Treacle
01-08-2005, 04:12
JUST LOVED A WILD DRUNKARD.. I THREW A TABLE AT MY BLOKE Jul 31 2005
My 20 years of debauchery, by Enders' dowdy Jane
By Richard Barber
ON screen she plays Jane Collins, the dowdy girlfriend of EastEnders' resident misery Ian Beale. Her social life doesn't go further than their dingy cafe in Albert Square.
But off screen actress Laurie Brett admits she's been a bit of a wild child - and boasts of 20 years of drunken debauchery.
"Let's just say I was a bit of an extrovert in my youth," confesses Laurie, 36. "I was the one falling out of nightclubs, yes, and I could get a little lairy with a few drinks inside me.
"I did 20 years of that...then I got bored with having the bruised knees to show for it."
She admits there is one particularly drunken night from a few years ago that's still etched on her memory. She not only drunk her then boyfriend under the table - she also picked it up and threw it at him!
"We were having a brief fling," she says. "Very brief as it turned out.
"It was late at night, he said the wrong thing in the pub, so I just grabbed the edges of the table and sort of flipped it in his face.
"But the really funny outcome was that the management blamed my friend, Diane, and she was the one who got banned from the place."
Nowadays she says her ideal night is sitting in front of the telly with her musician boyfriend Dave, 30. They live together in a south London flat - and are so serious about each other they are now even thinking of starting a family.
"We met on a blind date," she says. "Dave and I clicked immediately. We talked and talked until the sun came up. I felt I'd known him a long time.""
He may be six years younger but she says he's more mature than she'll ever be. "He even copes with the recognition I get from being in EastEnders."
She says that being so recognisable does have its drawbacks and makes going down the pub for a quiet drink difficult.
"I first got recognised after I'd appeared in just two episodes. Billy Murray, who plays Johnny Allen, was saying just the other day that he's been on telly for years. But nothing prepared him for what happened when he was cast in EastEnders."
She says she feels sorry for other cast members whose private lives are constantly in the spotlight - especially Jessie Wallace who plays Kat Slater.
"I couldn't cope with what she has to go through. I wouldn't wish that level of public scrutiny on anybody." Next week viewers will see Laurie involved in one of the soap's big storylines when she starts getting broody. She pretends to Ian that she is pregnant to test his reaction to a baby - but it backfires and they end up having a massive row.
She says it got her thinking about how she might like to be a real-life mother herself. "I've always been good around children but I wouldn't call myself maternal. On the other hand, Dave's the first man I've met who I've thought, 'Yes, I'd like to have your child'. If there wasn't my age to consider, I'd leave motherhood for quite a long time. As it is, I'm going to have to think about it seriously in the next five years."
Meanwhile, the thought of producing a baby Beale had Laurie and Adam Woodyatt, who plays Ian, curled up with laughter.
"I couldn't stop laughing when we were handed our scripts," she splutters. "Me and Adam just sat there imagining the whole nation screaming 'NO-O-O!' at their TV screens.
"Ian's such a slippery, slimy weasel but, of course, Jane doesn't quite see him like that."
Laurie says she enjoys Adam's sense of humour. "Just before we filmed our first bed scene, I told him I knew about him putting a banana under the duvet when he and Hannah Waterman (Laura Beale) were in bed together. 'Try that with me', I said, 'and I'll kill you'."
Laurie admits she had never been more terrified in her life than when she went for her original audition as Jane. "I had to do a screen test with Adam. My stomach felt like a washing machine on fast spin."
That was in April last year, and she hasn't looked back since. She is contracted to EastEnders until April 2007 and is very happy with life.
So what does she do at home when she's not watching the telly? "I cook," she says. "My roast potatoes are the best you'll ever taste."
Then she starts giggling, and it becomes clear that perhaps the wild child side of her is still there.
"Actually, there's little I like better than cooking in the nude - although not if it's a fry-up!"
My 20 years of debauchery, by Enders' dowdy Jane
By Richard Barber
ON screen she plays Jane Collins, the dowdy girlfriend of EastEnders' resident misery Ian Beale. Her social life doesn't go further than their dingy cafe in Albert Square.
But off screen actress Laurie Brett admits she's been a bit of a wild child - and boasts of 20 years of drunken debauchery.
"Let's just say I was a bit of an extrovert in my youth," confesses Laurie, 36. "I was the one falling out of nightclubs, yes, and I could get a little lairy with a few drinks inside me.
"I did 20 years of that...then I got bored with having the bruised knees to show for it."
She admits there is one particularly drunken night from a few years ago that's still etched on her memory. She not only drunk her then boyfriend under the table - she also picked it up and threw it at him!
"We were having a brief fling," she says. "Very brief as it turned out.
"It was late at night, he said the wrong thing in the pub, so I just grabbed the edges of the table and sort of flipped it in his face.
"But the really funny outcome was that the management blamed my friend, Diane, and she was the one who got banned from the place."
Nowadays she says her ideal night is sitting in front of the telly with her musician boyfriend Dave, 30. They live together in a south London flat - and are so serious about each other they are now even thinking of starting a family.
"We met on a blind date," she says. "Dave and I clicked immediately. We talked and talked until the sun came up. I felt I'd known him a long time.""
He may be six years younger but she says he's more mature than she'll ever be. "He even copes with the recognition I get from being in EastEnders."
She says that being so recognisable does have its drawbacks and makes going down the pub for a quiet drink difficult.
"I first got recognised after I'd appeared in just two episodes. Billy Murray, who plays Johnny Allen, was saying just the other day that he's been on telly for years. But nothing prepared him for what happened when he was cast in EastEnders."
She says she feels sorry for other cast members whose private lives are constantly in the spotlight - especially Jessie Wallace who plays Kat Slater.
"I couldn't cope with what she has to go through. I wouldn't wish that level of public scrutiny on anybody." Next week viewers will see Laurie involved in one of the soap's big storylines when she starts getting broody. She pretends to Ian that she is pregnant to test his reaction to a baby - but it backfires and they end up having a massive row.
She says it got her thinking about how she might like to be a real-life mother herself. "I've always been good around children but I wouldn't call myself maternal. On the other hand, Dave's the first man I've met who I've thought, 'Yes, I'd like to have your child'. If there wasn't my age to consider, I'd leave motherhood for quite a long time. As it is, I'm going to have to think about it seriously in the next five years."
Meanwhile, the thought of producing a baby Beale had Laurie and Adam Woodyatt, who plays Ian, curled up with laughter.
"I couldn't stop laughing when we were handed our scripts," she splutters. "Me and Adam just sat there imagining the whole nation screaming 'NO-O-O!' at their TV screens.
"Ian's such a slippery, slimy weasel but, of course, Jane doesn't quite see him like that."
Laurie says she enjoys Adam's sense of humour. "Just before we filmed our first bed scene, I told him I knew about him putting a banana under the duvet when he and Hannah Waterman (Laura Beale) were in bed together. 'Try that with me', I said, 'and I'll kill you'."
Laurie admits she had never been more terrified in her life than when she went for her original audition as Jane. "I had to do a screen test with Adam. My stomach felt like a washing machine on fast spin."
That was in April last year, and she hasn't looked back since. She is contracted to EastEnders until April 2007 and is very happy with life.
So what does she do at home when she's not watching the telly? "I cook," she says. "My roast potatoes are the best you'll ever taste."
Then she starts giggling, and it becomes clear that perhaps the wild child side of her is still there.
"Actually, there's little I like better than cooking in the nude - although not if it's a fry-up!"