Actress has famous father

Press, 13 July 1988, Page 16

Actress has famous father

Playing Nigel Havers’ wife Pamela in “The Charmer” (8.30 p.m. on One) has brought Abigail McKern to the attention of millions, of viewers for the first time. She is the daughter of Leo “Rumpole Of The Bailey” McKern — but in the eight years since she graduated from drama school in London, Abigail McKern, 32, has assiduously avoided any professional contact with her acclaimed father. “I have been very care-' ful; I’ve never ridden on his back and he’s never interfered in my career. “People constantly ask: ‘Don’t you want to act with your father?’ and of course I do. Now perhaps the time is right. I’ve done a bit of good television on my own bat and I don’t believe I could now be accused of trading on the family connection.” That “bit of good TV” also includes a meaty role as an English wartime agent in occupied Europe in “Wish Me Luck,” another popular British series soon to be screened on New Zealand television.