Bags of talent

The famous TV actress will use the Civic's beautiful stage as the redoubtable Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest.

WENDY Craig is positive there wouldn't be a Civic Theatre at Darlington without her family. Apparently her brother Allistair joined other council aldermen in blocking plans to knock down the failing venue, then known as the Hippodrome, and retained the beautiful Edwardian building.

By that time, the girl who grew up at Sacriston, Yarm and Darlington had already departed for London's Central School of Dramatic Art and a stage and screen career earning critical acclaim and millions of fans.

But it was the Hippodrome's pantomimes and variety shows which helped to fire Craig's love of theatre and now she's delighted to be returning to the area of her "first love" with Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest.

Of the 96-year-old Civic, she says: "There was talk of pulling down the Hippodrome, which was a variety house, and replacing it with a multi-purpose building, and my brother was an alderman in Darlington at the time. He fought tooth and nail to save that lovely Edwardian building and they did save it in the end and instead of building one of these ghastly, cold, soulless places, which they use for playing table tennis, they saved it and renamed it the Civic."

Sadly, Allistair, who ran a haulage business in Darlington during the 1970s, died a few years ago after moving to be near sister Wendy and their mother, Anne, in the Bucks-Berks area.

"This is probably one of the best plays ever written and Lady Bracknell is probably one of the few good parts left for a woman of me age to play. I was asked three times to play her. The first time I wasn't very well and not physically up to it and then the second time I was doing The Royal (as Matron for ITV1) and the third time I could just fit it in and I thought I can't turn it down a third time. I was very daunted at playing such a role and an awful lot is expected, almost too much really because it's not too big a part. She comes on in first act and comes on in the last act and she mouths off a lot when she is on."

Craig feels she's ready for the demands of the stronger women roles having won the hearts of TV audiences as dotty Ria in the fondly-remembered sitcom Butterflies, balanced against the do-gooding dramatic lead in Nanny.

"Just don't mention handbags," she warns halfway through a reference to Lady B's most famous utterance.

"Everybody asks me about the handbag, it's just a line in a play. I know Edith Evans delivered it in an extraordinary way. The only way I can feel I can do it is to deliver it truthfully. I can't do an impression of Edith Evens, it would be ridiculous. Just because Gieulgud and Olivier played Hamlet doesn't mean the part can't be played any other way."

Craig is currently leaving a gap in her diary for another series of The Royal if Yorkshire Television decide to go ahead with the Heartbeat spin-off. But the 1960s feelgood hospital drama has already seen its run broken-up by problems over shooting Heartbeat when Jason Durr was replaced by James Carlton. "The scheduling is dreadful I'm afraid and at the moment we don't know when we go again. These are safe dramas for the whole family to watch and they've got their heart in the right place. Nobody need feel that a member of the family is going to be shocked or upset and, at the same time, it's quite interesting drama."

Making The Royal also brought Craig back to the North, where she stays in touch with a few Darlington friends, to film scenes in Scarborough and Bradford.

Craig remains one of Darlington's best-known celebrity, returns to the area regularly and talks with affection about the town's bustling market days.

Three years ago she triumphed on Tyneside with the role of Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals during the Royal Shakespeare Company and she hopes that another character part with the world-renowned players may be offered in the near future.

Her acting honours to date include being voted TV Drama Actress of the year by BAFTA, and BBC and ITV Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain. Readers of the TV Times voted her funniest Woman on Television for three consecutive years and she was chosen by the Variety Club as BBC TV's Woman of the Year. Craig is the widow of musician and journalist Jack Bentley and has two sons. Alaster, who is the principal oboist with the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Ross, a writer.

On the future of sitcoms and TV she confesses: "A lot of things that are on, people are having to put up with rather than enjoy because they don't have the choice. That's what you're given and that's what you'll get."

Currently, she's waiting to see if another series of The Royal will be made and muses: "I think I'm really fortunate to still be working quite honestly as I like working and I'd like to carry on. I'd quite like to do one Shakespeare play, but unfortunately as I get older the parts become fewer and fewer."

For now, Craig sends her love to Darlington and says: "I do very much like coming back up North. I don't know what it is, I just feel comfortable. I've been away since I was 17 and I'm coming up for 70, so how many years is that..." she asks.

Being a gentleman, my first guess came in at 23.

"That you so much for that," she laughs.

* The Importance Of Being Earnest runs at Darlington Civic Theatre from February 3-7. Box Office: (01325) 486555

Published: 22/01/2004