Viv Hardwick talks to actress Eileen Pollock about the role of Lilo Lil in TV's famous comedy series Brad, which gave her the change to play panto.

NOT many women are going to want to go to the grave with the nickname of Lilo Lil, but actress Eileen Pollock remains justly proud of becoming "the other woman" in the famous BBC1 comedy series Bread. She became Lil in the 1986-91 run of programmes which put the dole-claiming Liverpool Boswells on the map and made a star of the woman having clandestine liaisons with Nellie's husband Freddie in his allotment shed. Fame as Lil also ensured that Pollock achieved her childhood ambition of appearing in pantomime, with Middlesbrough theatre-goers set to see her as Sycorax the Witch in Jack & The Beanstalk.

Pollock's in Basingstoke when we chat, taking part in a play called Communication Cord and "two-timing" the company by appearing in a London performance of Henhouse by Kate O'Reilly.

"I've very good at touring so to me it's energising as opposed to exhausting," she says cheerfully and adds: "I've also three-timed them really by doing the promotional launch for Middlesbrough's panto."

Pollock has appeared in five pantos and it is her third time with Extravaganza, the company charged with creating the Christmas mood in Middlesbrough.

She admits to running the gamut from "fairly good" fairy to the wicked witch she's tackling for the second time in Jack And The Beanstalk.

"The wicked witch is wonderful because I can't stand children and making them want to cry and scream is a wonderful battle of wits. The best thing is that the good fairy is Bella Emberg and we're having a tremendous battle across the stage."

She jokes about her appearance not being a mask and admits she once made the mistake of plastering the unmasked parts of her face with green stage paint.

"It was supposed to be water soluble, but what the tin didn't say was the paint turned all your facial hair green and I went on to do a National Theatre production for directer Peter Gill who, God bless him, must have been colour-blind in not noticing."

At least 21m people know her as Lilo Lil, but is that a title you can live with for life?

"I disbelieve actors who say 'I want rid of that image' because people will always remember me as Lilo Lil and it's wonderful. I like it when someone says in a supermarket 'you know who you remind me of, don't take offence, that tart from Bread'."

She does like to remind the TV comedy fans that Lil wasn't really a harlot. "While Freddie Boswell had two women, and his wife, who I call Fluffy Knickers, had a man friend, Lillian O'Leary remained a one man woman. So who among the three of them was the tart, thank you very much. I like pleading her corner. It was only those ragamuffin Boswells who called her Lilo Lil," she jokes.

Before she took up acting, Pollock had a career as a technical translator in London and could have had a well-paid, high-profile role in Europe. "I could have been a Eurocrat with a porsche in every European capital city," she giggles.

Pollock reveals that Lil was never destined for an appearance until Carla Lane decided to include the character in one episode.

"Originally, she wasn't supposed to be seen, then Carla Lane decided to see what would happen if she appeared in one episode. I remember seeing her at the BBC Christmas party and thanking her for my chance and she replied 'oh darling, I've written you into the next series haven't I?' as if I'd know. She did because there was mileage to be had from the character."

Now her passion is panto and she says: "I think what's fabulous about pantomime is I've been lucky that the atmosphere backstage is always good and it is most kids first experience of theatre, as it was for me back in Belfast. I never thought an ordinary person like me could ever be on the stage, so it's particularly magical. Your commitment has to be equally high doing a pantomime as doing the classic plays... and they are classics as a matter of fact."

* Jack And The Beanstalk, which also stars Bbc Radio Cleveland DJ Matthew Davies as Dame Dottie Durden, runs December 9 until January 9. Box Office: (01642) 815181.

Published: 25/11/2004