Maggie Jones: 'I don't find Blanche funny'

[Perdita]

Coronation Street star Maggie Jones has admitted that she tries to ignore the comic nature of her outspoken character Blanche Hunt.

The 75-year-old actress's work on the ITV1 show earned her the funniest performance prize at the Inside Soap Awards last week.

However, reflecting on the recognition, Jones commented: "I don't find Blanche funny and I don't think I could play her properly if I did.

"Blanche genuinely believes that what she is saying is right and doesn't say things for comedic effect. If I started trying to play the lines for laughs, they wouldn't come out right."

Jones added that she can understand the appeal of her Weatherfield alter ego, who regularly interferes in the lives of her daughter Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) and son-in-law Ken (William Roache).

"We'd all like to be as outspoken as her and have the nerve to say the things she does," Female First quotes her as saying. "But then, everyone knows someone like her, or if they don't they wish they did."

Jones made her debut in the role of Blanche in 1974 and stuck with the soap for four years. She went on to return for a number of guest stints before making a permanent comeback in 1998.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3/coronationstreet/news/a181300/maggie-jones-i-dont-find-blanche-funny.html

[alan45]

Compare what Maggie Jones said to what Malcolm Hebden said on TELETEXT


Macolm Hebden, aka Norris, is a little jealous of Maggie Jones, who plays acid-tongued Blanche.

"She makes me hoot. They write so well for her. I never want to do a scene with her where I feed her the line and she delivers the gag. I want the laugh line for myself!" he grins.

"At drama school they said if I had a career at all it would be in comedy," he adds.

[Abbie]

Hmmmm odd :hmm:

[parkerman]

Compare what Maggie Jones said to what Malcolm Hebden said on TELETEXT


Macolm Hebden, aka Norris, is a little jealous of Maggie Jones, who plays acid-tongued Blanche.

"She makes me hoot. They write so well for her. I never want to do a scene with her where I feed her the line and she delivers the gag. I want the laugh line for myself!" he grins.

"At drama school they said if I had a career at all it would be in comedy," he adds.

There's no contradiction there. As Maggie says she has to say the lines as though they were real. That's what makes them funny.

[Chloe O'brien]

Maggie may not think Blanche is funny but we do.

[parkerman]

Maggie may not think Blanche is funny but we do.

That's exactly the point. Blanche doesn't say the things she does for comic effect, she says them because she believes them. We find her funny, of course, but Maggie Jones has to play her as the real person she is. That's what makes her so funny.

[lizann]

I think Blanche is very funny

[Hannelene]

Blanche is the best she always sees the real side to life. I like her one liners as she is only ever saying what everyone else is thinking!