Joan Sims interview (The Heaven & Earth Show, 2000)

the snoring I've come to Pinewood Studios home of the very best of British filmmaking I've come to meet a woman who tried to get into Rada four times only to be told she was quite unsuitable for the acting profession thank goodness Joan Sims carried on regardless you must have been very very determined to be an actress who made you want to be an actress me I had this terrific love of acting I was a member of the local amateur dramatics in operatic societies and I was also a member of the youth center group drama group it was really decided I suppose after I'd done very well in a drama festival which we put on it wasn't either of your parents that were saying oh you're rather good at acting show oh no they wasn't those sort of parents at all my mother had a very good singing voice but my father was the stationmaster and we had no theatrical connections whatsoever so if anything they will rather auntie me going into this this dastardly profession now know when you're little you're very good at being a snitch and putting on your shows were you as an only child were you lonely yes I was but not to the extent that I was sort of depressed by it I don't think at all I it's like a lot of children have we great element a self-survival and because of that I used to spend endless hours dressing up in my mother's clothes unbeknownst to her most of the time and also yes mimicking people I was very observant as a child and in fact I have been I think very observant throughout my life in your book you also speak about one really sad moment when your mother says to you that she married somebody who wasn't really the person she wanted to marry them has been really hard to take on as a child it was such a deadiy tragic detail I mean it was really brief encounter the fact that she'd married my father on the rebound and this chap who was in the army through this misunderstanding that they've had they didn't meet up for ten years one ban and then two weeks after she had married my father he contacted my mother and I've been known to my father mother went to London and met him where he proposed to her and of course she said I can't as much as I want to I can't I'm already married I mean it was a very tragic tale and the strange thing I think to have told me at such a tender age she must have been pretty blue yes do you think that what put you off getting married I was such an idealist I was such a I thought it had to be perfect the truth at Kenneth Williams asked you to marry him yes really yes I thought perhaps if I did something nice for you you might do something nice for me I understand you scratch my back and I will scratch yours oh that might be anything for them why'd she turn him down I suppose if Kenneth had been livable with I might have said yes because my love wife was all of a muddle and going nowhere at the time and her companionship and had I been a little bit older and Kenneth had not been so exhausting but poor Kenny he was actually actually draining to be with you know I'm gonna be rocked he never stopped and you just felt him he was sort of he would set your energy you know no regrets no no no regrets at all I mean it would have been absolutely impossible impossible 24 carry on through it yes 24 mmm out of 30 which out of 30 amazing when I got another carry on scribbs sometimes phone up Hattie and I said hat have you got your scripture to say here sterling look we're not going to do this load of rubbish this is the same old game Eddy perfect what do you want about your silly see we have fun and of course we always did it and of course we always loved it really you're great mate Betty Hattie was very much my cup of tea she was a wonderful person and I really looked upon her as a sort of sister come mother figure really the carry on film everybody loves I mean every rerun at the moment you can buy the video which was your favorite was it dictated by locational your glam location oh no certainly not fact I think my my favorite was carry-on caliber a lot of the great comedians that we've had have had big periods of depression haven't been yeah and talked quite openly about it you think they're links it's a jolly good guys the laughter and it can indeed they can hide a multitude of things and yes I mean the periods of depression where possibly I was able to share to a large extent with Hattie when she was alive there have been some really desperate moments with with depression but thankfully and happily I'm out of it now I'm still smiling and still smiling and still smiling and still making everybody else smile around you we're going to carry on with Joan Sims later on in the program we've mentioned your autobiography high spirits which is a jolly good read and it's jolly it's very it's a very jolly book but then it must have been quite hard to write for a very private person I think I was sort of scared to write it why what didn't you want people to know who knew finally I did I simply don't know but it was opening out to sort of a whole world of people that I didn't want them to know about my private business but actually once federated dad I thought Joan what on earth is there to sort of be private about I mean you're no different to thousands of other people it was a very good experience for me it made me feel completely different about myself I found that it gave me much more it's given me much more confidence I hope you don't seem as though you're lacking it you could have taken a very easy option and written a book just about said this and he said this and Barbara said this and we'd have all been very happy with that but you didn't you chose to be very open and very honest about the very dark periods as well as the sort of laugh a minute carry-on fans didn't you well I didn't want it to be a book of a scandal or a scandalous book and yes I do go into the periods of desperate depression that I went through how does a woman who is loved by the nation working folks off how do you get from being such a happy-go-lucky person to being I know in your home not wanting to go out and incredibly depressed it's not that difficult I think when you have lived to work which indeed I have done really I have been a workaholic and I've always said that I'm happiest when I am working I don't know I don't know how it was I suppose United had a series of Falls and various things happening and therefore the work at that time was in very short supply and the danger was when I didn't work then of course the Depression starts you start to worry about money because you have to survive and I started you know drink too much I started to get that I didn't want to sort of get up every day or if I did get up the first thing I would think about was when could I have the next drink and it became really desperate I got to such a pitch where it was said look you've got it into hospital again you have to go into hospital otherwise you're just going to die because you are abusing yourself so badly and I remember the morning that this letter arrived to say that indeed I could be admitted for rehabilitation and it was something that happened to me that morning I don't know what it was what I thought I am NOT going into hospital again I do not need any more hospitals I have to fight this on my own I'm sick to death of lurching back and forward back and forward leaning on somebody else's shoulders Joan you have got to get to grips with it and you've got to do it yourself and I rang up and I said I won't be attending the hospital I'm not going near another Hospital I'd had Ospital up to here and she said are you sure I said I'm absolutely positive I have the strength to fight this on my own and the next thing I did was I went and cleaned up all the booze in in the drinks cupboard I had I'm ashamed to say I had eight empty bottles in my kitchen that I had been scared to throw out in the rubbish because I was so paranoid about it I was so riddled with guilt because I was the only person at that time that had this problem and did not know how to confront it how to admit to it I was so ashamed and it the sad thing was that it only really happened to me when I wasn't working was taking that first step against the alcohol against the depression triggered by any kind of faith or belief in anybody anything when I was in my deepest depression I did I prayed and I prayed very hard and I asked God to help me because I just was at the point where I didn't know how I was going to get out of this hole that I was in and I felt as if I had absolutely no one to turn to I know when you know you hear of other people sort of doing silly things in the sales and and abusing themselves and drinking too much why didn't you phone me up why didn't you call on me the strange thing is I felt so devoid of any human being I didn't feel there was anybody I had turned to but I did ask God for help and if there is a God he certainly did help me he some sort of spiritual feeling pulled me through you helped yourself I haven't realized that he muscles or something gave me the strength to get my act together to try and restore my self-esteem which was so low it was unbelievable and I think I'm thankful that I've made it and I'm a much happier person now much happier any regrets so you're going to tell me about I had no I of course I'm sure I if I really sat down and thought about it earnestly I would have quite a few regrets then I don't think I would be human if I didn't have anything you left out of the book thank you very well to share male Oh a few little easy we do bits yes come on now I'm not telling you anything and anymore that should loaf I'm a bit $13.99 that's a lot just we should bargain it is Jensen thank you very much Thank You Alice to speed lovely

Channel: ppotter

Views: 104,939

Keywords: joan sims, carry on, heaven and earth, carry ons, carry on films, interview, 2000, comedy, autobiography

Id: RR37ZrVNXxU

Length: 12min 15sec (735 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2017