Corrie - Cilla's return

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CORRIE'S MOUTHY MUM FROM HELL IS BACK
24th October 2008
By Katie Begley

GOBBY Cilla Battersby-Brown blasts back in style as we find out what she really got up to after quitting the cobbles of Coronation Street. The wacky new DVD Out Of Africa shows her getting up to all her old tricks in sunny South Africa. The one-off special is sure to put a smile on Corrie fans’ faces this Christmas.

But while we all welcome Cilla back with open arms, actress Wendi Peters can’t wait to see the back of her alter ego. She quit last year and, although tempted back for the DVD, she admits she still can’t bear to watch herself playing Cilla.

Speaking exclusively to us, Wendi, 40, says: “If they’ve ever shown a clip of Cilla on telly, I’ve had to go out of the room. I’d say: ‘I can’t stand her, she’s horrible – please take her away! I’ve not missed her at all. I’ve even had my hair cut so I look less like her. I loved being in Coronation Street but four years was a long time and Cilla is such an in-your-face character. I wanted to try other things.”

As well as theatre work, Wendi has made guest TV appearances and enjoyed spending quality time with husband Kenny Linden and their daughter Gracie, eight. But she could not resist returning for the DVD, which will not be shown on TV. She says: “It was very flattering. The fact that it was filmed in South Africa was a bit of a lure, too. And while I haven’t missed Cilla, I have missed not working with my old friends in the show.”

The hour-long special catches up with Cilla after she left for a new life in Las Vegas. There, she was offered a job as a croupier in South Africa’s gambling capital Sun City. And the DVD sees her trying to win a cash prize for the perfect family. To pull it off, she needs her children with her. So son Chesney (Sam Aston, 15) flies out with his best friend Kirk (Andy Whyment, 27). Chesney is looking forward to a reunion with his stepdad Les. But when he arrives, he finds “Les” is his mum’s new fella – an African dancer in full tribal costume. Cilla then tricks daughter Fiz (Jennie McAlpine, 24) into joining them, too.

Wendi says: “She enters a contest to find the Sunshine Family of South Africa and starts to invent stories. To her surprise, she ends up in the final – and suddenly needs them all with her. But she’s still mean to Chesney. The first thing she asks him is whether he’s brought the Garibaldi biscuits she asked for!.”

Wendi, who grew up in Blackburn, Lancs, became an instant hit as Cilla. She took Rita to court, sang on stage with Status Quo and plunged through the ceiling while sitting in a bath with Les and their pet dog!. But filming meant Wendi spent most of her week at the studios in Manchester, while her family were 150 miles away in Hertfordshire. Now she has settled back to a “normal family life” and, sadly for fans, says Cilla is not likely to return again.

“As much as I love Cilla, I want to move on,” she says. “It would be great to play someone a bit more serene. Someone as far away from Cilla as possible, really!”

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I'm pretty sure the DVD will be available for download not long after release...

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I really do like Cilla's character and Wendi really makes the character real and very amusing. I would like to see the African DVD and hope it is available in the near future. Thanks for this article Face.

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Interview: Wendi Peters in The Vagina Monologues
16th April 2009
thelancasterandmorecambecitizen.co.uk

She secured her place in TV history books with the role of Coronation Street's larger-than-life Cilla Battersby-Brown. And now East Lancashire-born actress Wendi Peters is returning to her old stomping ground for a stint in The Vagina Monologues.

THE first thing that strikes you about Wendi Peters is how little she sounds like her alter-ego Cilla Battersby-Brown. “My accent was never that strong to start with really,” laughed Wendi, born-and-bred in Wilpshire, Blackburn. “My dad has a fairly strong accent but my mother doesn't. She pretends to be a bit posh! With doing drama and because my husband is southern, I seem to have lost my accent. I suppose the fact that I've lived in London for 25 years and that I'm not speaking to someone with a thick Lancashire accent every day helps too."

But despite sounding more southern girl than Lancashire lass, 41-year-old Wendi insists she's fiercely proud of her roots. “My parents live in Copster Green and I visit regularly,” she said. “If anybody asks where I'm from I always say Lancashire, even though I've actually lived down south for longer."

Born in Bramley Meade Maternity Home, Whalley, Wendi was brought up in Wilpshire and lived there until the age of 16, when she left Lancashire for the bright lights of the capital. “I had a lovely upbringing in Wilpshire,” she said. “My dad worked for an electrical company and my mum worked at Barclays bank in Accrington. I went to Salesbury School and then onto Clitheroe Grammar School and I used to go to dancing classes every single night of the week at the Carlotta School of Ballet, in Blackburn. Wilpshire was a lovely place to grow up. It was a bit more countrified than other areas and we lived on a little cul-de-sac so we were safe to play out in the evenings. I live in Hertfordshire now with my husband Kenny Linden and our eight-year-old daughter Gracie. I chose this area because it reminds me of Wilpshire and I want Gracie to have a similar upbringing to the one I had. If I'd have not gone into this profession, chances are I'd still be in Lancashire now, but there weren't really the opportunities for me then.”

Wendi is returning to East Lancashire to perform in The Vagina Monologues, coming to Burnley Mechanics in May. Based on Eve Ensler's “vagina interviews” conducted with women from all around the world, the show is a witty and moving collection of tales that give voice to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, brave and, above all else, thoroughly human stories.

Wendi will star alongside former Hear’say singer Suzanne Shaw and Emmerdale actress Hayley Tamaddon. “I'd never read the book or seen the show when I was first offered it, but I knew that some of the world's most famous women had been in it, so I thought I’d see what it was all about. I love all the different monologues. They're all good in their own way. It's a funny, moving show and it's very important for every woman who goes to see it.”

One monologue Wendi isn't sure she wants to perform is The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy, in which a woman gives a vocal demonstration of an orgasm. "I have always said no to that one but I've got a feeling that I'll be given it this time around," she said. "It would be OK if my mum wasn't watching, but she probably will come to see the show in Burnley! I'm not going to let my dad come, though. I think it's one for him to miss. It would just be too embarrassing."

Of course, Wendi's big break came when she joined Coronation Street in 2003 playing Cilla, the loudmouth partner of Les Battersby. Wendi left the soap in October 2007 after four years and says she doesn't miss it. “I had a flat in Manchester where I'd stay during the week and then I'd return home at weekends, which was hard, and that was a big part of my decision to leave,” said Wendi. “It's lovely for me to be able to spend a bit more time with Gracie now. At Coronation Street you're not given your schedule until 10 days in advance so I couldn't plan anything. A friend would say ‘Do you want to come for dinner in a fortnight?’ And I'd have to say ‘I can't tell you yet’.”

Wendi keeps in contact with some of her soap workmates by text, including Sam Aston who played her son Chesney. But she's enjoying slipping back into anonymity. “It's been quite nice to sink back into normal life a little bit,” she said. “I've had my hair cut and I wear glasses now so I can get about my business without being stopped. The funny thing is that when you're not on telly people think you're not working, but since I left Corrie I've been really busy.”

Some of the things Wendi has been up to include appearing on Jack Osbourne's reality TV show Adrenalin Junkie, on which she performed a 9,000ft skydive. "I'd just turned 40 and I thought ‘If I don't do it now I'm never going to do it’,” explained Wendi. “It was amazing. I can't tell you how good it was. I kept checking everything was safe over and over and in the end I just had to put my trust in the guy I was jumping with. I've also done The F Word with Gordon Ramsay, which was fantastic, and I'm doing a one-woman play in Ireland at the moment called Mrs Whippy”

So is a return to the sacred cobbles of Corrie an option now she's so busy with other projects? “I'd never say never,” said Wendi. “But at the moment I'm just having too much of a good time doing other things.”