Actress Jenny Seagrove: Things haven’t always worked out as I would have liked

Jenny Seagrove became famous more than 30 years ago for her leading role in the television series A Woman Of Substance.

And that is how she has remained since: a genuine woman of substance who, despite all hopes and predictions, never soared to the heights of Hollywood fame.

Instead, she has delivered reliably and successfully. She starred in 1980s films such as Local Hero and Appointment With Death and became the female lead in the BBC TV series Judge John Deed.

She is also a regular on the West End stage, takes the guest role in long-running television dramas such as Lewis, Endeavour and Peak Practice and is the reassuring voice of Waitrose advertisements.

But her new film Another Mother’s Son, at the age of 59, is her most important work in years.

She plays the real-life character of Louisa Gould who became renowned for her bravery in the Channel Islands during Nazi occupation.

She had two sons away fighting the Germans – they could not return home because of the occupation – so secretly took in a Russian prisoner of war who had escaped from one of the death camps set up by the Nazis in Jersey.

She took care of him for two years, convinced that no one would ever reveal her secret.

But thanks to an informer she was exposed, taken prisoner and shipped to a German concentration camp where she died just before the end of the war.

“This film is probably the most important of my career,” says Seagrove.

“It is based on truth, bravery and treachery and teaches us lessons of history and human nature. It is both uplifting and disturbing.

“I knew nothing of the story. History has almost forgotten that the Channel Islands, a part of the British Isles, was overtaken by the Germans in June 1940 and remained under occupation until the end of the war in May 1945.”

The film is also British made with a cast which includes John Hannah, Amanda Abbington, Susan Hampshire and former Boyzone pop singer Ronan Keating.

Most of it was shot in Somerset because today’s Channel Islands are so over-developed.

“It gives us a history lesson that remains a warning even today,” she says.

“The occupation was supposed to be low-key but as the years went on it became brutal. People starved and were taken prisoner and deported to Germany. And people like Louisa Gould died.”

Seagrove is the first to recognise that her career has not lived up to its great expectations.

“I have been in plenty of ‘euro puddings’ with French and German money,” she says.

She recalls what high hopes everyone had for The Guardian, a 1990 film that was written and directed by William Friedkin, who was then a big name thanks to films such as The Exorcist and The French Connection for which he won an Oscar.

“I played the lead as a mysterious nanny to new parents and the expectation was huge as it was Billy’s first horror since The Exorcist,” she tells me.

“When we all gathered to watch a preview in a screening room in Los Angeles it’s fair to say that the temperature in the room was hot with excitement.

But the room froze over when the film went on.

“And that’s the way it is. When you’re hot and there’s a buzz about a film everyone wants to know you. But when things go the other way, it is remarkable how quickly all the people and the praise evaporate.”

She also looks back at why things didn’t work as they perhaps should have. “I had a horrifying lack of confidence in my 20s,” she says.

“It came to me as an enormous shock when anyone ever said anything nice. I looked in the mirror and saw this strange-looking creature staring back.

“If anyone ever said ‘yes’ for a job when I went for an audition I would fall off my chair in amazement. I had the same sense of amazement when anyone said anything nice.”

Her personal life has also had some setbacks.

Her mother Pauline suffered a stroke at the age of 32 (though she went on to enjoy a full life until her death at the age of 68) and Seagrove was sent to boarding school from the age of nine.

Any doubts she had about herself were not shared by others. She was accepted at one of Britain’s most prestigious theatre schools, the Bristol Old Vic, and made her film debut alongside Jeremy Irons in Moonlighting at 25.

But she suffered bulimia in her 20s, a subject she prefers not to discuss. There was also a shortlived marriage to Indian actor Madhav Sharma.

“We knew each other for three years and were married for two before the break-up,” she recalls.

“I was terribly dependent on him and it was a complicated relationship. He was like a Svengali and as I had no confi dence I leaned on him.”

She also had a four-year relationship with late director Michael Winner.

“He never indulged me,” she says.

“He would not pussyfoot around. He’d more likely say, ‘You were absolutely terrible. What are you going to do about it?’

“He made me stand on my own two feet and regain my sense of humour. He always said that life was there to be enjoyed and it was not a dress rehearsal. Once you start thinking like that it does change your attitude.”

But she has discovered more happiness with producer Bill Kenwright, 71, who is also chairman of Everton football club. They have been together since 1994.

He was briefly married to actress Anouska Hempel and has a daughter, Lucy, with actress Virginia Stride.

Seagrove remains childless and has not come close to marriage again.

“I think once one marriage goes wrong it is enough for some people,” she says.

“I’m one of those and so is Bill. As for children, I have never been particularly maternal. I was still in my 30s when we met and did discuss it at one point.

"But I do prefer my lifestyle as it is and the freedom that it gives.

“I regard myself as fortunate to have lived for so long with such a fantastic character with a good heart who sees the best in everyone and is so positive about life.

“It’s such a contrast because, despite the successes I have enjoyed, I remain a shy person. I like to think we have been good for each other and have enjoyed happiness together.”

Kenwright, who produced Another Mother’s Son, is equally open about his support for his partner.

He devoted a page of last week’s Everton programme for the Premier League game against West Bromwich Albion to promote the film and Seagrove’s starring role.

“I do have to accept, as with any partner of a football fanatic, that Everton is probably the first love in Bill’s life,” she observes.

“He loves me, cinema, theatre but, especially, Everton football club.”

But they are now concentrating fully on the launch of Another Mother’s Son, written by another Jenny, Jenny Lecoat, the greatniece of Louisa Gould.

“I wanted to play her as truthfully as possible,” says Seagrove.

“She was a brave and good woman.

“But there is also the matter of highlighting what happened on the Channel Islands. We know a lot about the Second World War from the D-Day landings to the Battle of Britain but the fact that part of the British Isles was under Nazi rule for five years is often overlooked. This film puts that right.”

Another Mother’s Son is released on Friday.