{"id":4223,"date":"2024-11-21T11:13:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T11:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/?p=4223"},"modified":"2024-11-22T09:22:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T09:22:07","slug":"lesley-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/?p=4223","title":{"rendered":"Lesley Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lesley Joseph<\/strong> - Introduction\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the beginning of Birds of a Feather, she wasn\u2019t just playing a woman with attitude who lived next door, she was definitely the Jewish woman with attitude who lived next door<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, who is she?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lesley Joseph was born on 14 October 1945,[1]<\/a> in Finsbury Park<\/a>, Haringey<\/a>, London, England.[2]<\/a> She grew up in Kingsthorpe<\/a>, Northampton<\/a> and attended Northampton School for Girls<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201c She won\u2019t 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.

\u201dThe 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,\u201d says Joseph who describes herself as \u201cvery religious,\u201d but insists, \u201cit is a private thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say Judaism guides my life because it doesn\u2019t,\u201d she adds. \u201dI\u2019m Jewish and that is it really.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lesley\u2019s 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\u2019s performance on Strictly<\/em> where Joseph was the oldest female contestant ever to take part, and lasted five weeks before being eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is looking forward to performing to crowds of tens of thousands of people on the Strictly<\/em> tour. \u201cI have always been very fit. Linda Robson had always said to me: \u2018You should do Strictly<\/em>, you would love it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would say \u2018Oh no, it looks like too much hard work, I couldn\u2019t keep up\u2019 but I did, I had the stamina and I didn\u2019t get injured, touch wood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cno stranger to demanding performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing out night after night is what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she is keen to point out the past five years of her career have been \u201csome of the busiest\u201d of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cI understand why people think the way they do about my age but I\u2019ve done musicals all my life,\u201d she explains. \u201cDoing Strictly<\/em> was not something extraordinary. I\u2019ve never seen my age as a thing, people in the business don\u2019t see it, you just sort of get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my head I\u2019m still 35. Having played Dorien for so many years I don\u2019t think there is anything wrong or unusual about wearing short skirts and leopard print all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI suppose to a lot of people it is mutton dressed as lamb.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She may be a confident Jewish woman like Dorien, but in reality they are worlds apart, despite people apparently confusing the two \u201coften.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDorien is so much a fictional character. I don\u2019t think there was anything of her in there when I was doing Strictly, <\/em>it was just Lesley.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of her favourite things about Strictly<\/em> in 2016, was the chance to get glammed up. \u201cThe dressing up on Strictly <\/em>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She goes to yoga four times a week to keep fit and says she feels uneasy about being called an \u201cinspiration\u201d for older women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never looked at Strictly<\/em> that way. I certainly didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever the professional, Joseph says she took the judges\u2019 criticisms on the chin whenever she and her dance partner Anton Du Beke faced the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She tells me that his year\u2019s cast really did all get along and shared a similar camaraderie to the one she experiences with her Birds <\/em>co-stars (with whom she\u2019s expecting to film another series later this year) .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMe 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<\/em>. Not just the celebrities but the pro dancers too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith some things you get together and there are one or two people who you think you\u2019ll get on with, you might see one of them, but with this I know I\u2019ll see everyone again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disappointed to leave the show when she did, Joseph couldn\u2019t 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\u2019s dancing alongside former Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t any other time you are likely to get that experience unless you are a pop star.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/strong>Career<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

 <\/strong>Stage<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

 In May 1973, Joseph appeared in Godspell<\/em><\/a> at the Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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<\/em><\/a>. In the Summer of 2011, Joseph appeared as Chris in the stage show Calendar Girls<\/em><\/a>, based on the film of the same name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2014 and 2015, she performed at the Theatre Royal Nottingham as the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, she appeared as Miss Hannigan in the stage production of Annie<\/em><\/a> at certain venues, sharing the role with Jodie Prenger<\/a> and Elaine C Smith<\/a> 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<\/em> at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. Joseph then portrayed Frau Blucher in the West End production of Young Frankenstein<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2022 and 2024, Joseph starred in Sister Act: The Musical<\/em>, playing the roles of Sister Mary Lazarus and Mother Superior <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birds of a Feather<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

 Main article: <\/em>Birds of a Feather (TV series)<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1989 to 1998, Joseph played Dorien Green in the BBC One<\/a> sitcom Birds of a Feather<\/em><\/a>, alongside Pauline Quirke<\/a> and Linda Robson<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2011, it was confirmed that Joseph would reunite with fellow Birds of a Feather<\/em> 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<\/em> 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<\/em><\/a> on 16 January 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2015, it was confirmed that a second series of Birds of a Feather<\/em> 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. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Lesley with Linda Robson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further TV work<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n


Joseph starred in the\u00a0ITV<\/a>\u00a0soap\u00a0Night and Day<\/em><\/a>\u00a0from 2001 to 2003 playing the show's resident bitch, Rachel Culgrin. In 2002, Joseph appeared on a special edition of\u00a0What Not to Wear<\/em><\/a>, where she was given a makeover by\u00a0Trinny Woodall<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Susannah Constantine<\/a>. In 2004, she performed in\u00a0The Vagina Monologues<\/em><\/a>\u00a0opposite\u00a0Linda Robson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mica Paris<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In 2014, Joseph appeared with Forrest Dunbar on ITV2's Freshers: A Year On<\/em>. She makes frequent appearances on Channel 5's Big Brother's Bit on the Side<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

In 2022, Joseph won the seventh series<\/a> of Celebrity Coach Trip<\/em><\/a> alongside her Birds of a Feather<\/em> co-star Linda Robson<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joseph began presenting a radio show in 2008 on BBC London 94.9<\/a> with Christopher Biggins<\/a>, 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<\/a> on her weekday morning talk show whilst Feltz was on holiday <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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