I first saw Pauline Collins when my PBS station stuck “No, Honestly” between “Monty Python” and “Doctor Who” in the 70s. I found her annoying and a lousy comedy actress who laughed at her own lines more than Jimmy Fallon. Decades later I saw her in “Bleak House” and she was still annoying and apparently trying to keep a straight face, except in a serious role. The other night I saw her play Queen Victoria on “Doctor Who” and she is still pretty bad with a permanent smirk, so I looked her up to see how she had managed to maintain what was, to me, a career of three, but three too many, roles in four decades. I was shocked to see she has received many acting awards and the Order of the British Empire. And that her husband, John Alderton, a better actor, had not yet throttled her.
So, was gibts, my British friends? This cannot be like French honoring Jerry Lewis just to screw with America’s collective head. And I know that I keep seeing the same actors all he time in British films and TV, but the pool cannot be so small that the bottom of the barrel is scraped clean. And she got it in October 2001 so those who assemble the New Years’ Honours Lists don’t have being drunk the night before to blame, though it could be a Halloween prank. So, kindly explain.
I read through your description of Collins and my first thought was, “oh, he can’t mean the Pauline Collins I was thinking of, since he’s not mentioning her most important role.” But then you mentioned John Alderston, so obviously this is Pauline Collins – who played Sarah on Upstairs, Downstairs.
Okay, maybe Sarah wasn’t really the most important role she played in her career, but to the many thousands of us who were enthralled by U,D back in the seventies (at least here in the U.S.), Sarah was one of the series’ breakout star characters, wicked yet lovable. And she and her hubby even got a spinoff, which must’ve been rare in those days.
So I say brava to her for the OBE. Though Jean Marsh should get one too, if she hasn’t yet.
She was very good in Shirley Valentine. I’m sure she’s been in more plays and films than just the ones that you’ve enumerated. No doubt her OBE was awarded along the usual lines for “services to the acting profession”.
She did get an Oscar nomination for Shirley Valentine.
And that, by itself, is probably sufficient to explain her OBE. Most British actresses who have got a Best Actress nomination have been given at least an OBE, usually at a later date. Lynn Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn, Kristin Scott Thomas and Imelda Staunton all have one, while Greer Garson, Elizabeth Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Julie Andrews, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench and Helen Mirren have or had higher honours. There are exceptions, such as Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Samantha Morton and Emily Watson, but they are too recent and/or a bit young. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson and Julie Christie have all been offered one at some point and declined.
What service? Staying under my radar from 1980 to 2007? Because I certainly approve of THAT. I also approve of being introduced to Penelope Keith, CBE, DL, and former High Sheriff of Surrey, when she appeared on “No, Honestly.” THAT woman is funny and can hold a deadpan look, which I also approve of because she scares me when she smiles.
Public service – charity work, fundraising, etc. You wouldn’t know about that.
And evidently, your radar is faulty. I see Collins has also won a Tony Award (I’m guessing you don’t get to Broadway much), the Lawrence Olivier Award (the Tony for UK theater), Drama Desk Award (second to the Tonys), and been nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA. She’s been in many BBC productions during the time, working quite steadily.
You can’t really condemn an actress because her roles are outside your limited experience.
Since when? I do it all the time. Anyway, did YOU see her on Broadway?
What I have seen is a representative sample of her career: an annoying turn in a fairly typical British sitcom (However did the Brits convince the world they are funny? As a national triumph it’s up there with Austria convincing the world that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was not.), a humdrum performance in one of the most celebrated programs in recent years, and she wasn’t much good in “Bleak House,” either.
I didn’t see her on Broadway, but I saw her in the West End in the early 80’s… and stopped backstage to tell her I loved her in No Honestly… She loved the fact that there was this 20 year old from across the pond stopping in to see her… and we ended up standing and talking for about half an hour… about ME…
Chuck: the concept of personal insults being prohibited in this forum is, I think, within your realm of experience? Please don’t. There are lots of ways to say what you were trying to say without putting it on a personal level with the other poster.
Didn’t bother me, Dex, partly because it’s true and partly because of the over-the-topness of my own RO (which is why this thread is here and not in The Pit and is more recreational than outraged) at the low-end near-knighthood of Ms Collins (apparently not Dame Pauline). Which, it has been explained a couple times, was mostly for her charity work and not for her lousy (by my lights) acting, so she has more right to it than, say, Ringo had when he got his. And I cannot deny she has always seemed a most charming and adorable person, a seeming which Daffyd has backed up.
If I want to be recreationally outraged I can always go here. David Essex? Oh, another charity case. JOAN Collins? Nope, not for being a massive slut but for more charity, which is rather disappointing. Ah, here’s a good one: Wendy Richard. What the heck?
Wendy Richard’s was probably more for EastEnders and generally being around forever, than for Are You Being Served?, if that’s what you’re wondering. Doesn’t make the list and the honours system any less inexplicable or arbitrary, though.
Hey, Hugh Laurie’s an OBE but Stephen Fry isn’t anything? You’d think he must have turned it down, but isn’t he a bit of a royal ligger? Or maybe the Queen’s a big House fan. “Hice”, as she calls it.
Anyway, did YOU see her on Broadway?