All language subtitles for The.Women.Of.Hammer

Frankenstein created woman in one of
Hammer's most memorable films.

Hammer is renowned not only for its
gothic horrors, but for the beautiful

women that starred in them.

This is the story of how Hammer Horror
went hand in hand with Hammer Glamour.

I was probably typecast by looking
attractive, and I'm sure, of course

nowadays that wouldn't count at all, but
then one was fortunate enough to look

pretty or whatever, and I'm sure it
helped get me a lot of roles.

And depending on the films that you do,
and if it kind of works out all right,

then you get more of the same, more of
the same, and for me it tended to be a

lot of horror.

Definitely typecast, and I had even
further because I was exotic.

So not only was I the Hammer horror
girl, but I was also an exotic.

I played the victim,

somebody that would have it done to, but
at the same time, unaware of the fact

that my tits were hanging out.

That's really the end of my essay.

Sex Appeal was part of the Hammer
formula long before the company started

making horror films.

One of the highlights of the 1952
thriller, The Last Page, is peroxide

bombshell Diana Dawes. A fun-loving
beauty with an unhealthy addiction to

fast-living and lawless young men, Diana
was already on the way to becoming

Britain's most beloved sex symbol.

Even racier was American star Barbara
Payton, who appeared in several films

for Hammer, including 1953's Four-Sided
Triangle.

When Hammer started making horror films
in the mid-1950s, their first pin-up

girl was Vera Day.

When I was in my early 20s, I was dubbed
Pocket Venus, and that was because

I was small. Small but curvy.

I was 36, 22, 34, but only 5 foot 2.

When I was about 17, I remember standing
on Bow Road Station.

waiting for a train to take me into
London, where I had a job, some sort of

office job, nothing very fancy, but
something normal like that. And I was

approached by a very famous photographer
called Zoltan Glass, who asked me to

model for him. And I was earning far
more in one day than I was earning in a

week for the other things I was doing.
So I stopped.

stopped my normal job and became a
model.

I had a boyfriend.

He heard about these auditions for a
show called Wish You Were Here, where

they wanted bathing beauties and hunky
men.

And he said, I've got a good idea, Vera.
Why don't you go and audition for the

show? Anyway, it came to the end of it,
and I did my little bit, dancing and

singing. They said, yeah, yeah, OK.

Yeah, all right, Vera, you're in. Don't
worry about it. You are in.

On the first night...

The film director, a very famous film
director of the time, Val Guest, came to

see the show.

And he was quite impressed with me. He
came around, left a note at the stage

door, or his card rather.

And then Val Guest wrote me a part in a
film called Dance of the Lady.

And I did Crowded Day, Kid for Two
Farthings, and my fourth film was

Quaterma 2.

Everybody in that film had a mark on
their face due to this meteorite that

blew up. I thought, no, I don't have a
very big part, and I'm not going to...

And it was hideous. I mean, if you look
at the actors, they've got this hideous

thing on their face.

And being the vain little person that I
was, I said, no, please, I don't

really... Can I have it on the chest?

Val Guest being the lovely Val Guest was
more than happy for me to sit there

doing this.

I'd watched it the other day and I
thought, how stupid could one be to go

over and say, oh, look at that, I must
just pick this up, you know.

Everyone's saying, don't touch it. Oh,
it's all right.

I'd only been in the business about a
year and there I was at the London

Pavilion with this giant picture of me.
I'll never forget my dad going up to see

it, you know, from the east end of
London. Ah.

He was so knocked out. He was just
standing there looking at it saying,

that's my daughter up there, you know.

I remember a film called Clean Sweep
that was a Hammer production.

It was just a very small little comedy
film about gambling, really. I would

never have thought Hammer would have
done a film like that, but they did. It

was sweet, actually.

Look, it's only Tuesday and that's three
days to payday. And I was coming home

past Madam Lily's Superior Costumiers
and Second Hand Models Limited and I saw

it in the window. It's just what I need.
But I've got to put something down

straight away, you see, Mum, and it's
only Tuesday and that's... And it's

three days to payday, I know. Yes,
and... How much do you want?

Oh, anything, Mum, anything.

And how much have you got left from last
payday? Well, er... Well, er... Well,

about, er... Yes?

Well, I've just got the bus fare till
the end of the week.

I did two more films for Hammer. One was
Up the Creek.

and the other one was Watch It, Sailor.

I'd just appeared in a television play,
Armchair Theatre, and it was a play

that was directed by Gerald Glaister,
and again, it was written by Val Guest

for his wife, Yolande Donlon, and it was
called The Red-Headed Blonde. And I did

it, and I got rave notices. I can't
believe the notices I got. And the next

morning, I was doing the film Up the
Creek.

And I sat on the train and I was reading
these notices saying, old Vera Day is no

longer a bikini girl, she's proved
herself, blah, blah, blah. And I

thought, oh, God. And here I am again,
going up to Elstree to play the part

of... A barmaid, you know, but I was
doing... And I was almost tearful,

thinking, what am I doing?

But what was I doing? I was paying the
rent for my flat.

Tuesday, dear, Wednesday is eggs.

Wednesday is eggs?

Yes, it used to be Tuesday, but it
clashed with the Barclay Bakeries. The

what? Auntie Barclay's goodies.

Auntie Barclay's eggs?

They deliver eggs? Yeah, from the
Barclay Hatcheries.

Eggs from chickens. I believe that's the
usual process.

Films started to get a little bit few
and far between because for my type of

roles, it became very fashionable to
have an Italian or French girl. And then

I was offered a part in Saturday night
and Sunday morning.

And it was for the part, the script
said, a sluttish, blah, blah, blah,

sluttish housewife, blah, blah, and a
stupidly...

The game Vanity was coming up, and I
thought, I'm not playing a slutty... And

I turned it down, and Rachel Roberts
took the part, played the part.

And it was all kitchen sink dramas then,
and I wasn't kitchen sink drama type.

And anyway, the films were becoming a
little bit sparse.

I said goodbye to it all until a little
while ago, when Guy Ritchie just took

me on.

played the part of Tanya in Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels, and that was

wonderful. And then I found I was
suddenly reinvented and have been doing

lots of touring around at memorabilia
events and things like that, which I'm

more than happy to do.

Hammer's first colour horror film, The
Curse of Frankenstein, co-starred Hazel

Court as the evil Baron's fiancée.

Rather less virtuous was his scheming
maid, played by Valerie Gaunt.

The second and final film in Valerie's
brief screen career was Dracula,

released the following year in 1958.

Here she was unforgettable as the
Count's feral bride.

Nothing's wrong.

Barbara Shelley, Hammer's most prolific
leading lady...

underwent a similarly startling
transformation in Dracula, Prince of

Darkness, released in 1966.

You don't need Charles.

For the role of H. Ryder Haggard Shee,
Hammer cast the original Bond girl,

Ursula Andress.

When the film was released in 1965, the
publicity boasted that she was...

the world's most beautiful woman.

Hammer's 100th film was also its most
commercially successful.

One Million Years B.C. was released in
1966, and its marketing campaign

was enough to make American actress
Raquel Welsh an international icon.

Raquel's co-star in the film was Martine
Beswick.

In Million with Raquel, I actually felt
a bit sorry for her because she was

sort of a victim of Hollywood in a way.
But at the same time, we were not best

friends. And in fact, she was quite
difficult.

She was owned by the studios, and so she
was farmed out, and she was not happy

about it, and especially not happy about
doing this film.

Before Hammer, before James Bond, I was
a model.

And actually a lot of us were models.

But I always wanted to be an actress. So
for me it was just the stepping stone,

as it was in those days, to be an
actress. Then I did Bond, and that was

in 62 was the first one, which was from
Russia with Love.

And then again in 65 when I did
Thunderball.

And that was the time when Hammer
decided that I was the one

to be brought on board for One
Millionaire's BC.

I had seen John Richardson in
photographs and I had freaked out

because I had this feeling that we
were...

like destined to be together.

And I didn't want it. And I tried to get
out of it because I found out that he

was the star.

I literally tried to back out and they
threatened to sue me.

However, so in that case, I had to do
it. And when I arrived to do it, it

happened.

For me, it was the beginning not just of
Hammer, but it was the beginning of a

major love affair, like the big love
affair of my life.

So I'm on One Million Years B.C., I've
now become bestest friends with Michael

and his wife, Josephine.

And literally, I think it's on the
second night, he's sort of sitting there

with that unbelievable sort of like
mischief smirk on his face, and he said,

Martin, I want you to be my queen. I
went, oh, okay, darling.

Really? What am I going to do? He said,
well, I've got this film and it's called

Prehistoric Women and I want you to be
the queen.

And I said, I tell you what, if I'm
going to be your queen, I want makeup

and I want a whole new outfit of leather
bits.

I need to look gorgeous.

I'm not going to look like a pig woman
like I did in this one, okay?

And he said, done.

I said, okay, we're on.

And that was it.

Your clothes are different.

You are different.

Can you speak our tongue?

Yes.

Where do you come from?

One of the great movies.

One of the great movies ever made.

Because it has to be one of the worst.

It's nonsense.

Absolute nonsense.

However, I had a ball doing it. And it's
interesting because there are a lot of

people who love this film.

Of course they love it because it's just
a campest, most ridiculous film. And all

these, you know, girls in their little
bikinis and things.

And me bitch-moding.

I was described.

as a terrific bitch-kitty actress.

You refuse me?

What else can you expect?

Your heartless cruelty is sickening.

Prehistoric Woman is a kinky film. I
think not.

I think it's quite tame, actually.

Kinky? Who ever said prehistoric women
were kinky?

I mean, where did that come from?

Why is it kinky?

Why, because they beat up people?

Actually, here's the kinkiness of it,
which actually was never sort of

mentioned, was that the little blonde
things were given to the

demons in the forest, who were all these
black guys with...

Big hoods on, things on. So that might
have been a bit, well, a bit horrid,

really. Not like kinky, it was just
horrid.

This was a land where druid priests held
sway over people's minds and prophesied

that one day a woman would wear armour
and wield a sword against the Romans.

A woman who would be called the Viking
Queen.

The Viking Queen was produced in 1966
and was a misguided attempt by Hammer to

present another pseudo-historical
adventure in the style of She and One

Million Years B.C.

There was compensation in the shape of
Finnish model Carita Jarvinen.

She's to be taken to Rome to stand
public trial.

To stand trial.

To be sent to Rome as a slave.

Also filmed in the summer of 1966,

Frankenstein Created Woman featured the
Polish-born Susan Denberg.

Susan's career would peak with this, her
only Hammer film, and by the end of the

decade, mental health problems had led
to her retirement.

In the late 1960s, Hammer decided to
promote an English actress as their new

star discovery.

Veronica Carlson appeared in three films
for the company, culminating in 1970s...

The Horror of Frankenstein.

The Horror of Frankenstein was one of
the films that depicted the more liberal

attitude of the so-called permitted
society.

What about you, Maddy? I didn't swing.

I was in it. I was in the middle of it,
but I refused to swing.

I was very naive. I could go into
detail, but I better not.

It all passed me by.

It passed me by. Even my daughter now
says, Mum, you were living in the 60s.

What happened?

I don't know. I was in another world, I
think.

Oh, I love that. It really did pass me
by.

We were very good girls, because I knew
Caroline at the time. We did. We were

very good.

Notice how quiet I am.

Yes, she was less good.

You are the handsomest man on the boat,
and I'm the loveliest girl.

We have no part.

The vivacious Susanna Lee came to Hammer
following a starring role opposite Elvis

Presley in Paradise Hawaiian style.

Her journey to the lost continent in
1968 proved rather less.

Susanna's other work for Hammer included
Lust for a Vampire two years later.

Susanna's co-star was aspiring Danish
actress Jutta Stensgaard.

When Ursula Andress declined to appear
in the 1968 film The Vengeance of She,

the lead role was taken by Playboy cover
star Olinka Berova.

The Czechoslovakian actress later
married Hollywood studio head John

Calley.

Scars of Dracula was one of Hammer's
first films of the 1970s. Its young cast

included Jenny Hanley.

I'd done a film.

where, sticking to my rules, I refused
to take my clothes off. And the director

had us all on location and was renowned
for saying, well, we have this extra

scene written in, let's just do this and
get it done with quickly.

And, of course, one of the girls would
have to divest themselves of something,

if not everything.

And Peter Walker is his name, who used
to try to do this with

everybody, and I refused.

And he said, well, it's going to be in
silhouette, so it doesn't matter.

Your character will come into shot and
then go out of shot and take the bra off

and put it on the back of the chair
that's in shot and then take the pants

off and put them on the chair that's in
shot and then the silhouette will leave.

So I thought, OK, I'll do that.

But I wore two bras and two pairs of
pants.

And he was livid.

Absolutely livid. So what happened was
that he put another girl in who took her

bra off in shot and her pants off in
shot and dubbed that

in or cut that in.

And I said to my agent, I don't like
that because a film buff had said, you

know, didn't think you did that or a
friend had said that as well.

So we went to Equity who took Pete
Walker.

to court, or was going to, for
defamation of character because she had

black pubes and I was a natural blonde.

Truly.

And I had to have my doctor and my
hairdresser standing by ready to go into

court.

You must be exhausted.

No, Simon, no. This is the first real
clue we've heard.

We'll follow it together.

I'm not leaving you.

Not forever.

I hope.

I was a happy little sort of
15-year-old, 16-year-old, with braces on

my teeth and glasses on the end of my
nose and very shy.

And Mother overheard somebody saying
what a shame it was that such a

beautiful woman had such a plain,
unfortunate daughter.

At which point, all maternal...

hammers came out and she sent me to a
modelling school and paid for me to take

a modelling course.

I did a cinema commercial for a sort of
ice cream that came in a plastic cone

and somebody for Harry Saltzman who was
part of the

team that had brought the Bond films to
life saw me in this commercial and

decided that I ought to be an actress
and I ought to be part of Harry

Saltzman's, well, he was putting
together a sort of stable, like the

original rank starlets.

My problem with filming was that this
was the late 60s, early

70s, and as I say, if I didn't deem it
necessary to take my clothes off, I

wouldn't. And Harry Saltzman asked me to
do Battle of Britain.

And the part included a nude scene.

And I had the gall to say to him, I'm
sorry, I'm not doing it.

So he said, well, you better go and do a
Hammer film then, because they want you.

And I was let out to do that.

It's a lovely party, Sarah.

Hope you're enjoying it as much as we
are.

Oh, I'm thirsty and thirsty.

Well, are you?

Huh? Am I what?

Enjoying your party.

Oh, yes, yes.

Girls of Dracula turned out to be a joy.

My character was a rather fey, innocent,
sweet girl, boring as

hell, bless her.

But she wafted her way through the whole
thing and fainted on cue and got

her chest ripped at the right time and
won through to the end.

Even though Dennis Waterman and I didn't
get on because he hated apparently tall,

blonde, posh bints, we became friends
during the filming.

You must sleep here.

I must apologise for the inconvenience,
but since the fire... Fire?

I'm afraid Christopher Lee takes
everything very seriously.

And when there were some giggles like
me, I'm a bit of a giggler.

The bat near the end coming in to grab
the cross from around my neck obviously

comes in, hits your chest and bounces
off backwards.

Now, that's amusing.

I'm sorry, Christopher.

That is funny.

But Christopher actually...

takes it very seriously indeed, and
says, you know, you do realise this is a

true person, Vlad the Impaler, and gave
us all lectures and things.

But generally, we kept him off the set
when giggles were apt to happen.

Most Hammer ladies, as I think everybody
knows, are blessed.

with a frontage, a big, ample frontage.

I wasn't.

Consequently, they made my nightdress,
which of course is also part of the

rules that you have to be in a
nightdress, it seems, for half the film.

They made my nightdress like the Firth
of Forth Bridge.

And I had to sort of perch upon it in a
genteel manner and pray that I didn't

get hiccups or anything, because that
would have been a disaster.

And running.

There was a scene where they actually
had the nightdress on the bed as

Sarah, my character, came in to
Dracula's castle.

And I remember the props man actually
sort of pressing down the front of the

nightdress so it didn't actually look as
though it should be breathing.

If I could go back in time and offer
myself a piece of advice, back to...

69 say I would not say rip your knickers
off

although I might have got a better
career I don't know that I'd give myself

any advice because half of the mistakes
you make I think make you what you

become and it was a it was a fun time

and I had my Porsche convertible who
could want more

Polish actress Ingrid Pitt only appeared
in three productions for Hammer, but the

first, 1970s The Vampire Lovers, sealed
her reputation as one of the genre's

best-loved leading ladies.

Her co-star in that film was Madeleine
Smith.

Ingrid always was, on film and in life,
was larger than life.

Ingrid was an unafraid...

Unafraid to be herself, she was proud of
her body, proud of being a woman, loved

her man, loved her daughter. She was
earthy, she was super, she was

frightening, she was loving, she was
beautiful.

And that was Ingrid.

Maddy the pretend prostitute didn't know
she was being a prostitute and didn't

actually know until recently that Dolly,
which is the part I played in Taste the

Blood of Dracula, was a prostitute and
indeed why I was riding on Jeffrey

Keane's back. I had no idea.

I didn't know anything. I'd spent seven
years in a convent in Ealing.

So in 1969, when I was discovered, I
didn't know what I was doing.

I was as skinny as could be and nothing
very much was happening up here.

Which is why, a few months later, I
received a call from Michael Stiles, who

was about to produce Vampire Lovers,
very worried, did I have the assets?

And then, of course, comes the famous
yoghurt story, where I spent Christmas

and New Year slurping down the yoghurts,
and bingo, suddenly they appeared.

I wish.

where I hadn't had to take my clothes
off in The Vampire Lovers. I do regret

that. And when I agreed to do The
Vampire... well, joyfully agreed to do

The Vampire Lovers, that wasn't part of
the contract.

I was told that it was only for the
Japanese version. Of course, it wasn't

only for the Japanese version.

That's the version that everybody has
seen.

And, of course, with the relaxing of the
censor over the years, more and more and

more has been shown.

And with...

the way things have gone, people freeze
frame, they stop frame, they take

photographs, and those photographs are
now for all to see.

It was my ignorance and my innocence and
my willingness to please and also based

on fear, because I didn't really know
what they were on about, quite frankly.

And the orgasm scene, of course, I
didn't know what Michael Stiles meant by

orgasm. I didn't know what he meant by,
you know, hotting it up or whatever.

And I knew that Roy Ward Baker was very
upset by the whole thing.

Frogmarched these producers out and was
wonderful to me. I mean, he coaxed, I

think, a halfway decent performance out
of me.

It was a good enough film and it would
have stood up without.

And sometimes it gets the wrong kind of
audience and the wrong kind of fan.

I'm sometimes asked to sign photographs
for the wrong people, if you see what I

mean. I think people do consider me to
be

a bit of a vulgarian, which I'm not.

I'm actually quite a modest, rather shy,
rather inward-looking person

in real life.

And I would have liked to have had...

more and better parts.

And I think the fact that word got out
that I took my clothes off, it

didn't help.

Playboy's first twin playmates, Mary and
Madeleine Collinson, were born in Malta.

In 1971, they came to Pinewood Studios
to star in Hammer's Twins of Evil.

Earlier in 1971...

Martine Beswick returned to Hammer for a
starring role in Dr Jekyll and Sister

Hyde. It would prove to be one of the
company's best films of the decade.

How is your brother?

Brother?

Dr Jekyll.

Oh, he... He hasn't been himself for a
bit.

I'd gone to America and I was still
there doing all sorts of stuff. And I'd

come over for a little visit to see all
the pals.

And I went in to see my old agent.

And we went in and said, hello, how are
you? And they went, oh, my God, Martine.

Pam was looking for you.

And I went, what?

What? And they said, well, they're going
to do a film called Dr. Jekyll and

Sister Hyde. And I went, oh, don't be
silly.

What do you mean? He's going to turn
into her. He said, yeah, they're doing

it.

There was a whole bunch of people and I
walked in and I was like ready to start

and there was that Michael Carrera sort
of like mischievous grin on his

face. And I said, Dr. Jekyll and Sister
Hyde, eh?

And he said, yes.

And we just had this like, and we didn't
say any more.

But I said, well, it sounds kind of
interesting.

Sounds kind of interesting. And that was
it.

I mean, I did laugh at first.

And I thought, this could be very
interesting because each person has male

and female, you know.

And I thought we could kind of explore
that a little bit. So we attempted to do

that when we finally started shooting.

But Hammer was under pressure, right, at
that point, to take off clothes.

Hammer was under pressure to be naked.

And so there was a lot of that going on,
and it wasn't necessary.

I mean, the script that I had did not
have full frontal nudity, which is what

they were trying to make me do.

And I said, look, I understand that one
has to be nude because there's a change,

because she's going to discover, I
understand that. I said, but I'm not

taking off all my clothes in front of
the camera.

Sorry, no.

And that caused a bit of a furor.

The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker,
and it was written by Brian Clements.

And actually, many, many years later,
Roy and Brian and I were doing one of

those, you know, accompanying DVD
things.

And he said, Roy said, you know, we
could have, we should have explored the

male-female thing more.

And I went, I know.

From 1969 to 1975,

the statuesque Valerie Leon was known as
a whip-cracking dominatrix in the

television commercials for high karate
aftershave.

In late 1970, Hammer chairman Sir James
Carreras gave her a leading role in

Blood from the Mummy 2.

Sir James Carreras I think I met at a
variety club event.

I can't really tell you too much because
I didn't get that close to him. I mean,

he obviously, you know, thought I had
something because I believe he really

wanted me to have the part, but I never
knew that at the time. I had no idea, no

idea at all.

I get a feeling of great loneliness, of
her dreaming alone, dreaming of things

far different from those around her, a
land far away in miles and years, yet

close to her heart.

Blood From the Mammoth Tomb was a
completely jinxed movie.

My first day shooting was with Peter
Cushing, where he gives me the ring that

belonged to Terra, the evil queen, and
of course I'm reincarnated as Margaret.

But at the end of that day's first
shoot, he heard his beloved wife Helen

was terribly ill, so he left the
picture.

The next thing we heard was the lovely
director Seth Holt, who had hiccups for

a week, and we used to sit through
rushes and he'd go...

We used to think, is he coming away?
We'd think it was funny.

And then I heard that after a dinner
party with his wife, the guests just

left. And he turned to her suddenly and
he said, I'm going.

And he just died of a heart attack.

And I was devastated. I was devastated
because I'd worked with him previously.

And as I said, I never knew I would be
his leading lady one day.

But, you know, they wouldn't let me.

go to the funeral.

Hammer films were on such a tight
budget.

I had two body doubles.

In fact, I was playing two parts.

I was playing the evil Queen Terra, who
was reincarnated as the young girl, who

then becomes the evil queen. But first
of all, there was one nude scene.

It was very little. It was just getting
out of bed very quickly.

And it was only a back shot.

So I had one body double for that.

And the other one, I guess because I
featured quite a lot in the movie, that

I needed a stand-in and a body double.

You know, that was the time of my life
when I was actually incredibly shy.

I mean, when I eventually did the movie,
you know how everybody congregates in

the bar at lunchtime and meets up and
you have drinks and have fun and

laughter? I used to take sandwiches
every day to the studio and at

lunchtime I would hole up in my dressing
room, eating my sandwiches, looking at

the lines for the afternoon.

I was...

Very withdrawn in those days.

I mean, people might have thought I was
stuck up, but actually, because I was

tall and sort of a bit aloof, but
really, it hid enormous shyness.

I have seen pictures of myself at that
premiere of Blood From The Mammoth

Stream at the National Film Theatre, and
now when I look at those pictures, I

think, what was I wearing?

It was quite awful.

Having been associated with three major
British film series,

I was lucky. And I guess the first one
was The Carry On.

And then, of course, the Bond movies.
All have become cults, and it's lucky.

And thanks to the internet, one gets
letters from all over the world. In

fact, on the Hammer film, I remember
getting a letter from somebody on death

row who wrote to me asking to have a
picture from the movie because he said

it would help ease his journey into the
next life.

Spooky.

By the mid-1970s, Hammer glamour was
coming to an end, a victim of

demystifying overexposure.

The company's final horror films from
this era did, however, include some of

its most beautiful leading ladies.

Norwegian model, actress and sex symbol
Julie Edge was Hammer's most heavily

promoted glamour girl of the decade.

In 1971, she appeared in the company's
final prehistoric adventure,

creatures the world forgot.

Three years later, she returned for the
bizarre kung fu epic The Legend of the

Seven Golden Vampires.

English model and actress Caroline Munro
graced Dracula A.D. 1972

and Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, two
of Hammer's most distinctive horrors.

You were shot beautifully. You had
wonderful cameramen, generally lovely

clothes. So you had everything to help
your hairdressers. And so it was the age

of sort of glamour. So you felt the
part.

I had done a poster in the 70s called
Lamb's Navy Rum.

Interestingly enough, I was not aware
that the poster was used in On the

Buses. Sir James Carreras used to travel
up and down on the train from Brighton

to Waterloo, and he'd seen one of these
posters, and supposedly he liked the

image, and he said, find that lady and
bring her into my office.

My first!

film for Hammer was Dracula AD 72 and I
felt very much not thrown in at the deep

end but it was kind of a turning point
for me insofar as an actress because I

got to work with all these really
experienced stage actors and drama

school actors.

It was a really good experience and one
that enabled me to think that this was

now what I truly wanted to do.

you know, forget the modelling, moving
on from the modelling, this, I'd found

my passion.

My second film for Hammer was a
beautifully crafted film by my

lovely friend Brian Clements. At the
time, it wasn't recognised, his work,

his beautiful work, and at the time, I
don't know if people got it. Now, I

think Brian, obviously, it was his baby,
and he totally understood what he was

doing.

And I think it made for something really
special.

Of course, then his other lovely one was
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde, with my

lovely Martine, who was very naughty in
that film. What a naughty girl.

I was up for the part. Actually, I was
up for the part. But I would not have

been right for it. Not naughty enough.

In Frankenstein and the Monster from
Hell, I really got to act.

I think it was...

the best part I ever played in the whole
of my career.

For me, I was very proud and very
relieved that Hammer thought I was a

sufficiently good actress to wear a
dress up to here, which showed

absolutely nothing round here, and went
down to the ankles.

I was very proud of that. I mean, I
looked terrible. Frumpy, hair scraped

back, no make-up.

Awful. But I was required to actually
act, and that was fantastic.

Do I feel the need to look glamorous?

I'm vain enough to want not to look like
hell in my daily life. And I

take that into every aspect of my life.
As you get older, being or trying to get

or appear glamorous is more of a chore
in a way.

I always put on makeup, always bits of
makeup when I go out.

Having...

created an image to look glamorous when
I was young.

I still feel an obligation when
attending fan conventions to try and

look as good as I can.

People say to me, oh, but don't you just
go without makeup? I say, no, I do not.

Yes, I do when I'm at home.

But I don't. I go out every day and I
put on some makeup.

Obviously, I don't dress up, you know,
just go to the store.

But I certainly do not go out there
looking like a schlep. It's not that I

want to be glamorous, because I don't
think I ever was terribly glamorous.

I think I was blessed with good genes
and I'm a happy person who

enjoys life.

And I try to look reasonable.

mainly because it might frighten the
horse. My image was glamour, and so one

tries to maintain it as long as
possible, I suppose.