Issue 20 May 2014 In this edition of The Sticks Exclusive interview with Kate Robbins Win tickets to see the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers and King of Pop Our new Cheese column BBC Radio 2’s Janey Lee Grace on the Natural Products show We road test the Kia Soul And much more Plus pages of events listings across Herts, Beds & Bucks - 2 - Welcome to the May edition of The Sticks Magazine! The most talked about magazine in Herts, Beds & Bucks With over 16,000 readers a month In this issue: Page Exclusive interview with Kate Robbins 4 Win tickets to see the King of Pop 7 Curwens Column 8 Managing the Kids 9 Becoming a Grandparent 10 Art Column 12 Car Test – Kia Soul 14 Janey Lee Grace on the Natural Product Show 16 Hero Cheese of the Month 18 Big Barn Food Column 19 Listings – Herts, Beds & Bucks 20 Contributors: Janey Lee Grace, Terry Sullivan Donna Obstfeld, Andrew Merritt-Morling, Jo Coker, Sharon Struckman See you in June! Editor & Sales: Terry Sullivan Tel: 07756 274444 Email: [email protected] www.the-sticks.co.uk Follow us on twitter @thesticks9 www.facebook.com/sticksmag Listen to The Sticks Radio Show at 10am on Mondays on Secklow Sounds www.secklowsounds.org - 3 - Exclusive Interview with Grumpy Old Woman Kate Robbins Kate Robbins is an actress, comedienne, singer, songwriter,impressionist and voice- over artist who currently lives in Bedfordshire, She is part of a showbusiness dynasty and has been entertaining us for over 30 years The Sticks Recently caught up with Kate as she was rehearsing for her new stage show – Grumpy Old Women You currently live in Bedfordshire but you were not born there? I was born in Kent but was brought up on the Wirral, Merseyside from the age of about 5, I think until I left home at 17 and came down to London but have lived in Bedfordshire since 1988. It must had been interesting growing up with your family? Yes we are all show off’s that was what it was. It was a bit of a hectic upbringing, my dad was sort of in show business, he used to manage bands and comedians people like that and with Paul McCartney being my Mums cousin we all grew up with that sort of fame all around us and I am not saying we considered it normal but I did not really realise what my family connections were till I had left school and thought blimey. Yes one of the Beatles is your cousin never really meant much when I was at school. Yes all my family are in the same sort of industry, my two sisters and Ted my brother. I was in the Eurovision song contest with my younger sister, Jane years ago in 1980 and we did quite well we came 3rd ; these days for Britain to come anywhere is quite good. We were watched by about 500 million people were else can you play to that many people in one night, it was fantastic and was the first television I had done and I was put in this group called Prima Donna , 3 boys and 3 girls a bit like Guys and Dolls where a few years before and I made friends with all the people in the group and still remain friends with all of them now. It was a lovely journey that. I went on to do other things obviously then I went into Crossroads. I always say that working on Crossroads was the first comedy I ever did, even though it was not supposed to have been. People really loved Crossroads. I was only put in the story because the producer wanted to have a hit recorded from the show, so every time I walked into the motel I would start singing this song which in the end sold over half a million and got to no 2 in the charts it was “More Than In Love”. That was a lovely little start for me really but I had been around for years with my own band before that, I was around at the same time as Kate Bush was having success and I remember hating her another Kate that plays the piano, dark hair, big boobs you know but she is brilliant, I love Kate Bush really so I thought what am I going to do to compete with her - 4 - and then I sort of fell into comedy and I started doing stuff for Granada TV I did bits with Hale & Pace and loads of others. You have done lots of things since including singing on the hit Story of the Blues? Yes also I wrote the theme tune to “Surprise Surprise” for Cilla and now they use it again for the Holly Willoughby series, so it is nice that that is still being used as it is a few pennies in the bank. Tell us about your time on time on Spitting image I did all the female voices on the show except Margaret Thatcher who was voiced by Steve Nallon. It would be fun if they brought it back now with all the politicians expense scandals, it would be great we would have a right old time although then there was some great characters, whilst now everyone is so scared and wants to be so PC and wants to be the perfect politician without any foibles. What made Spitting image so funny is that we picked on peoples worst parts of their personality, that’s what doing a characterisation is all about, so I would do Fergie’s (Sarah Fergusson) voice and have her saying things like “They have named a pudding after me at Buckingham Palace, its called ginger sponge “and then I would put this terrible snort on the end, poor woman she never even did that in real life. We had carte blanche to do what we like really. It was very irreverent and very funny and some of the people brought their own puppets. Celebrities used to get quite miffed if we did not do them, they loved it well most of them anyway. It kept them in the public eye. In those days young kids knew who was in the shadow cabinet now a days you ask who is in the cabinet and they have not got an idea let alone the shadow cabinet, I think it was a good way for children engaging in politics and it made young people interested in politics, which I don’t think we have got at all. I sang on the Chicken Song too so I have been on a number one record and a number two record, that was me singing “Hold a chicken in the air, stick a deckchair up your nose”. They don’t write romantic lyrics like that anymore. I then went on to do a show with my brother Ted called “The Robbins” that also featured my sisters as well. We did lots of stuff at Granada television for years. We did lots of sketches and impressions it was great fun. He is doing “The Slammer “now a show for children and he plays the governor of the prison, he has a great time doing that and then there is my sister Amy who was in The Royal for years also there is Emma she is a singer who is one of the “Sheila’s Wheels” ladies, she is the dark haired one on the advert and Jane who is a sculptor now she was 17 when we entered the Eurovision - now she is a fully fledged grown up now and doing very serious work. I then did the Children’s Variety performance and the original series of Deadringers on the radio, I did not want to do it visually because I had enough of doing impressions by then and I was bringing up my kids at home and I just wanted to do voice-overs and did not want to do visual stuff for a while because trying to bring up three kids is hard work. One of your children is now famous? Yes, Emily (Atack) - she is doing ever so well. She was on The Inbetweeners, Dancing on Ice and 4 movies. She has just finished a film called Almost Married, a thriller. I never expected my kids to have normal jobs. In 2007 you were given an Honorary Bachelor of Arts degree from Bedfordshire University, for her lifetime contribution to the Performing Arts? I was it was lovely, I was really chuffed to get that, very, very pleased there was me and the chef Jean Christophe Novelli we both got one the same day. - 5 - One show I did not realise you were in was the Dinnerladies Yes I played Babs in that. I was a very unattractive woman in it who said things like “is it a sit down toilet”. I loved working with Victoria (Wood) and what great writing it was. I have done Doctors, Casaulty and Heartbeat among others, they call me one episdoe Kate! I love doing those. I have also done some classic comedy including Last of the Summer Wine, and the great thing about that programme was that as everyone was so old that when filming they used to finish at 2.30 in the afternoon as everyone needed a nap. What are you doing curently ? I am touring with a show called “The Return of the Grumpy Old Women - 50 Shades of Beige” with Perrier Award-winning comedienne, writer and original star of Grumpy Old Women, Jenny Eclair and Susie Blake from Mrs Brown's Boys and Coronation Street.