Back From The Brink

TV actor June Brogan started learning lines from a young age and by her teens she was sure about her chosen career. But acting exposed her to partying that almost wrecked her life... until the night she cried out to God

June Brogan grew up on a regular diet of classic movies, learning the lines and acting out scenes in front of the mirror.

“Whenever I watched a movie I would have to watch it umpteen times and then I would be sat in front of the TV saying the lines,” she recalls.

“As a child I didn’t know that that was me displaying any creativity; I just thought that was being normal. Going into my teenager years I realised they were actually people doing a job, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s something that I would love to do.’”

Coming from a working class, single parent family in Scotland, with few acting opportunities available, June struggled to get started, eventually landing her first role – at least in part – due to her sketchy singing skills.

June explains, “The director said: ‘We’re going to ask you to sing a song.’ My heart sank because I thought, ‘That’s it, I’m not getting it.’

“But then he said, ‘We need you to sing it as badly as you can. Do you think you could manage that? We want you to pretend you’ve got the hairbrush in your hand and you’re just dancing around the room singing.’

“When I left the audition and I was walking towards the train station, I remember thinking to myself, ‘If I don’t get that job I shouldn’t be an actress, because that role was me!’

“It was only a morning’s work, but I remember getting the pay cheque and thinking, ‘Oh my goodness!’ It was three hours’ work, but it was probably more than someone would earn in a month.”