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Reality Sucks With a last minute script alteration, the call went out for Jeillo Edwards - the funny, talented and familiar face of decades of Brit TV. Mr Flibble waddled into London to fill a space on Jeillo Edward's clearance list. |
20 April, 2001
How did you become an actress?
Well, since I was young, in the church we used to have the first Sunday in September and October to raise funds for the church. We used to do little excerpts from plays and we used to write our own sketches from the Bible and put them on. Actually, when I started, it was my cousin's recitation that I took - which was, …Christian friends, my letter is R. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are Gods.…
When I came to England in 1960, I went to Leeds, because my sister was there. I couldn't find any drama schools that I could go to, so we came to London in '63. While we were in West Norwood there was Norwood College, and they had a big drama department there, so I joined the classes and started doing the grades and the medals.
In the end I finished with the London Academy of Language Public Speaking and Elocution Diploma. I tried very hard when I was in college with speech training and my elocution and lost all my African accent, and then the first job I went for was a radio commercial and they wanted an African voice! I went for the audition and they said, 'You don't sound African at all.' (Laughs) I spent years trying to get rid of this accent and now that's what they want!
There was a thing going on at the BBC World Service called African Theatre. They do one play every month, and I auditioned for them. They didn't call me, and I thought, 'It must be the accent - they wanted an African accent.' So I started working on different accents - Nigerian accents, East African accents - and then I went on another audition for them, and since then I've been doing plays for them.
Mr Flibble pointed out that his Caribbean accent was pretty good and that he only lived up the road.
That was my only source of income, so I joined Oriental Casting the agency, and I said, 'I don't mind playing any part - as long as it's not as an extra'. (Laughs) They said fine, and for ages they didn't call me, and I wondered what was happening. Then suddenly they called me up - this was in 72 - to do Dixon of Dock Green with Jack Warner. That was my very first television [role].
Subsequently, other television parts came up - the Angels series, Play for Today - and I used to enjoy it. I'd just do bits here and there, as long as it's work I do it! I did Casualty later on.
