When it comes to the true greats, there aren’t many of them left. I’m talking about those who have lived through a world of changes, had to fight for things we take for granted now, and have done so with a smile and without breaking a sweat.
Amanda Barrie is one of those greats. She’s danced in West End shows, starred in Carry On Cleo and Coronation Street, and even tested herself in Hell’s Kitchen and Celebrity Big Brother.
The world has changed “beyond [her] imagination” since she began her career in the 1930s – yet it still fascinates her. ‘We'll all be AI soon, darling - I don’t want to die until I know what's happening with AI,’ Amanda says. ‘I also want to find out if they are actually going to Mars – there are holes in the road, but they want to go to Mars. There's nothing on Mars – they haven't even got a Waitrose.’
Her latest autobiography, I’m Still Here, explores her decades of watching changes around her, from memories of her acting days to her life living in Somerset with her wife Hilary Bonner. ‘I went, “Oh, you don't want me to do another book for Christ’s sake,” and they said, “It’s been 25 years since the last one – haven’t things changed?”’ Amanda says. ‘Yes, they have – we now live in a world where you can be cancelled at the drop of a hat.’
She continues, ‘One has to be able to say what you think in life without people being offended. If people get offended, then that is dreadful - but it doesn't mean everybody should be cancelled.’ Even with nine full decades under her belt, she hasn’t had any issues with this. ‘I got bleeped off Lorraine once, but I haven't been cancelled yet,’ she laughs.
Amanda didn’t start her career originally as an actor – in fact, she began with dancing. ‘My mother sent me to dancing classes when I wasn't quite three. By the time I was three and a half, I was on stage.’ At the time, she was called Shirley Anne Broadbent - named after Shirley Temple. ‘I didn’t have a conscious idea that I was going to go into the theatrical profession, but my mother thought I should.’
After being expelled from school and having ‘nothing but the ability for dance’, Amanda signed with the famous theatre management crew, Howard and Wyndham. ‘They looked after me, changed my name, and I took over from Gillian Lynne in The Merry Widow, who was the best dancer in England.’ Amanda Barrie was born.
From here, she lived at The Theatre Girls’ Club in Soho. ‘I was going out and sitting at tables in Leicester Square with eight other dancers, all of us trying to afford two cups of tea or coffee and sharing half a cheese sandwich so we could keep the table and go to auditions,’ Amanda explains. ‘That’s how it was – we didn’t have any money at all and everyone shared everything - not like the modern day.’
Amanda never really had a big break, so much as “little cracks” – but one standout moment was being a dancer on On The Bright Side. ‘It started on television and won all the awards, so it ended up moving to the stage as On The Brighter Side.’ This led to her being picked out to star alongside George Cole in Public Mischief on the West End – and her first acting experience. ‘I was a nervous wreck because I’m dyslexic and had never even read a script - but I got through it.’
After a string of stage productions, from Cabaret to Aladdin, Amanda landed on the big screen with Operation Bullshine, and went on to appear in two of Carry On films. Her most iconic had to be the seductive titular role in Carry On Cleo. ‘I was very lucky, because I got Cleo, which was just given to me. Before that, I was a cab driver in Carry On Cabby,’ she explains. ‘They wanted me to stay on and do all the Carry Ons – but I didn’t, because in those days the films were looked down upon.’
For her next big, iconic role, she kept her eyeliner pencil firmly sharpened, playing Alma Baldwin in Coronation Street on and off for over 20 years. This was written by Tony Warren, who also shared the same agent as Amanda. ‘Coronation Street was a family – it was a great honour to be in it at the time because it changed loads of things,’ Amanda tells me. ‘It was the first time they'd ever done anything where people could use their own accents.’
While individuality on TV was certainly starting to trend, there was something that, at the time, Amanda couldn’t showcase about herself until she left the show in 2001 and released her first autobiography, It’s Not A Rehearsal. ‘Coming out wasn't very easy – I would have lost my job in Coronation Street. I was sort of outed early on, and my agents fought it off, but I would have been expelled. It was a very different world.’
The world has changed in many different ways, as has the acting industry. ‘One of the things I used to enjoy the most about being in a theatre was the rehearsals, which would be filled with people telling old stories and having cups of coffee, because we had longer rehearsal periods – and now sometimes people only have a week’s rehearsals,’ Amanda says.
When Amanda isn't ruminating about the state of the industry and the world, she can be found between London and her home in the Blackdown Hills. ‘When I got married to Hilary, she had a Georgian house in Somerset, and I had my flat in Covent Garden – and we would go backwards and forwards all the time,’ she says. ‘In Somerset, we have a really big garden, a field, and – I’m always ashamed to say it – a swimming pool.’
This means that she gets to have the best of both locations; gorgeous greenery in our county, as well as all the hustle and bustle of The Big Smoke. ‘I come here and I sniff the countryside, then I go back to London and inhale the exhaust fumes – those two together are what keep me going, I think,' she smiles.
In terms of the future, there’s still one more talent that Amanda would like to master; ‘I was made to do a bit of public speaking recently, which I was always terrified about, but I rather enjoyed it once I got going. Maybe I can improve it and offer my services to be an after-dinner speaker, or do before-dinner speaking… whatever you do.’ In the meantime? Amanda simply wishes to continue living life to the fullest. ‘Carry on breathing is my intention,’ Amanda finishes by saying. ‘I don't want to die yet, because I'm extremely curious. I want to know the outcome of everything that's going on.’
I’m Still Here: My 90 Years is out now and available at all good bookshops.
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