Sunday 20 October 2013

Unidentified Actress in 1983 Drama STUDIO


Another unsolved identification from a retained early-1980s TV clip.  This one came with a clue that it was about a music studio in a big house.

This was enough to unearth a possibility called "Studio" which the BFI Database entry describes as a "drama series set in a residential music recording studio built on a peninsula which attracts a diverse group of musicians and others".  It was a 7-part ITV series from 1983, co-written by Anthony Minghella.

The short clip features a young man and young woman laying down on a matress in some kind of conservatory.  Conveniently they mention each others names as "Liz" and "Danny".

Dialogue
Liz
: .... love from their own daughter.
Danny: Love, Liz?
Liz: I Love you Danny
Danny: Why?
Liz: I've always loved you
Danny: But you've been going out with Vinn and Jenkinson since junior two
Liz: But I was repressed weren't I? That prefab of ours was just a seething pit of repression, me dad torturing the budgie and me mum knitting prayer mats.
Danny: But Liz, I love Maureen.
Liz: But I've left home! She'll never leave home.
Danny: Yeah, but I might go back.
Liz: Get Owt! Nobody ever went back to Little Binley! Not alive anyway.  You don't know how lucky you are, Danny, not only have you managed to break away, but you've also attracted a person of similar strength and .... (clip ends)

The Kaleidoscope TV Guide gives the character names of the regular cast and one of them is "Danny" played by Graham Fellows. Online pictures of him appear to match the actor seen in the clip so that seems good enough to confirm it as being from this series.  BTW. Graham Fellows was also known as the late 1970s pop act "Jilted John".

Liz/Elizabeth was not one of the main cast listed and so was probably in just one of two episodes.  The Kaleidoscope Guide lists each episode's additional cast but does not show any character names for them.  The BFI database only shows character names for the episode 1 cast (none of which are Liz), and IMDB hardly has any cast coverage for this series at all.

So "Liz" must have been one of the additional names listed for episodes 2-7

These are: (per episode)
   2: Tracy Dixon, Brenda Castle, Diane Whitley, Paula Kitt.
   3: Margo Random, Josefina Cupido, Michele Copsey, Caroline Dennis, Jean Munroe-Martyn.
   4: Paula Kitt, Susannah Self, Diane Whitley
   5: Dinah May, Georgina Goold, Suzanne Blewett
   6: None
   7: None

Tracy Dixon: She was presumably the Page 3 girl with that name and if so it is not her
Brenda Castle: IMDB: a few small TV roles from 1980-1984 & 1990
Diane Whitley: IMDB: 3 small TV roles and 2 film roles (1983-1993)
Paula Kitt: IMDB: 4 small TV roles
Margo Random: IMDB: An American actress and musician - unlikely to be her
Josefina Cupido: There is a singer with this name
Michele Copsey: IMDB: 5 TV roles 1978-2003 and 2 film roles.  She had a topless scene in Reilly Ace Of Spies, but available screenshots from that scene aren't clear enough to be able to tell if it's her or not.
Caroline Dennis: IMDB: 9 TV roles 1983-1999
Jean Munroe-Martyn: (no info found)
Susannah Self: There is an opera singer called Susannah Self, but unclear whether she was active in 1983.
Dinah May: She was Miss GB in 1976, and pictures of her don't look like "Liz"
Georgina Goold: (no info found)
Suzanne Blewett: (no info found)

Conclusion: A better credits source, or original episodes needed to establish which actress was playing "Liz".


Liz and Danny

Part of another scene on clip shows Graham Fellows (in blue shirt).
The girl standing does not appear to be Liz.

3 comments:

  1. ITN Source has a full credits list, which shows that it was Paula Kitt who played the part of Liz: http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/ITVProgs/1983/03/29/111580002/?s=studio

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks very much for that info. I didn't know about that resource. I'll be able to add that as an entry now.

    I'll have to see if there are any other queries which that site might help me with.

    What's a good tip for searching on that site. I tried duplicating the same search to look for "Studio" again, even limiting it to the decade 1980s, but there was so many misc things found (1815) that I couldn't independently find it without your link!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it's not the easiest site to search. I found it by searching for "Studio", picking only "ITV" from the list of partners, and narrowing the date range to when the programme was broadcast, 22 March to 5 May 1983, which brought the search results down to a more manageable 20!

      Delete