INTERVIEW with
Janine Duvitski
starring in
BENIDORM LIVE
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
7th - 12th January 2019
Janine Duvitski
starring in
BENIDORM LIVE
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
7th - 12th January 2019
Benidorm – Live will be the stage debut production of the hugely popular TV show. Derren Litten's smash hit ITV comedy BENIDORM is set to bring sunshine and smiles to Southend in January. Litten has written an all new set of Alicante escapades for the much-loved cast members, including Jake Canuso (Mateo), Janine Duvitski (Jacqueline), Sherrie Hewson (Joyce Temple-Savage), Shelley Longworth (Sam), Tony Maudsley (Kenneth) and Neptune’s very own Asa Elliott as they swap sangria for the stage after a quick spruce at the Blow ‘n’ Go!
I have the absolute pleasure of being able to catch up with Janine Duvitski as she takes a quick break in-between shows.
I have the absolute pleasure of being able to catch up with Janine Duvitski as she takes a quick break in-between shows.
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Janine speaks to me from Manchester on a cold, dark, dull afternoon and I suggest that it must be quite nice, in this chilly weather, to go on stage every night and pretend to be on holiday.
She laughs, “Yes, it can feel like that, actually. It can feel quite warm and sunny by the end of the evening.” She adds, “It’s such a long tour, I was slightly wondering how we would manage it. But we’re enjoying it very much. It’s been good going to different places.” Fans of the comedy tv series, Benidorm, will recognise Janine for her role of swinger, Jacqueline, a part she has played for the whole of the ten years the show was aired. Jake Canuso who plays Mateo in the show, which features holiday makers and staff at the Solana all-inclusive hotel in Benidorm, Spain over the course of a week each year, has also been in the show since it began and Janine tells me how nice it is to be able to tour together, along with the four other regular members of the cast, Sherrie Hewson, Shelley Longworth, Tony Maudsley and Asa Elliott. |
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“We know each other so well, the six of us who’ve been in it. It feels very nice. We all go out socially - we used to in Spain - and we’ve carried on here. It’s like going away with friends, which is lovely. My husband’s coming with me as well, which makes it nice for me.”
So far the reactions to the show from audiences have been hugely enthusiastic, with plenty of full houses and standing ovations and Janine is thrilled by this.
“We’re having some very nice responses from audiences who seem to have a great affection for the show. It’s getting a fabulous reaction.”
For someone who, as a child, was too embarrassed to admit she wanted to be an actress, Janine has carved out a varied and successful career in the industry.
“I remember thinking that you’ve got to be beautiful and be able to dance and sing and I was obviously not beautiful; but in a way I think that can help - there are all different types of actors. I was never in a school play, I didn’t do any of those things. You think people will say, ‘Why do you want to do it, looking the way you look’.
Thankfully a determined Janine followed her ambition to act, winning a place at East 15 Acting School where she trained for three years.
Since then, Janine has been a familiar face on our tv screens. With a career spanning over forty years, she has appeared in One Foot in the Grave, Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter, Brush Strokes, Citizen Smith, Minder, My Family, Man About the House, The New Statesman, The Black Stuff by Alan Bleasdale, The Knowledge, Z-Cars, The Worst Week of My Life, Little Dorrit, Still Open All Hours and more recently the popular BBC tv series, Boy Meets Girl. She has also starred in films, The Madness of King George and About a Boy, as well as performing on stage at the National Theatre, Young Vic and with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
So far the reactions to the show from audiences have been hugely enthusiastic, with plenty of full houses and standing ovations and Janine is thrilled by this.
“We’re having some very nice responses from audiences who seem to have a great affection for the show. It’s getting a fabulous reaction.”
For someone who, as a child, was too embarrassed to admit she wanted to be an actress, Janine has carved out a varied and successful career in the industry.
“I remember thinking that you’ve got to be beautiful and be able to dance and sing and I was obviously not beautiful; but in a way I think that can help - there are all different types of actors. I was never in a school play, I didn’t do any of those things. You think people will say, ‘Why do you want to do it, looking the way you look’.
Thankfully a determined Janine followed her ambition to act, winning a place at East 15 Acting School where she trained for three years.
Since then, Janine has been a familiar face on our tv screens. With a career spanning over forty years, she has appeared in One Foot in the Grave, Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter, Brush Strokes, Citizen Smith, Minder, My Family, Man About the House, The New Statesman, The Black Stuff by Alan Bleasdale, The Knowledge, Z-Cars, The Worst Week of My Life, Little Dorrit, Still Open All Hours and more recently the popular BBC tv series, Boy Meets Girl. She has also starred in films, The Madness of King George and About a Boy, as well as performing on stage at the National Theatre, Young Vic and with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
However, Mike Leigh’s play, Abigails Party, is what first brought Janine to most people’s attention and I tell her that I am a big fan.
“It was only 40 years ago!” she laughs. “We did that in the theatre first of all. It started as a theatre piece and it was all improvised - we didn’t have a script. It has such a kind of weird place in my heart really because it feels a bit like you’ve written it as well.”
Director, Mike Leigh, worked with each of the actors individually over a period of 8 weeks improvised rehearsal.
“I remember, I was supposed to be a nurse and was going to the Royal Free Hospital in London to do research. We then did an improvisation where my character Ange met Beverly (played by Alison Steadman) for the first time, as if we’d just moved into the street. She came over to say hello and invite us to go round for the evening.”
“I’d met Alison every day, when we came in (for rehearsal) and we’d each be doing our own thing but I hadn’t seen her as Beverly - and she was SO different. I was trying to hang on to my character, Ange, but part of me was just so in awe of her.”
Janine remembers, “Later that week, I saw Nuts in May for the first time which was the other Mike Leigh play that Alison did. It was on telly - a repeat - and she was so different again and I was like ‘Oh my God, how can she be this different?’ It was great to work with someone like that; and she’s such a lovely person as well. Nothing like Beverly,” she chuckles.
“It was only 40 years ago!” she laughs. “We did that in the theatre first of all. It started as a theatre piece and it was all improvised - we didn’t have a script. It has such a kind of weird place in my heart really because it feels a bit like you’ve written it as well.”
Director, Mike Leigh, worked with each of the actors individually over a period of 8 weeks improvised rehearsal.
“I remember, I was supposed to be a nurse and was going to the Royal Free Hospital in London to do research. We then did an improvisation where my character Ange met Beverly (played by Alison Steadman) for the first time, as if we’d just moved into the street. She came over to say hello and invite us to go round for the evening.”
“I’d met Alison every day, when we came in (for rehearsal) and we’d each be doing our own thing but I hadn’t seen her as Beverly - and she was SO different. I was trying to hang on to my character, Ange, but part of me was just so in awe of her.”
Janine remembers, “Later that week, I saw Nuts in May for the first time which was the other Mike Leigh play that Alison did. It was on telly - a repeat - and she was so different again and I was like ‘Oh my God, how can she be this different?’ It was great to work with someone like that; and she’s such a lovely person as well. Nothing like Beverly,” she chuckles.
Janine (bottom left) as Ange in Abigails Party
With the end of Benidorm the tv series and the inevitable end of the tour next year, I wonder if Janine and the rest of the cast will be feeling more than the usual ‘post show blues’. I suggest to Janine that it must feel like Benidorm has been her life over the last ten years, having been involved since the first episode in 2007?
"Well it certainly has, sort of, yes. When you start you certainly don’t think it’s going to be like that but after a couple of years I bought a house in Spain quite near to Benidorm, about 20 minutes away, and Jake, he’s got a house there as well. So it really has become a place we think of as home now. It’s very nice to be doing this tour knowing that we two can go back to our houses again. I think the others are a bit sad that the series is over on the telly, although there are rumours about a film now.”
“That’s still a rumour,” she hastens to add. “When we finished the last series, we didn’t know if it was going to go again so we didn’t do any sort of, “Ohhh this is sad, this is the last one…” but we were all saying that we’ll be very sad when we do the last show, unless there is some other life for it. Otherwise it will feel very strange.”
"Well it certainly has, sort of, yes. When you start you certainly don’t think it’s going to be like that but after a couple of years I bought a house in Spain quite near to Benidorm, about 20 minutes away, and Jake, he’s got a house there as well. So it really has become a place we think of as home now. It’s very nice to be doing this tour knowing that we two can go back to our houses again. I think the others are a bit sad that the series is over on the telly, although there are rumours about a film now.”
“That’s still a rumour,” she hastens to add. “When we finished the last series, we didn’t know if it was going to go again so we didn’t do any sort of, “Ohhh this is sad, this is the last one…” but we were all saying that we’ll be very sad when we do the last show, unless there is some other life for it. Otherwise it will feel very strange.”
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It’s been a great run though and there have been so many celebrity guest appearances in the show, I wonder if anyone had particularly made their mark on Janine.
“I remember Cilla Black,” she replies in a flash, “we went down to meet her and we started to do a read through - she was playing herself - and THAT voice. The first time she opened her mouth as Cilla, you think, oh my God - that can only be Cilla Black; and here I am playing opposite her. My character was a swinger and we were supposed to be having a threesome or something and I was thinking, oh my God, this is surreal! We had lots of crazy moments like that.” |
With both of her daughters in the industry, (Ruby Bentall is currently filming with Keira Knightly on Misbehaviour and Edith Violet is lead singer with indie band, FOURS), I ask Janine if she has any advice for anyone thinking of going into the performing industry.
“It’s so tough in terms of getting work but you need to be really determined - I mean you can’t say that everyone who’s determined will get somewhere - but I think quite a lot of people sort of give up quite early on. I think you have to really keep pushing at it and if you can’t get in one way, try another.”
“Of course there’s some luck, a lot of luck, but I think persevere and keep going. We need every sort of person.”
We certainly do but there’s only one Janine Duvitsky and we cannot wait to see her and the rest of the Benidorm Live cast when they fly into Southend from January 8th to 12th January 2019
Interview: Kim Tobin
Click HERE for more show info
For tickets go to www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the Box Office on 01702 351135
“It’s so tough in terms of getting work but you need to be really determined - I mean you can’t say that everyone who’s determined will get somewhere - but I think quite a lot of people sort of give up quite early on. I think you have to really keep pushing at it and if you can’t get in one way, try another.”
“Of course there’s some luck, a lot of luck, but I think persevere and keep going. We need every sort of person.”
We certainly do but there’s only one Janine Duvitsky and we cannot wait to see her and the rest of the Benidorm Live cast when they fly into Southend from January 8th to 12th January 2019
Interview: Kim Tobin
Click HERE for more show info
For tickets go to www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the Box Office on 01702 351135
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