Benidorm’s Sherrie Hewson: ‘I’m not sure Joyce will ever find love while she’s in charge at the Solana’
Saturday, 30 January 2016
Solana
manageress Joyce Temple-Savage has a new admirer in Monday's Benidorm
(ITV, 9pm). The Spanish resort’s very dodgy businessman Monty makes a few attempts to woo her, even performing a song at Neptune’s.
Will Monty melt Joyce's lonely heart?
What’s
On TV met Sherrie Hewson, who plays the unlucky-in-love hotel boss, on
the Spanish set where she revealed her delight at once again working
with Only Fools & Horses star John Challis, who's back as Monty.
“Joyce
thinks Monty is lovely, but then he seems to prove to her that he’s not
– she thinks there’s another character he rather likes! Sadly it all
goes wrong. I’m not sure Joyce will ever find love while she’s still in
charge at the Solana.
“I love working with John Challis. He’s been in Benidorm a few times now. We get on so well.”
At the end of the current series, Sherrie
will be acting opposite another retuning guest star. Hollywood actress
and Dynasty star Joan Collins is back in Benidorm as Joyce’s scary boss,
Solana CEO Crystal Hennessy-Vass, who’ll be attending a glitzy awards ceremony held at her hotel.
“Crystal
is always quite formidable with Joyce because she’s always trying to
sack her or treating her really badly. She looks down on Joyce. I love
it and I have great scenes with Joan.
She’s so lovely to work with, she’s very funny. It’s like The Beatles
have arrived in Benidorm when she’s in the resort. Fans are queuing down
the road for her.”
Sherrie has a few ideas about why Benidorm attracts the best guest stars.
“Everybody
is desperate to be in it because it’s simply the best sitcom on
television. There are very poignant moments mixed with extremely funny
scenes, which is a terrific mix. Everybody always says to me: ‘Is there
any way you could suggest…’ Yes every actor says to me they want to be
in two shows in this country and that’s Benidorm and Downton Abbey.
Everybody loves our show. It’s a cult show, and it will be remembered
for ever. It’s definitely the best of its type on television.” Benidorm continues on ITV every Monday at 9pm
For those in the USA you can now pre-order Season 2 of 'The Royals' on dvd which will be released March 22nd .. Pre-order here! THE ROYALS SEASON 2 PRE-ORDER ..
Joan's bestselling beauty range 'Timeless Beauty' goes from strength to strength with an ever expanding line of sensational products, the most recent of which were launched last September at a fabulous afternoon event at Claridges.. Here is a super video from Alex Silver PR featuring Joan at the event, I also attended with my friend Ceri Dupree and you can glimpse us in the background .. Watch out for many more exciting additions to the 'Timeless' range throughout 2016 ... To view the current range check out..... TIMELESS BEAUTY BY JOAN COLLINS
This cover from 1985 is for 'New Zealands Woman's Weekly' and features Michael Nader & Catherine Oxenberg from the royal wedding season cliffhanger episode...
Joan looks as sparkling as ever in this shot from 1983 taken at a party to celebrate the spectacular benefit show 'Night of 100 Stars 2' at the Bel Air Hotel..
Don't forget to pre-order Season 8 of 'Benidorm' out on DVD on February 29th 2016 which includes Joan's sensational episode ... Order your copy here .... BENIDORM SEASON 8 DVD PRE-ORDER
For those who asked about 'The Great Adventure', here is a still featuring Joan as saloon owner Miss Sonia with Jack Palance as the baddie in this 1975 family adventure...
Here is a cover shot for the programme for Joan's tour of 'Love Letters' in which she starred with Stacy Keach and in later runs, George Hamilton in 2000.. Below is a review from The Austin Chronicle..
Joan is no stranger to the press even as far back as the 50's when she was named Miss Press Clippings 1952 in this shot... She even modeled a skirt made up of news items to accept the crown!
For those who asked about the tv series 'Run For Your Life' which starred Ben Gazzara and on which Joan made a guest appearance in 1966.. Here is a still from the episode called 'The Borders of Barbarism'...
Joan met up with good friend Jerry Hall recently for lunch who has just revealed she has become engaged to former News Corporation / 21st Century Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch.. I am sure Joan will be looking for another new hat in the near future!
I could not locate a photo of Joan with David Bowie who has just passed away, but this photo features Joan beside the Bowie exhibit while on a visit to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame' in Cleveland Ohio whilst she was appearing in 'Legends'.. also in the photo is Terry Stewart the museum's ceo.. DAVID BOWIE : 1947 - 2016
Joan enjoyed a night out to catch the hit musical 'Kinky Boot's' at The Adelphi Theatre in London.. Here is Joan backstage with star Matt Henry who plays Lola in the show...
Don't forget to tune into ITV1 & UTV Ireland at 9pm on Monday 11th January for the return of 'Benidorm' .. Joan will appear later in the series for another unmissable episode...
Lorna Hogg caught up with the Grande Dame when she opened a
recent exhibition of her gowns at the Newbridge Silverware’s Museum of
Style
As the song goes, `there is nothing like a dame,’ and there is
certainly nobody like this one. Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is possibly
best known for her 1980s role of Alexis Colby, in Dynasty. In
which she proved with with style and glamour, that older women could be
smart, sexy and sassy. Now she is pushing the
accepted expectations and boundaries of age even further, exemplifying
her philosophy that age isn’t important – how you look, feel and behave
that counts.
Joan recently visited Newbridge Silverware’s Museum of Style for the
opening of a collection of of her gowns, which were on display until
November 8th when they went to sale in Beverley Hills. Neither they, nor
she, disappointed. The gowns – the epitome of glamour, including a
couture halter neck, a white fox and mink cape, a beautiful Nolan
Miller, (the `Dynasty’ costume designer) creation and costume jewellery
epitomised Joan.. So, we start by asking – just how does a style icon
survive?
Joan can be feisty at interviews, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
She is also warm, funny and a great raconteur – with a stock of pithy
one liners. Elegant in a white suit of her own design, which she wore to
receive her recent Damehood from Prince Charles, she is a believer in
full on glamour. ‘I really believe that you’re as young as you look,
feel and act’. This however, doesn’t happen without some effort. ‘A
style icon’ needs discipline. ‘I walk, eat no junk food and exercise.’ A
believer in ‘use it or lose it,’ she also has a regular trainer, swims
and religiously protects her face from the sun. However, there’s no
sense of deprivation or faddiness here. Everything, from exercise to
chocolate, is enjoyed in moderation.
Joan is a firm believer in make up – she has been known to lean
forward and ask if lightly made-up female writers are wearing any. ‘I
love style and fashion. I was born into the wrong era. I would have
loved to be in the Twenties and Thirties or the eighteenth century – I
love the way women looked then. I always say – accentuate the positive,
eliminate the negative. Dress to accentuate your good points, but don’t
follow fashion slavishly.’
Designers she loves include Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Michael
Kors, all of whom produce ageless style. Not a fan of skinny, she points
out that there is a pressure on young women to look as thin as
possible. ‘I know from some of my actress friends who weigh maybe 8
stone who have been told to lose weight.’ She also feels that too many
women look ‘as if they haven’t bothered’. That’s not Joan’s style. ‘Make
up protects your skin’. She has revealed that a full face takes her
about half an hour to apply – and it’s no secret that she loves wigs.
She knows what she is talking about, and has even written the book.
Several, in fact, and she clearly researches and practices what she
preaches.
Joan was born into a comfortable North London
lifestyle, elder sister to author Jackie, who recently died from breast
cancer, and brother Bill. Her father was a successful theatrical agent,
and her mother a glamorous supportive homemaker. ‘I grew up surrounded
by elegant, glamorous women. I had eleven or twelve aunts who were
always beautifully groomed and made-up.’ She admits however, that it was
a slower, era, and that such a world has gone ‘it’s faster, more
complicated now – life is more difficult.’
So, which actresses does she particularly admire? ‘Meryl Streep,
Cate Blanchett, Sian Philips.’ Judi Dench and Helen Mirren are also on
her list. Any younger actresses? She pauses – ‘Throw out a few names –
you’re asking the questions – I can’t do all the work,’and grins. Does
she admire any of to-day’s public figures? ‘Haa..‘ – a derisory snort
answers that one.
Her own youth was a world in which female beauty faded quickly. Her
father advised her to make a much money as she could before 23, when she
would be ‘all washed up.’ However, Joan’s natural glamour, helped by
training at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, brought a contract with the
Rank Company. She appeared in Land of the Pharaohs’ in 1955, and Island in the Sun in 1957. She also appeared in the last of the famous `Road’ films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope – The Road to Hong Kong.
Hollywood brought work with actors such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard
Burton and Paul Newman and Kirk Douglas, and TV appearances ranged from Starsky and Hutch’ to The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Her personal life, various colourful love affairs, including one with
a young Warren Beatty and especially her four previous marriages, were
ever bit as dramatic and challenging. However, her second, with Anthony
Newley produced Sacha and Tara and her marriage with Ron Kass brought
Katy. Joan is now a proud granny of three grandchildren, whom she
obviously and proudly adores. Love has finally triumphed all round. As
she has said, ‘I’ve kissed a few frogs, but now I’ve found my Prince’.
In 2000, she met theatrical company manager Percy Gibson on an
American tour. Friends at first, she now calls him ‘my soulmate, best
friend and lover..’ They have been married thirteen years. He has acted
as her theatrical director, looks after their four homes (in London, New
York, St. Tropez and Los Angeles) travels with her, and is an all
round Prince Charming. Oh yes, and he is 32 years her junior. Joan’s
best riposte to comments remains – ‘So if he dies, he dies.’
Absurd though it sounds to modern ears, in the 1970s, an agent
advised Joan, whose career was stalling in her thirties, to ‘give up, go
back home and look after her children’. Her response? Starring in a
1978 film The Stud, based on one of sister Jackie’s books. The film The Bitch
followed, and views of Joan sexily perched on a swing started to
change producers’ views of the `older woman’ She was offered the role of
Alexis Carrington to add some sparkle, to TV show Dynasty, network rival to Dallas.
Joan played the character, not in the visualised demure tweeds and
pearls, but as a sophisticated, well travelled and forthright woman of
the world. Worldwide fans loved it.
‘Alexis was tough, and behaved exactly in business as men do. In fact
I kind of based her – a lot of her on Donald Trump’. That toughness,
clad in sumptuous designer wear from Nolan Miller, brought Joan a Golden
Globe in 1983 and later, an Emmy nomination. Interest in her personal
style inspired a series of lifestyle books, and Joan honed her own
skills as an astute negotiator of contracts and a business woman.
Never one to stay still for long, since Dynasty ended she has kept
busy. From that stylish Cinzano advertisment, in which Leonard Rossiter
invariably splashes her drink over her, to appearances in popular series
such as Benidorm, Footballers’ Wives and The Royals, she has kept working. She has played in Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde theatre productions, in Dick Whittington panto, in her own one woman show, and has a cameo role in the new Absolutely Fabulous film. Then there are her books – Prime Time
was her first novel. She has now written six of those, plus many
lifestyle books, and memoirs, achieving 50 million in worldwide
readers. A regular correspondent for the upmarket London magazine, The Spectator, and occasional guest columnist on some Fleet Street dailies, she also has her own make up line.
Her theatrical work brought her an Order of the British Empire
decoration in 1997. However, it was her considerable charity work,
ranging from the International Foundation for Children with Learning
Disabilities to Fight for Sight and The Shooting Star/Chase Charity,
that brought recognition with the Dame Commander of the Order of the
British Empire award earlier this year.
Joan has worked hard for her success, and now enjoys it with her
children and grandchildren It could not, however, protect her from the
pain of losing her sister Jackie, whom she has described as her best
friend. Until recently, Jackie kept her diagnosis of cancer a secret to
protect her family. Joan steadfastly refused to discuss this in press
interviews. However, the loss is still visible when the topic is
mentioned, and Percy swiftly and protectively changes the subject.
Focusing on the future helps, and she brightens at the plan for a new film project in Ireland. It’s called The Time of their Their Lives.
It’s a buddy movie, based on older women and Pauline Collins and Franco
Nero are involved’’ She has described it as a combination of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Thelma and Louise
and looks forward to another visit to Ireland. She has come here since
days of friendship with film director John Huston. It turns out that
Irish actor Liam Neeson is ‘a good friend and very nice man too.’ So,
not even Alexis Colby could fail to be enthused at the prospects ahea
It's cocktail hour for Joan in this photo from an 1979 episode of the classic suspense series 'Tales of the Unexpected' in which she starred as Lady Natalia who sticks her neck out more than she expected!!
While in London for her dad Joe's birthday in 1982, Joan also was surprised by Eamonn Andrews for an edition of 'This Is Your Life' after which this super family shot was taken.. Among those gathered with Joan are Ron Kass, Dad Joe , Bill & Hazel, Tara, Sacha & Katy, Joan's half sister Natasha, aunt Pauline and others...
These two rare photos features Joan in wardrobe tests for the classic 1955 epic 'The Virgin Queen' in which Joan starred with Bette Davis and Richard Todd.. Joan played a haindmaiden to Queen Elizabeth 1 (Bette)...
Joan kicked of the new year with an appearance on QVC UK to present the latest bestselling products in her highly successful 'Timeless Beauty' range, earlier today.. Watch this space for many exciting developments with 'Timeless Beauty'!!
