Curl Power

IF YOU are pottering around the Pitt Rivers Museum next week and bump into someone resembling Liza Goddard, don’t be surprised. It’ll be her.

But you won’t recognise her on the Oxford Playhouse stage because Liza is playing an ageing pensioner whose husband has just died, complete with tight perm.

So does the 59-year-old enjoy hiding her petite blonde figure behind a costume?

“Well in my last play I had to wear a bathing costume which at my age isn’t very flattering, so I was at the gym five days a week getting into shape,” she laughs. “And that was no fun. So no I won’t be playing Mrs Robinson any time soon.” Gone are the days then when Liza would bare all and enjoy the limelight.

“Well I did a nude scene once in a Dick Emery film but it was a quick shot and I don’t look like that today,” she laughs. “But when I’m not working, I’m in the livery yard at home in Norfolk for about four hours a day which is very good for you physically, and better than a day in the gym.”

In fact, on the last holiday Liza went on, she came home with a horse. “We were in Ireland and I had a ride on this pony and the owners told us it was for sale and when I found out that if they couldn’t sell it it would go for meat, I decided to keep him.

“But I knew I couldn’t bring him home him in my suitcase. Luckily we met someone who was taking a lorry load of horses to the UK and had room in his lorry. It just seemed like fate so I knew it was meant to be. So yes, I spend my weekends when I’m not working picking up poo in a bucket,” she laughs.

But then Liza was always happy working with animals – remember Skippy? Yes Liza Goddard burst on to our screens in the Aussie teen drama Skippy and hasn’t looked back since. Take Three Girls followed over here and then a long stint in Bergerac with John Nettles, with whom she was recently reunited on Midsomer Murders.

“I came back to the UK originally because I ran out of money, and then landed a part in Take Three Girls. I guess in a way I’m still working for a return flight to Australia,” she laughs.

And did working through her teens mean she missed out on anything?

“Not at all. I lived in Sydney and when we weren’t filming we were partying or on the beach.”

Perhaps the most testing time was being a working mother then?

“Yes, it was terrible,” she says. “We had various nannies and au pairs but it was very, very hard indeed. But I had to earn a living. There wasn’t a chance to take a few years off. I should have married at least one rich husband,” she says laughing.

“But no, I didnt have a choice.”

“And that’s why none of my children are actors because they saw how hard and how dreary it can be because they were always on set. And when they went back to school they’d been in Billingham for the whole season while their friends were getting back from Gstaad and Barbados.”

Liza has a son Thom, the producer of Dick & Dom and a daughter Sophie, a graphic designer. She was married to Doctor Who number six Colin Baker and 70s Glam Rocker Alvin Stardust, before settling in Norfolk with her current husband David whom she’s been with for 17 years.

So it takes something really interesting to drag Liza away from her five dogs, six chickens and pony - namely Alan Ayckbourne’s latest play Life And Beth.

“It’s always a great honour to be in a play by Alan but he always gives me parts I think I’m incapable of playing and I wonder why he asked me. But that is acting in its truest form because you have to be completely in character and the concentration required is enormous.

“And when you’re rehearsing Alan is so off-putting because he mouths all the words and when you get them wrong he winces or tells you how you should be feeling. He is a genius though and will be remembered in history as a legendary playwright,” she says fondly.

Thanks to Alan we will be able to see Liza Goddard in Life And Beth at the Playhouse from Monday.

“I try to have great fun when I’m working, because you have to make the best of it. So I use the tours as a way of exploring and discovering new places. Besides, it’s always lovely seeing people enjoy themselves and I still enjoy the process of acting,” Liza adds.

Just don’t be surprised if you see her leaving with a horse box in tow.

Box office on 01865 305305.