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Vicky Hall Interview
Acting is a notoriously capricious business, and most of its proponents
spend large amounts of time ‘resting’, brushing up on
their thespian talents by watching Neighbours twice a day and living
on Pot Noodles. Take Vicky Hall, who plays Lindsay, the science
mistress with attitude, in Channel 4’s comedy drama Teachers.
Since the last series ended, she’s largely sat about gathering
cobwebs. Or not, as the case may be.
“As soon as the last series finished, I was up to Norwich
doing Community Theatre, which was a promise I’d made to the
kids up there I’d been teaching. That was a really full-on
few weeks of work. Then I moved house, organised my wedding, got
married, then moved house again. During all of that I had some voiceover
work going on, and was filming a show for the BBC called Grease
Monkeys. Then, before I knew it, it was time to start filming the
new series of Teachers again.”
It’s been worth it, though. You’re unlikely to hear
her complaining, because for Hall, the story could very easily have
been different. After working for a theatre company that went bankrupt
owing her money, and getting so heavily into debt she had to share
a bed with another actress, in 2002 she made herself promise that,
if she hadn’t got a big break by Christmas, she’d jack
it all in. She landed the role on Teachers in November.
“My life is completely transformed from how it was two years
ago. Practically nothing is the same. It was incredible. I was poor,
had hardly a bean. We really wanted to get married properly, but
we couldn’t afford to. And with one phone call, saying I’d
got the job, my life ended up completely changing. I was financially
independent for the first time in my life, doing the job that I’d
always wanted to do. And I was able to keep my mum in furnishings!”
Things are certainly going her way. Of marriage, she says: “I’m
absolutely loving it. It’s been brilliant, the best year.”
Her character, Lindsay, has not been so lucky. “No, that’s
true. And things aren’t about to improve for her either.”
The new series of Teachers features wholesale changes in the staff
room. Summerdown has merged with another school, and is now Wattkins
Comprehensive. Those who have somehow managed to hang on to their
teaching jobs include randy headmistress Clare with her two assistants
Carol and Liz, Bob, the world’s biggest and most embittered
loser, manipulative sex-kitten Penny, and of course Lindsay. They’re
joined by several new characters, most notably Ben, the atheist
R.E. teacher, Damien, the cynical teacher of food technology, and
Ewan, the super-sexy head of English.
“It wasn’t that much of a culture shock, having the
boys join the cast. Everything had been new to me in the last series
anyway. And they were really easy to get along with, they’re
very, very sweet and really good fun. We all went out together [in
Bristol, where the show is filmed] quite a lot. To be honest, I
probably socialised less than the other members of the cast. They
were mostly single and having fun, and I had my husband coming down,
so I didn’t really want to be going out to bars and on the
pull. It probably wouldn’t be the best sign, in the first
year of marriage!”
When she does go out, does she find she gets recognised? “Actually
yes I do, a surprising amount. It’s not a problem or anything,
but nor is it something I ever sought. As far as I’m concerned,
it’s like a side effect. It comes with the job.” Particularly
when the job is starring in one of Channel 4’s most successful
ever series – Teachers is the first drama to have a fourth
series commissioned. Hall attributes the show’s success to
its adaptability.
“It’s got this fantastic ability to change. It didn’t
just take a set of characters and formulas and hang a series off
them. It hangs on the situation rather than just the people, so
it can succeed with cast changes. It’s not the end of the
world if people leave, because actually I think the new characters
are very interesting, and people will grow to love them too.”
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