FOR those of you who enjoy nothing more than settling down for a night of TV, you might be in for a surprise if you tune in to new BBC one comedy drama ‘Candy Cabs’, when you see a familiar Welshpool face.
Lu Corfield stars as Big Pam in the new Tuesday night series, a big break for the actress who was a former head girl at Welshpool High School.
“The reaction to the series has been amazing already, loads of people have been texting and tweeting,” said Lu when the County Times caught up with her in between filming for her new role in Doctors.
“For the first show we had five and a half million viewers, it’s more than we hoped for.”
Candy Cabs is going from strength to strength, but Lu didn’t even know she wanted to be an actress until she was 17.
“I joined the Montgomeryshire Youth Theatre and it completely changed my life,” explained Lu, whose grandfather – the late Reverend Richard Jones – was a leading figure in the community.
“I was thinking of doing English at university. When I took drama it was just as something to support that, but the MYT made me reassess everything and allowed me to realise who I wanted to be. I worked a lot with Ginny Graham, the director of the Montgomeryshire Youth Theatre at the time. She was a mentor to me for a long time, I owe her an amazing amount.”
Lu took two years out between the end of high school and going to university, to focus on acting and set up her own theatre company which was sponsored by Amnesty International. She was successful in getting in to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), but it was tough.
“I was a complete country mouse – I was walking around London saying hello to people!” said Lu. “It was a complete culture shock.”
Talking about the cuts facing arts organisations across Powys, the actress describes the swingeing cuts as a ‘cull’ and says it is petrifying for those entering the industry.
“But there has never been any security in this business,” she commented. “If you know it’s what you want to do, there are ways. When I started a theatre company it came out of nowhere, you have got to be committed.
“No one prepares you for the rejections,” she added. “You’ve got to tenaciously keep going at it – involve yourself, go to youth theatre, work with your school’s drama department, put on little shows. The more experience you get the better, the less ‘rabbit in headlights’ you’ll feel.”
Candy Cabs was a big break, said the actress, and she said its success is all down to the dedication of the cast and crew.
“Everyone is focusing on the lasses, understandably, but the lads were all fantastic,” she said. “We shot the series in six weeks in and around Manchester, which was manic, but it was an absolute joy.”
And what was it like working with Jodie Prenger, winner of BBC’s ‘I’d Do Anything’?
“She’s fantastic, a proper northern lass,” said Lu. “None of it’s put on and you always know when she’s on set, you can hear her singing. Everyone knows she’s a great stage actress but she pulled it straight out of the bag for this.”
You can catch Lu appearing in Candy Cabs on Tuesday nights, 9pm, BBC One. You can also follow her on Twitter at @LuCorfield.