Shavua Tov

Lesley Joseph

November 21, 2024

Lesley Joseph - Introduction/

Lesley Joseph for me, is totally unique. Whether playing Dorien Green in Birds of a Feather or partnering Anton du Bec in strictly, she is always Lesley Joseph. What I find is that the character she is/plays will remind so many Jewish people of someone they know at home.

From the beginning of Birds of a Feather, she wasn’t just playing a woman with attitude who lived next door, she was definitely the Jewish woman with attitude who lived next door

So, who is she?

Lesley Joseph was born on 14 October 1945,[1] in Finsbury ParkHaringey, London, England.[2] She grew up in KingsthorpeNorthampton and attended Northampton School for Girls.

Very little is known publically about Lesley as she likes to maintain her privacy.. She gave an interview to the Jewish Chronicle a few years ago. Her interviewer reported “ She won’t talk about her immediate family, apart from the bare facts that she is divorced and has two adult children. I glean from the internet that she was brought up in Northampton and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda) where her best friend was Maureen Lipman.

”The only thing I can tell you is that my mother was one of 12 and her father ran the Jewish immigration centre in the East End. Her grandfather was a rabbi who came over from the Russian Polish border and he was a very inspired speaker,” says Joseph who describes herself as “very religious,” but insists, “it is a private thing.

“I can’t say Judaism guides my life because it doesn’t,” she adds. ”I’m Jewish and that is it really.”

Lesley’s mother still went line dancing at the age of 98. She died last March at 103, and no doubt would have been proud of her daughter’s performance on Strictly where Joseph was the oldest female contestant ever to take part, and lasted five weeks before being eliminated.

She is looking forward to performing to crowds of tens of thousands of people on the Strictly tour. “I have always been very fit. Linda Robson had always said to me: ‘You should do Strictly, you would love it.’

“I would say ‘Oh no, it looks like too much hard work, I couldn’t keep up’ but I did, I had the stamina and I didn’t get injured, touch wood.”

Joseph does not understand why so much fuss is made over her age, pointing out that after all, unlike others who have taken on the same challenge, she is “no stranger to demanding performances.

“Going out night after night is what I do.”

And she is keen to point out the past five years of her career have been “some of the busiest” of her life.

She recently appeared as Miss Hannigan in the touring musical Annie, alternating the role with Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood. She did Strictly, alongside filming the Birds Of a Feather Christmas special for ITV, and went straight from the series to star in Snow White in Plymouth.

“I understand why people think the way they do about my age but I’ve done musicals all my life,” she explains. “Doing Strictly was not something extraordinary. I’ve never seen my age as a thing, people in the business don’t see it, you just sort of get on with it.”

“In my head I’m still 35. Having played Dorien for so many years I don’t think there is anything wrong or unusual about wearing short skirts and leopard print all the time.

“I suppose to a lot of people it is mutton dressed as lamb.”

She may be a confident Jewish woman like Dorien, but in reality they are worlds apart, despite people apparently confusing the two “often.”

“Dorien is so much a fictional character. I don’t think there was anything of her in there when I was doing Strictly, it was just Lesley.”

One of her favourite things about Strictly in 2016, was the chance to get glammed up. “The dressing up on Strictly was pure wonder. On Friday you walk through things and it is all starting to look bling. Nothing is too much or over the top, the only thing I can equate it to is pantomime.

“You have glitter, you have glamour, and you have everything all slightly twisting reality. I love the magic of it; you can indulge in your bling-tastic fantasy.”

She goes to yoga four times a week to keep fit and says she feels uneasy about being called an “inspiration” for older women.

“I’ve never looked at Strictly that way. I certainly didn’t go into it thinking I want to inspire anyone, I went into it selfishly thinking I want to learn ballroom and I guess the rest is by-product.”

Ever the professional, Joseph says she took the judges’ criticisms on the chin whenever she and her dance partner Anton Du Beke faced the panel.

“I found it unnerving on the first show because they are picking apart something you have put your heart and soul in. But it is all pantomime really.

“Not being a dancer yourself there are hundreds of things they can pick apart and you have to take it on the chin and learn from it.

“It was quite strange having just job-shared with Craig to be criticised by him, but I listened and I really like what he says a lot of the time. I think they all say what they think and have relevant things to say.”

She tells me that his year’s cast really did all get along and shared a similar camaraderie to the one she experiences with her Birds co-stars (with whom she’s expecting to film another series later this year) .

“Me and the girls are a family, we know how it works and we have been doing it since 1989. But I think it took us all by surprise how we all became so fond of each other on Strictly. Not just the celebrities but the pro dancers too.

“With some things you get together and there are one or two people who you think you’ll get on with, you might see one of them, but with this I know I’ll see everyone again.”

Disappointed to leave the show when she did, Joseph couldn’t wait to get back on stage to show off her dance moves. (S e was booked for the Christmas tour.) She was still amazed that she’s dancing alongside former Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls. “I said to someone the other day, can you image Ed Balls going out to crowds at the O2, the cheers are going to be overwhelming.

“There isn’t any other time you are likely to get that experience unless you are a pop star.”

 Career

 Stage

 In May 1973, Joseph appeared in Godspell at the Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth

Joseph appeared in Cinderella at Theatre Royal, Plymouth in 2008 and the Orchard Theatre in Dartford in 2009 and starred as Myra Wilson in the UK Tour of Hot Flush!. In 2014, Hot Flush! embarked on its third UK tour .

From 4 December 2010 to 22 January 2011, she appeared at The Grand Opera House, Belfast as the Wicked Queen in the pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the Summer of 2011, Joseph appeared as Chris in the stage show Calendar Girls, based on the film of the same name. 

Between 2014 and 2015, she performed at the Theatre Royal Nottingham as the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In 2015, she appeared as Miss Hannigan in the stage production of Annie at certain venues, sharing the role with Jodie Prenger and Elaine C Smith she was cast as the fairy godmother in Cinderella at the cliffs pavilion (Southend on sea). In 2016/17, she was part of the cast in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. Joseph then portrayed Frau Blucher in the West End production of Young Frankenstein

Between 2022 and 2024, Joseph starred in Sister Act: The Musical, playing the roles of Sister Mary Lazarus and Mother Superior 

Birds of a Feather

 Main article: Birds of a Feather (TV series)

From 1989 to 1998, Joseph played Dorien Green in the BBC One sitcom Birds of a Feather, alongside Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson

In December 2011, it was confirmed that Joseph would reunite with fellow Birds of a Feather cast members, Quirke and Robson, for a theatre adaptation of the series. The trio toured the United Kingdom from May to July 2012.  Following the success of the stage adaption, a new series of Birds of a Feather was commissioned after the rights had been acquired by ITV. The new series began airing on 2 January 2014 for eight episodes. To promote the return of the series, Joseph, Quirke and Robson appeared as guest panellists on Loose Women on 16 January 2014.

In March 2015, it was confirmed that a second series of Birds of a Feather had been commissioned by ITV which began airing in December. Following this, a third series was commissioned and aired in early 2016,  Joseph appeared in three more Christmas specials airing in 2016, 2017 and 2020 respectively, before the show's cancellation was announced in May 2021. 

Lesley with Linda Robson

Further TV work.


Joseph starred in the ITV soap Night and Day from 2001 to 2003 playing the show's resident bitch, Rachel Culgrin. In 2002, Joseph appeared on a special edition of What Not to Wear, where she was given a makeover by Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine. In 2004, she performed in The Vagina Monologues opposite Linda Robson and Mica Paris

Since 2009, she has been a regular newspaper reviewer on This Morning. She appeared in the 2014 series Secrets of the Asylum, a two-part series for ITV. In 2015, Joseph took part in ITV's celebrity sheep herding series Flockstars, beginning on 30 July. 

In 2014, Joseph appeared with Forrest Dunbar on ITV2's Freshers: A Year On. She makes frequent appearances on Channel 5's Big Brother's Bit on the Side.

On 22 August 2016, it was announced that Joseph would take part in the fourteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing.[14] She was partnered with Anton du Beke. In their first week, the couple scored 23 points for their waltz to "What'll I Do", in week two, 26 for their cha-cha-cha to "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps", in week three, 27 for their quickstep for "A Couple of Swells" from Easter Parade and in week four, 31 for their Charleston to "Won't You Charleston with Me?" from The Boy Friend. The couple left the series in week five, after scoring 24 for their tango to "Whatever Lola Wants". 

She was one of the four competitors who appeared in the special Christmas edition of The Great British Sewing Bee that was transmitted on New Year's Eve 2020 on BBC 1. Her fellow competitors in the programme were Sabrina Grant, Sally Phillips and The Vivienne

In 2022, Joseph won the seventh series of Celebrity Coach Trip alongside her Birds of a Feather co-star Linda Robson

Radio

Joseph began presenting a radio show in 2008 on BBC London 94.9 with Christopher Biggins, airing every Sunday between 9 am to 12 noon. Biggins left the show after a few months, however Joseph has continued to host. She also stood in for Vanessa Feltz on her weekday morning talk show whilst Feltz was on holiday 

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