I'm Still In The Acting Game, So I Must Be A Success!

Actress Lesley Nicol, 65, shares her passions and memories. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband Da’aboth Te’He’ling.

- Jane Oddy

What is your earliest acting memory?

I read a comedy poem, Matilda, by Hilaire Belloc at school when I was 11. As a child I was cripplingly shy and I would hide behind my dad, so he was in the audience thinking, ‘Why are they doing this to her?’. And then I got laughs. Then more. That was a total light bulb moment of my life. I suddenly felt I had a tiny bit of power, people praised me, and they had never done that before. It was amazing, and I couldn’t get enough of it. My dad was pretty blown away too. Over the years, he always supported me in whatever production I was in. When I was in the stage musical Mamma Mia! [in 2002], he came to see the show 35 times and became known as Grandpa Abba by the company. Sadly he never saw me in Downton Abbey. It started a year after he died, but he would have loved it.

Did you have a plan B?

I didn’t! Acting was the only thing I was good at, and that’s the truth. I wasn’t thick at school but I wasn’t really interested in studying. I was telling jokes and eating sweets most of the time. As a child I briefly had a flirtation with being a nurse and then, after my first plane trip to Malta when I was 13, I wanted to be an air hostess. It seemed so glamorous. But I realised that in both jobs, it was only because of the uniform and the dressing up. And also you had to be about 5ft 10 in to be an air hostess, and I am only 5ft 1½in. My dad was a GP in the town of Irlam, Lancashire. The best gig I ever had was working at his surgery one summer on reception, and I wore a white coat. I loved it. That’s all I was there for!

When are you happiest?