You can listen to Rita May and her Sister Anne Modiri being interviewed by Producer Rob Sadler, by clicking on the link above. They both star in 'Neighbourhood Watch', the Pilot of a new Situation Comedy written by Rita, we are looking to get it commissioned for TV!
You can also learn all about the inspiration for the show, the writing process, Rita dealing with fame and the experience of filming the Pilot.
If you wish, you can also read the Interview below. You can also watch the TV Pilot by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.
Rita:
Irene and Karen came about because I actually retired from acting. I did 79 episodes of ‘Trollied’ and can you believe it? I broke my neck. So I was in Hospital for quite a while and I realised that it would be difficult to go back to acting because Studios are full of wires and tripods and if I’d have tripped up and broke my neck again, that would have been me in a Wheelchair for good.
This kind of job is something that never leaves you, if it’s in your blood to write and act, it doesn’t leave you, no matter how old you get. So, I decided to fill my time. You see my Husband had died, (he’s been dead twenty years now), I was living on my own and I decided to fill my time in and these people became company to me. I was able to manipulate them as well! Make them do what I wanted to do, which in life is very difficult.
The Actor who was going to play the part of my Daughter, she actually fell and broke her leg and she couldn’t do it and said I’m not going to be any good to you. So I thought, gosh, who am I going to get? I thought…My Sister! Our Anne will do it.
I rang and she knew nothing about it and I told her the story about what had happened and I said will you do it? She just went “Yeah”, didn’t you?
Anne:
I did, yes. I didn’t even think twice about it. Plus, I’d just retired as well, I’d been really busy and I was trying to find my way in the World, not working. It is quite hard sometimes and I thought, yeah, yeah, I’lll read the script and give it a go. Never acted before, never done anything like that and thought, I’ll give it a go.
Rita:
And she’s brilliant, she really is.
Rob:
She is yeah, I’d agree.
Anne:
Nice of you all to say that, but initially I was very wooden.
Rita:
Yeah, but we did some takes and we did some rehearsals didn’t we? Me and you alone.
Anne:
I think also, between all of you who were involved, that’s the Cameraman, the Directors, Producers, everybody and you of course Rita, you gave me ideas as to what the background of the personalities were, which meant when I delivered the lines, I was able to think what that the person would do, how they would say it, I think that was more important than just reading it.
Rita:
You were brilliant, the sound man actually said is Anne a proper Actor? Is that her job? I said no, she was a Nurse.
Anne:
I wasn’t nervous, I’ve done a lot of things in my life, I wasn’t nervous, because it wasn’t life threatening. But the point was, I didn’t want to let you all down, I wanted to get it right, but the more you do that, the more wooden you become.
Rita:
You weren’t wooden.
Anne:
Well I wasn’t, but you have to relax into it, don’t you?
Rob:
Yes you do.
Anne:
And I think you all did that, nobody made me feel under pressure.
Rita:
Well also, I think the fact that you was with me, your Sister. I was fifteen when Anne was born and so she was able to play my Daughter. When she was born, I kind of looked after her, you know what I mean? She was my baby Sister. So, in a way, we relaxed with each other.
Anne:
And honest as well, that was the thing. If she’d have been some strange Actress, I would have been in awe, as I probably wouldn’t have known her and I wouldn’t have wanted to upset her, whereas with Rita it was an enjoyable experience.
Rob:
It was quite an enjoyable experience for myself, I mean I’ve done it a few times before, but I just felt that the atmosphere between you two was great and very supportive. I’m still astonished that it was your first time acting.
We recently went to the South Yorkshire Film Network Short Film night and we Premiered Irene & Karen (Neighbourhood Watch). It was the first time you’d seen it, you refused to watch it before? What did you think?
Anne:
It really is a simple reason, and it’s that nowadays, with telephones, people record things and when I hear my voice I think God don’t I talk quickly? I sound horrible. So I thought I’d absolutely hate to hear my voice, I really did and so I thought I’ve done it now, so that’s it. I wasn’t really bothered about hearing it, it was only when you sent it through, just before that my Husband wanted to watch it and he was laying it in the room. He was watching it and I heard it and I heard my voice and I thought I don’t sound that bad. (Laughs).
Then I thought I’d have a look. So I popped my head around the side and I thought I don’t look that bad and from that, when I phoned you (Rita) and said I’m coming with you, you said Good. It was just raw reasons like that, nothing deep, just simple, you know.
Rita:
I think Actors, when they are starting in their career, they all worry about how they sound and I’ve always been one of them Actors who actually watch myself because I think you can learn. I’m very critical now, I mean the thing about me is I started in Children’s Ward, I did 156 episodes of that over 12 years and then I did Early Doors (I did 12 episodes of that), I played the Mother upstairs. I’ve done a lot of Telly, I was in Corro for nearly 2 years, playing Jack Duckworth’s Girlfriend, so as you get further on, you don’t worry about it.
I’ll tell you what also disappears and Ken Loach was very good at making this. I was always a younger Woman who wouldn’t go out without Make-up, I worked the Clubs, I was always nicely made-up, but Ken Loach didn’t want any make-up. I did a thing called ‘Price of Coal’ which was set in Sheffield in the Pits. He didn’t want no make-up, but one day I sneaked a bit of foundation on. He came up to me and said “You’ve got foundation on Rita” and I said just a little bit and he said “get it off”
(Laughs)
What I was going to say is vanity disappears, then you get used to seeing yourself. normal, without make-up and so your vanity. If you’re an Actor and want to play character roles, you really need no vanity at all.
Rob:
How did Ken Loach encourage you to write? Did he affect your writing style?
Rita:
I was a Club act, in the Yorkshire clubs and Ken Loach was coming to make these films, but he wanted Club Actors, not real Actors. So my Variety Agent rang me and said do you want to audition for Ken Loach? And I said oooh no, I don’t think I could do that.
But my Mother said go for it, anyway I did and I finished up with the female lead playing Bobby Knutt’s Wife, I think you’ll all know Bobby Knutt, bless him. Then one day, Ken was taking me home after filming and said ‘What you been doing Rita since I last saw you? Because I did three films with him. I said well I’ve been doing a bit of writing actually so he said bring it in for me, so I said okay, but I thought he was just being polite, so I didn’t. Then he says to me where’s this writing you’ve been doing?
So I took into him, he handed it to a Producer at the BBC and I got my first Play For Today on which was called ‘One Hundred and Eighty’ and then I was commissioned for another Play For Today which was called ‘England’s Greens and Peasant Land’, so that’s was started me writing
Rob:
It certainly deserves it, absolutely it does.
Of the two characters, which one is your favourite?
Rita:
My favourite character is Irene and Anne’s favourite character is Karen.
Rob:
Excellent.
Anne:
Although, to be fair, I think my favourite character is Irene.
Rita:
Really?
Anne:
Yes, she’s a nice old Woman.
Rita:
She’s not.
Anne:
She is compared to Karen. This part that I play, something else I’ve got to learn, is that you’re not yourself.
Rob:
Yes.
Anne:
And if anybody watches it, they’ll think well isn’t she a bitch!
Rob:
She’s incredibly selfish, but she does get that from her Mother, I think she does.
Anne:
It’s like an underlying problem in the family?
Rob:
I’ve prepared the Promotional deck, obviously as we’re looking to sell it and I’ve described them both as very selfish and competitive.
Rita:
They are competiive.
Rob:
But do essentially love each other, but they think that they are the centre of everyone’s World.
Anne:
And I think that’s the good thing about the Pilot, you get that all the way through until something awful happens and they literally come together. They cling to each other and I think they realise that life is not all about this, it’s much more important.
Rita:
Yes. So it’s fingers crossed for all of us that we can get this off of the ground because, to be honest, as a Writer I’m pleased with them. You know. I wouldn’t have put them out there, I wouldn’t have contacted Rob if I hadn’t have been pleased with what I’d written.
Anne:
And you’ve got something to compare it with, you have a lifetime of Drama and Comedy.
Rob:
I’ve seen the development part of them, you wrote them and you’ve come back and re-done them and re-done them. They’ve really massively grown and they really make me laugh, they’re good, very good.
Rita:
Yes, well that’s how it works when you write them. I’ve know some writers who have said I write from the beginning to the end and that’s it. I don’t, I write the frst bit, then I go back, then I change things, then I go a bit further and then I think I know, I can link that up with that bit, so I go back again and then link to that, that’s how my process works, where I’m constantly editing and going back.
It were awful on a Typewriter, I used to have an Olivetti and my first play wrote for the Telly; ‘One Hundred and Eighty’, I had to have them black sheets in between them
Rob:
The Banda ones?
Rita:
No, Carbon Copies, you could only type one at a time. Whereas computers and word Processors were not there when I started, I sound about a Hundred!
(LAUGHS)
Rob:
You mentioned earlier that you did ‘The Price of Coal”, that was the first one I’ve seen, was that the mid-Seventies?
Rita:
We did Price of Coal in 1976 and then I was at the Crucible in the first year of the Snooker.
I was working for Radio Sheffield at the time, doing little interviews. Used to go to the theatre, see a free show, get a free ticket and give a little interview and tell people what I thought of it. I had to interview Thorburn.
Rob:
Cliff Thorburn?
Anne:
Cliff Thorburn? The first one to do a 147 on air wasn’t he?
Rob:
Yeah.
Rita:
Canadian he was. I interviwed him and that was the first year.
Rob:
So Ann, going back to you being siblings, your Sister has been famous since the Seventies and as she said before, she was ‘the fabulous Rita May’ in the Clubs, my dad told me he’d seen you in the Wadsley Bridge Club.
Rita:
I used to be billed when I did Clubs, I started in 1961 and I was billed as the Glamorous Rita May and then I saw the word 'glamorous' fall off the billing, so I thought it’s time to pack in.
(Laughs).
"If it’s in your blood to write and act, it doesn’t leave you, no matter how old you get".
"So I took to him (Ken Loach), he handed it to a Producer at the BBC and I got my first 'Play For Today'".
Rob:
You’ve also written a Novel as well haven’t you? Barry & Bev The Big Concert?
Rita:
Yes, a Novella, I had some good reviews as well.
Rob:
Quite rightly, it’s a lovely book.
Anne:
And you met your Husband through writing. ‘Neighbourly Love’.
Rita:
Oh yeah, I wrote a play for the Crucible. I was working at the Crucible, they asked me to write the Christmas Show for the following year, in the Studio, not the main house. So I wrote a thing called ‘Neighbourly Love’. My writing is all Comedy, I wrote Neighbourly Love and who should play my Husband but my future Husband (laughs), we were married a year later.
Rob:
Fabulous. Looking at Irene and Karen, you’ve written a six-part series as I mentioned earlier. Where do you see the future for the characters? You’ve interwoven them over the six episodes and some really extreme things happen. There’s certainly a future for them, where do you see them going?
Rita:
I’m hoping someone picks them up and puts them on telly; BBC or ITV.
The first one I’ve written is what we are talking about now, we had to do it cheap because we financed it and so I just did a two-parter, it’s twelve minutes and it was filmed in my Home.
But the sitcoms I’ve written, six episodes are actually out of the home as well now,with other characters, there's Policemen in it and other characters because that’s what you can do, if it gets on. Fingers crossed everybody!
"I wrote 'Neighbourly Love' and who should play my Husband? But my future Husband (laughs), we were married a year later!"
"I’m hoping someone picks them up and puts them on telly; BBC or ITV".
"I used to be billed when I did Clubs, I started in 1961 and I was billed as the Glamorous Rita May and then I saw the word 'glamorous' fall off the billing, so I thought it’s time to pack in".
Rob:
So Ann, how do you feel about having a famous sibling?
Anne:
In actual fact, it’s never ever affected anything within our relationship, because she’s just our Rita.
Rita:
You’re family aren’t you.
Rob:
It must be strange watching her on Coronation Street or Early Doors?
Anne:
I’m proud, there’s no doubt about it.
But we did have to laugh. When I was with our friends a couple of weeks ago, when we were talking about having it on the big screen and I said that Rita wasn’t sure about going and everything, but by the time she got there, she bloomed.
I’ve been watching something on BBC called ‘The other Bennet Sister ‘and its the sister who is invisible, that’s what I was that night, they all flocked round our Rita, I’d got my make-up on, but nobody noticed me.
It is like that, probably our June felt it more as June’s only two years younger than Rita. For me, no, it never changed anything did it.
Rita:
I’m a normal person, you know what I mean? I never bring my job up, I don’t talk about my job.
Rob:
Do you get recognised quite a lot?
Rita:
I used to, but not as much since my hair has gone pure, beautiful white.
(Laughs).
Rob:
I can attest to that!
Rita:
Yes, people do say to me things like I know your face, were you my Dinner lady at school? Then one lady said to me “Ooh, you delivered my Baby, you’re the Midwife.” I said “No, I’ve never delivered a baby in my life, only my own two”.
(Laughs).
Anne:
I’ve know us to be shopping in Asda when somebody’s said I know you and you’ve said, oh do you. You’ll have seen me somewhere.
Rita:
The reason I do that sometimes is you get some people and they look at you and they’ll say I know you. If you say you might have seen me on Telly, they say no it weren’t that it’s something else and you feel daft.
Anne:
I remember when you was in Hospital, you were in that little room, do you remember?
"I think, Children’s Ward (is my favourite). I enjoyed working with the kids and a lot of those children who were in Children’s Ward are now stars. They started there and became famous faces, in fact Stephen Graham started in it".
Rita:
When I broke my neck?
Anne:
I was sat there and you could tell they’d changed shift and they’d just pop-in, look and then go. They’re just checking her off the telly, the word had got round, there’s somebody off the telly on the Ward. They wouldn’t have recognised her anyway in the Hospital bed, you look completely different.
Rob:
As you mentioned earlier, you’ve been acting since the mid-seventies. If you look at your IMDB it’s enormous, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with as many roles as you’ve done in Television, also you’ve done films and things.
Rita:
It’s like Casualty, I’ve done that four times.
Rob:
I’ve seen you in three or four different roles in Heartbeat...
Rita:
Mrs Sneddon in Heartbeat, a lady in wollen hat. Yes I’ve done a lot of series going in as a guest.
Rob:
So what’s been your favourite part in anything you’ve ever done?
Rita:
I think, Children’s Ward. I enjoyed working with the kids and a lot of those children who were in Children’s ward are now stars. They started there and became famous faces, in fact Stephen Graham started in that.
Anne:
My favourite thing that she’s done, I’ve watched everything over the years, but I absolutely love Early Doors because that comedy is similar to comedy Rita would write herself.
But the character she plays in it is very manipulative and she’s absolutely excellent, some of the close-ups and the faces she pulls, absolutely love it and I’ve got lots of people who talk about Early Doors now because you can still get it.
Rob:
Yes, I introduced friends to it the other day and she’s gone mad because her husband is obsessed and then she turned round as she left the Pub and said ‘Did you know that Pickles had found the World Cup?’
(Laughs).
Anne:
I always think of Rita with that bag of Maltesers.
Rita:
People will shout to me, have you found your Maltesers yet?
(Laughs).
Rob:
In Irene & Karen you can see when you’re doing it, that your sense of timing is amazing, it really completely changes it.
Anne:
The lady who plays the cleaner in Early Doors, the interaction between the two of them is excellent.
Rita:
One thing I remember that she did. When the Cleaner was coming, she’d look through the window, see when she was there and start busying herself because she didn’t do any work, housework I mean and this day she’s ironing and she says “Oh I’ve been ironing all morning, I’m glad you’re here” and the Cleaner says “well you’d have been better if you’d put the plug in”.
(Laughs).
Anne:
It is a good line, there’s some really good lines in it. But, it’s that sort of comedy we don’t get to see much now. Drawing parallels to Irene & Karen.
Rita:
They’re ordinary working class folk, perhaps not dead ordinary, little bit of an edge…
Rob:
Yes. Have you got any other projects on the go at the moment Rita?
Rita:
I’ve just finished a film that I’m going to ask you to read at some point.
Rob:
Okay. What’s that about?
Rita:
Its set in Yorkshire and it’s about a man who exaggerates, I wouldn’t say he lies. It’s a small Village where he lives and he says something and it goes all out of proportion and it affects all their lives. It’s comedy but not as comedy like a sitcom. People sometimes don’t know the difference between sitcom and Comedy drama.
Sitcom is more situation comedy where comedy drama is more ordinary, ordinary folks with funny things in it.
I enoy writing, I live on my own and I’ve got plenty of spare time.
Rob:
You like to keep busy, obviously.
Rita:
I like to keep busy.
Anne: Can I ask you a question? I don’t think I’ve ever asked you this before.
When you write something like that, do you have a visual of the person you’d like to do it? So you can visualise them as you are writing? Or does that come later?
Rita:
Yes, as you carry on writing, you do get, ooh, such a body would be good for that, do you know what I mean?
Rob:
Would you act again? Would you do it again?
Anne:
To be fair, if t was with Rita I think I would. There’s only one hesitation in the whole thing and that is I don’t want to let anybody down, do you know what I mean? I don’t know the ropes and how it works. I’ve only done that and that was with the comfort of you lot.
Rob:
I’ve just got one last question: Of all the parts you’ve done, you’ve done hundreds and hundreds of them. What’s the part that you would love to play, that you haven’t played?
Rita:
Calamity Jane. I’m too old now, I’m 84 (laughs) Perhaps I could play her Great-Grandma (laughs).
I love Calamity and Doris Day, she was wonderful.
Anne:
My Dad’s favourite.
Rita:
Was She?
Anne:
Oh he loved her.
Both:
Doris Day, yeah.
Rob: Thank you very much, lovely to talk to you both.
Hope you enjoyed the interview!
As mentioned above, you can watch the TV Pilot by clicking on the Button below:
