This Much Is True

I wanted to travel outside my little bubble of people who think like me and sound like me and so, in 2019, as an overweight, unfit, but extremely gung-ho seventy-eight-year-old, I embarked on a 10,000km, two-month journey across the country to make a documentary, something I love doing.

For Almost Australian I clambered into a camper van and set off in search of the heart of this vast nation. I spoke to struggling farmers affected by drought; I met First Nation elders, indigenous activists, off-grid nomads and transgender Tiwi islanders, and spent time listening to the stories of refugees from Afghanistan and Myanmar. I tackled the Australian concept of ‘mateship’, visiting a trucker stop where I joined the blokes for a pint and the footie on TV; then on to Alice Springs itself, reputedly the lesbian capital of the world. When I first went to the Alice, it was a hardy, pioneer kind of town. First Nation people lay in the street, drunk. They were invisible — people just stepped over them. And now it’s lesbians all over the place! I also ventured out of my comfort zone: I got quite vocal at an Aussie Rules football match; I tried fiery new cuisines and even stronger drinks; my public dislike of children was challenged, when much to my shock I met a couple of kids I actually liked; and if that wasn’t enough, I even went camping for the very first time and had to handwash my humungous navy-blue knickers, a spectacle that was gleefully captured by my cheeky cameraman.

I learned a lot in making that series, particularly about the troubled relationship between white Australians and First Nation people. Australia is a complicated country, with allegiances to England but strongly influenced by America, and it’s not going in the direction that I want. The Australia that the visionary Labour prime minister Gough Whitlam envisaged is the Australia that I love. I was absolutely shattered when the Liberals won the 2019 federal election. I voted in London at the Australian Embassy; I was so sure that Labour would make it. It broke my heart when their defeat became clear.

I fear the country is in danger of becoming a colony of America, just like us. One only has to look at the rise of the right wing and the growing cruelty to migrants. When I first came to Australia in the 1980s, it wasn’t like that. I’m also critical of the wholesale import of American trends and culture, most particularly on Australian TV–I want more Australian content. I want to see more of the highly gifted, home-grown Australian artists and actors: they’re not being given a fair suck of the sauce bottle.

When Almost Australian was recently broadcast, I was interested in the reaction. Some of my observations on the documentary ruffled feathers Down Under, and rightly so. I’m quite aware of the uproar in Australia when I make any negative comment — Australians are sensitive to criticism, particularly from the English. Understandably people say, ‘Who the fuck is she — she comes in, builds a house, enjoys it, then trashes the place?’ But I want Australia to be better. And Australia is a country that can be improved. Unlike England, it’s still got energy — it can go down a different, better path.

A New Habit

Every actress tries not to be typecast but I’ve played a lot of whores and matchmakers in my time. The nearest I’d got to the other side of things was in 1980, when I played an Egyptian gynaecologist in Mike Newell’s first film, The Awakening, with Charlton Heston, a lovely big boy. They had to dig a trench for him when we were in the same shot. He was too tall! But I dropped the forceps on the floor when trying to deliver Jill Townsend’s baby.

Undeterred, for years I had been a fan of Call the Midwife, the long-running BBC series adapted by Heidi Thomas from the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, about her days in the East End of London in the late fifties; the acting was of a high order, the stories were gripping and the attention to period detail formidable. It was exactly the kind of show I loved. I could see myself in it as a Jewish grandmother living in Poplar, a throwback to my immigrant roots. I knew my agent had mentioned me to them, to no avail. Every time I appeared on a TV talk show, I’d look straight at the camera and say, ‘Please cast me in Call the Midwife.’ Not a dickie bird.

Then one day, I went on the ITV programme This Morning and encouraged by the skilled and charming hosts, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, I made my plea again. I do like Holly and Phil. To my joy, my agent got an offer a few days later. But I was not to be a Jewish grandmother; quite the reverse!