Allo.”] ‘[Helga wears black suspenders and stock ngs !wijh a German uniform

and is never seen without her j bright i red lipstick?’ explains Kim, "But I usually! schlep around in jeans with my hair in a mess.” | h j Kim consider herself to be a real! romantic. She' says that top of [the list bfj her favourite books is : ("Gone' With' The Wind]” and she is sentimental over the fact that she nfiet her husband while he vyas acting at the ! Bristol Old Vic as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet.” Kim says she is a real home body, and when she can ! unravel herself irony her ’ busy schedule she likes nothing better than to retreat to her family in their Cotswolds cottage home. “I often don’t get home till 2. a.m. when I am doing the stage show. And I’m .still in bed biearyeyed when the kids go to! school. But they usually pop in to see me before they! go and; 1 P“t Miranda’s hair! into a pony tail. I missed that terribly when j I tou/ed round the country with the stage show.! "I’m so looking forward to spending Christinas Day .with them this year. Last year we had only t ne! day | together over |he ! whole period because both ! John and I, were working.” If ! ' . It never fails to'surprise Kim j that people really think! that she is ike Helga. "I get strange letters asking for some articles of my |— em — i undergarments.” She says she’s not at all like Helga. “I like nothing better than sitting on the bank.of the River Avon]on’; a hot summer’s day and ! then home for roast beef,!! Yorkshire ! puddijrig,)! potatoes and thick gravy ' !.. mmmmmmmm.” |! —DUO copyright j