Lesley Manville<\/a> captured Cathy as a woman at long last putting her own happiness first. The show picked up multiple Bafta nominations, and won the hearts of viewers who rooted for this quieter love story between two ordinary people in their 60s. After all, how often does TV celebrate that?<\/p>\n\u201cLesley, are you hiding?\u201d Mullan says on an early morning video call, as we meet to mark this decade anniversary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on stage last night and was on until very late, I\u2019ve only just got up!\u201d Manville says. \u201cI was told it was audio only, so I\u2019m still in my jim-jams.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that there has been some miscommunication, but the one blank square, somehow, stirs the chemistry.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re the sex siren of the West End!\u201d he tells her. Laughter erupts.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t think that if you saw me now,\u201d she insists, later adding: \u201cJust look at the poster for Les Liaisons Dangereuses. That\u2019s how I want you to remember me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you remember meeting for the first time?<\/p>\n
LM: We\u2019d met at Dinard film festival years before and then I guess we next met at the read-through for Mum? We\u2019d just said \u201chello, nice to meet you\u201d blah blah, then the next thing you know we\u2019re on a round table with all these amazing people.<\/p>\n
[I ask how they feel about being Golaszewski\u2019s first choices.]<\/p>\n
LM: Well, it would have been terrible if you\u2019d started this interview by asking: \u201cSo, Lesley, I hear you were the 15th choice for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do Cathy and Michael love about each other?<\/p>\n
LM: You\u2019ve got these three people and they\u2019re so close and one of them dies, and the other two are still mourning the loss of this person. Cathy and Michael\u2019s friendship is as strong as it always was. What a great basis for a romance! It\u2019s an amazing friendship; it\u2019s crucial. So, I can kind of understand that. Can you, Peter?<\/p>\n
PM: Yeah! I\u2019ve got friends to whom that has happened in real life.<\/p>\n
LM: Oh really?<\/p>\n
PM: Yeah, there were three \u2013 and very, very close \u2013 then one died and the other two got together.<\/p>\n
LM: Wow.<\/p>\n
PM: That\u2019s since Mum \u2026 but not because of Mum!<\/p>\n
LM: Jason kind of frowns on it, partly because he doesn\u2019t want his mum to be with someone other than his dad. But also because there\u2019s a kind of stigma: \u201cYou can\u2019t be with dad\u2019s best friend.\u201d But he had to get over that.<\/p>\n
What were your favourite romantic moments?<\/p>\n
PM: For me, it was the declaration of love in the rain.<\/p>\n
LM: Oh God, Peter, yes!<\/p>\n
PM: Yeah, that was quite special. Not least because it\u2019s the only time Stefan didn\u2019t pull me up on the fucking lines.<\/p>\n
LM: He is a stickler for the lines being absolutely spot on \u2026 I\u2019ve just remembered what you said, Peter: \u201cYou melt me like butter!\u201d<\/p>\n
PM: It was the only time Michael had ever brought all of this forth. He\u2019d held all of that in. So from an actor\u2019s point of view it was great to finally allow that.<\/p>\n
LM: There\u2019s also the little lovely moment with the fireworks and you just see their fingers connecting. I think that\u2019s the first time there\u2019s ever any acknowledgment that there\u2019s something going on between them that\u2019s quietly gone beyond friendship. Hands touching is a gorgeous thing. It reminded me of The Age of Innocence: the scene where Daniel Day-Lewis takes Michelle Pfeiffer\u2019s glove off really slowly and it\u2019s the most erotic thing.<\/p>\n
Is there anything you wish Cathy and Michael did differently?<\/p>\n
LM: I think it ended pretty perfectly because it was a little anarchic sweet moment, kind of childlike, of them just prancing off into the woods with a bottle of champagne and leaving the whole bonkers family behind. I wouldn\u2019t have changed a thing!<\/p>\n
PM: I agree completely.<\/p>\n
LM: It was joy and naughtiness. People tend to equate middle-aged people with not being naughty any more. But these two are and it\u2019s just delightful.<\/p>\n
When did you realise this was a love story for the ages?<\/p>\n
PM: I was really surprised. I wasn\u2019t expecting the kind of reactions we got. I knew it was a really lovely show and beautifully written and acted. But I was very taken by people [asking] \u201cWill they\/won\u2019t they?\u201d, which was really sweet. I\u2019ve never been in anything else like that!<\/p>\n
LM: From my experience of strangers talking to me about it, they were really pleased to see a love story about people who weren\u2019t in their 20s or 30s.<\/p>\n
PM: Oh totally!<\/p>\n
LM: People at that age can fall in love, Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n
PM: What was interesting, too, was that young [people] weren\u2019t disgusted by it. As many youngsters came up to me and talked about it as did people of our vintage. Which was really interesting because, quite rightly, when you\u2019re young, Jesus, who wants to see two old fogies get together? I mean, remember, when you\u2019re young, 40 is ancient!<\/p>\n
What has been the most intense fan reaction to Cathy and Michael?<\/p>\n
LM: It\u2019s the thing that people stop me to talk about the most. Just this week, someone stopped me and said: \u201cOh I love Mum, it was my favourite!\u201d And they\u2019re always asking, \u201cAre you gonna do any more?\u201d<\/p>\n
PM: I\u2019m the same, I get it at least every couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
LM: And 10 years on! How many shows can you say that about from 10 years ago?<\/p>\n
PM: Absolutely.<\/p>\n
LM: We\u2019re bigging ourselves up here, aren\u2019t we? We\u2019re marvellous!<\/p>\n
How romantic are you in real life?<\/p>\n
LM: Oh, that\u2019s a bit personal. You can start this one, Peter.<\/p>\n
PM: I\u2019m a romantic at heart, yes.<\/p>\n
LM: Yeah, me too.<\/p>\n
PM: We all are. I don\u2019t believe there\u2019s a human being on earth who\u2019s not a romantic. Whether they show it or not is a different issue, but we all share that gene.<\/p>\n
LM: I mean, who wouldn\u2019t want romance? Who wouldn\u2019t want somebody sharing, receiving, giving \u2026 Who wouldn\u2019t want that in this messed-up world we\u2019re living in? Keep it simple, just a little bit of good, honest, basic to and fro, love, romance.<\/p>\n
PM: More!<\/p>\n
LM: Yes, more of it please. I\u2019m not on Tinder, in case anyone is wondering.<\/p>\n
PM: At least not at this time in the morning \u2026<\/p>\n
LM: Not in my PJs, I\u2019m not! I wouldn\u2019t think Tinder is very romantic anyway. Scroll right, scroll right, scroll right. No that\u2019s not my idea of romance.<\/p>\n
Did you keep something from set that reminds you of Cathy and Michael?<\/p>\n
LM: When we finished, Lisa McGrillis, who played Kelly, had somebody make us these little dolls of our characters. I\u2019ve got a little Cathy doll with a striped T-shirt, which Cathy wore quite a lot. I certainly didn\u2019t steal any of Cathy\u2019s costumes. [Manville previously said<\/a> Cathy\u2019s \u201cterrible jeans\u201d made her bum \u201clook as if it goes on for ever\u201d.]<\/p>\nDid you steal any of Michael\u2019s costumes, Peter?<\/p>\n
PM: No, and I didn\u2019t steal any of Cathy\u2019s either. But I\u2019ve got a cup and we\u2019re all in a selfie on it. I do have the utterly bizarre little model: mine looks like Beetlejuice.<\/p>\n
But in all seriousness, most actors wouldn\u2019t take props because they would jump on you. You can get arrested for it. I can say this now, I guess: I nicked a nose and a pair of ears from Lord of the Rings. I\u2019ll not say who gave them to me but they were terrified.<\/p>\n
LM: The nose police are going to be after you now.<\/p>\n
PM: Quickly followed by the acting police.<\/p>\n
What was your real relationship like off camera?<\/p>\n
LM: We do lots of work and people come and go in our lives but you can\u2019t put them all in your phonebook. But Mum was utterly unique. The core of it was the eight of us. We have a WhatsApp group and it\u2019s still going. We were all close.<\/p>\n
PM: Baby, I\u2019m with you 1,000%. It\u2019s the only show I\u2019ve ever done where we\u2019ve all kept in touch after. It\u2019s very rare. And in my case, it\u2019s the only one where [we] still keep in touch with that little band of brothers and sisters. It\u2019s beautiful.<\/p>\n
LM: And sometimes if we haven\u2019t heard from somebody for a while, somebody will check in and just say: \u201cHas anybody heard from whoever?\u201d<\/p>\n
What can Cathy and Michael teach us about love?<\/p>\n
PM: It comes in all shapes and sizes and we should have more of it.<\/p>\n
LM: Yeah. And for Cathy, at the most awful time of her life, you could never have imagined that this little acorn of love was brewing right there in front of her.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s this amazing bit in series one, when \u2013 oh God yes, Peter it was amazing what you did \u2013 Cathy\u2019s ordering some takeaway for them both and Michael\u2019s just watching her and that\u2019s all he needs to do. It\u2019s just sublime. Cathy is dealing with this grief and Michael is just allowing her to deal with it. You see the love is already there for him and it\u2019s been there for years. The scene of him just watching her open the cupboard looking for a menu \u2026 it\u2019s gorgeous.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a beautiful, slow-burning love story. I guess the big thing is, there is no age limit on falling in love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten years ago, Stefan Golaszewski introduced us to 59-year-old Cathy in his sitcom Mum. It was the day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-581579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}