The Stage

Sweet medicine - Tamsin Greig and Green Wing

Published Wednesday 22 March 2006 at 13:05 by Phil Penfold

Tamsin Greig is making quite a departure from TV comedy. The star of Channel 4’s Green Wing tells Phil Penfold she is joining the RSC and starring in one of the Bard’s darkest plays

Once upon a time Tamsin Greig could walk down a street and not be recognised. She laughs: “The only time that there was ever any flicker of recognition was when I opened my mouth to ask for something in a store, or wherever.

“And then, if someone was a fan of The Archers, they seemed to twig that I was the one who played Debbie Aldridge. It’s nice to think that I’ve got what seems to be such a distinctive voice.”

She says: “I remember one time, I was in Homebase buying some paint and some bloke said, ‘Hello Debbie, what are you doing so far from Ambridge?’.”

But it wasn’t always a complimentary remark, chuckles Greig, who lives in north London with her three children, aged seven, five and 18 months - she doesn’t want to reveal their names - and her husband, the actor Richard Leaf.

“I was eight months pregnant with my little one, the other two were toddlers and I was reaching into a freezer cabinet when a male voice behind me said: ‘Well, if it isn’t Debbie Aldridge - and doesn’t she have a big bum!’

“It’s moments like that when you are just stuck for anything to say. All you can do is smile sweetly and beat a quick retreat. Other times people say: ‘Well, I know the voice but you can’t be Debbie, she’s got long blonde hair.’ It’s the picture that they have in their mind, you see, that wonderful ‘radio picture’ of the imagination.”

There have also been slightly more unnerving moments and Greig reveals she has been mistaken for Sue Perkins from comedy duo Mel and Sue, Sharleen Spiteri and Ronnie Ancona. She laughs: “One woman even ran up to me shouting: ‘It’s you, it’s you, it’s you - you’re in that Kingsmill bread ad.’ Er, sorry, no.”

Of course, Green Wing changed all that. The Channel 4 comedy won widespread acclaim in its first run but she says it was never in the bag that it would return. “We did very well with series one,” she says, “Excellent ratings, everything was looking so good. And then there was this long silence and we all thought, ‘Well, that’s it then’, and months went by.

“Then, right out of the blue, Channel 4 re-commissioned the show and we all got back together again. Now when you’ve got 15 major characters in the cast, getting those actors all in the same place again, for several months at a stretch, is not an easy task - everyone has different work commitments. But by some miracle, we all managed it. And as usual, we had a lot of fun. The eight episodes took five months to make, in all.”

She modestly neglects to mention that she was nominated in the Best Actress category for Bafta last year for her performance as Dr Caroline Todd in Green Wing and she won the Royal Television Society award for the role.

She says: “I feel very privileged in getting my work recognised but I confess that I also felt a bit odd in getting it for Green Wing, given that it is such an ensemble piece. Isn’t it a bit peculiar that you could say, ‘Right, which is the best colour in the rainbow? Which one shall we give an award to?’. And you pick one colour out and then it’s not a rainbow any more. I suppose, in the final analysis, it is about people relating to a character rather that giving marks for a performance.”

Greig agrees that it has been a fantastic juggling act over the last few months, adding: “I was asked if I wanted to go back into The Archers - listeners will recall that Debbie had run off to Hungary to manage her father’s farming interests in Eastern Europe - but primarily there were the three children to think about. Fortunately I have a wonderful husband, a very flexible part-time nanny and a huge network of support, so it was all possible.”

This year is going to present another set of challenges. “I’ve been asked to join the Royal Shakespeare Company,” she says.

“And I am deeply honoured to have been singled out. More so in that they’ve offered me two marvellous parts in productions at the Swan Theatre in Stratford - Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and Constance in the seldom-performed King John. My great worry, at the moment, is that I haven’t been on stage in front of a live audience for ten years. So I’m going to have to get all my nerve and confidence back. I’ve always wanted to play Beatrice and my Benedick is a marvellous actor called Joseph Milson. It’s a wonderful, wonderful part. Constance I know little about - all I do know is that there are not a lot of laughs in King John, it’s one of Shakespeare’s darkest plays. One from his ‘political repertoire’.

“My problem is that I am one of the world’s greatest gigglers - anything will set me off. In Green Wing there are, to my shame, often times when we have to do several takes because I or another of the actors starts laughing but considering some of the things that we are asked to do, it is hardly surprising.”

Greig is also waiting to hear if the series Love Soup will return to TV screens and she’s also going to feature in an up-coming episode of the new Doctor Who on BBC1.

“What was my character called? Oh, crumbs, I have no idea, I can’t remember - isn’t that remiss of me? But it was great and I loved it. I was very excited to see the inside of the Tardis. I was slightly mad, because my youngest, who was with me, was only about two months old and it was my first bit of work after the birth.

“So I was - I admit - crying a lot, not speaking much and a wee bit afraid of the words and lines that I had to remember. I don’t think that the Doctor will be running after me, begging me to return, let’s put it that way.”