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Nolly: Helena Bonham Carter on soaps, sexism and the death of cinema

If you're under 45, you've probably never heard of Noele "Nolly" Gordon. But you'll have heard of A-list actress Helena Bonham Carter and It's A Sin and Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies.

The prolific pair have come together for a three-part drama about the rise and fall of Nolly, a TV trailblazer and legendary star of long-defunct soap opera Crossroads.

Nolly played Meg Mortimer/Richardson, owner of the Crossroads motel, from 1964 until she was  sacked out of the blue in 1981. The news left the nation's soap fans in shock. Nolly was a much-loved star and the show, watched by 15 million people a week in its heyday, had revolved around her. 

Having written for soaps himself early in his career - he even penned a trial script for Crossroads just before it was axed in 1988 - Davies was keen to give the late actress one more moment in the spotlight and examine why she was suddenly axed.

"In the industry, she's very much spoken of as a diva and a bit of a monster," he explains.

"Yet when I spoke to the cast, it was the opposite picture. They loved her. Someone who was a very powerful, successful woman has been spoken of as a bitch afterwards. How does that automatically happen? It's monstrous. She's tough, strong and opinionated [but] you wouldn't use those words on a man."

The soap's creator, Reg Watson, "invented Crossroads around her", explains Bonham Carter, who plays the title role in the ITVX show.

But he left the Midlands-based soap to return to his native Australia in 1974, where he famously went on to create Neighbours.

"They wouldn't have sacked her if Reg had still been there," Davies says.

Without giving too much away, Bonham Carter believes ATV - who made the Midlands show - were perhaps "threatened" by Nolly's power.

"She was cleverer than all the suits. She knew how to make the show work. She was literally calling the shots. Had it been now, I think she would have been directing and producing very, very quickly."

And when you look at her CV, you can quite believe it. 

As a young woman in 1938, Nolly was credited as the first person to be seen as a moving image on colour TV.

Alongside numerous early acting roles, she was also a pioneer, hosting ITV's first chat show, Tea with Noele Gordon, and later, Lunchbox. She was also ITV's first female sports presenter as the host of Midland Sport, produced several shows, and became an ATV executive.

The star was also the first woman to interview a British prime minister (Harold Macmillan). Her talent was vast and varied.

"She would so have been a loose woman," Davies tells me enthusiastically, referencing the current ITV1 lunchtime show.

"She might have ended up like Fiona Bruce," Bonham Carter counters. "I could easily see her marshalling Question Time.

"In character she was very male, but maybe she had to be because that was how she could get on in a man's world. She didn't play on being female, even though she loved men."

Nolly was 61 when she lost her job on Crossroads. "I feel she was cut off in her prime," says Bonham Carter.

"I feel like championing her, I'm championing every woman of a certain age. We might just be cut off because we're deemed too old. Hang on, we can't be irrelevant and obsolete - we're just getting to know how to do everything!"

Of course, it wasn't only ageing that a woman would be up against.

London-born Nolly never married and had no children, which was considered a curiosity at the time - although her devoted on-screen children Jill (Jane Rossington) and Sandy (Roger Tonge) called her mother off set as well as on. And she had great friends including her co-star Tony Adams (played in Nolly by Augustus Prew) and comic and TV presenter Larry Grayson (Mark Gatiss).

"There's a speech in episode three where she says, if you're a woman and you're not married, you don't have children… then you're viewed as odd or strange. And there's a silent army of women with no name," Bonham Carter explains.

After she was axed, Nolly went on to star in Gypsy in Leicester and took several other theatre roles. But her career never really recovered.

"Things have moved on now. Raquel from Corrie (Sarah Lancashire, now in Happy Valley) is now the greatest star on British television," Davies says. But it was different in the 1970s and '80s, when it was tough to get beyond the typecasting.

As a fan of the soaps, would he ever consider creating one himself?

"No, no, no - to be absolutely honest, I get asked about once every week!" he laughs.

Bonham Carter adds that she could never be in a soap because she "wouldn't have the concentration", adding: "I am quite easily distractible. Even by the end of The Crown (in which she played Princess Margaret for two seasons) we'd plumbed the depths, it's time for someone else to take over!"

Perhaps surprisingly given her resume, the actress admits to feeling nervous about tackling another real-life character.

"There is a responsibility… and like anybody, I have imposter syndrome, so I want to get it right. I did so much [research] I could do Mastermind on Noele Gordon. And we got to watch lots of Crossroads!

"There are so many big scenes - the fears never go away and also your confidence... mine can just disappear down a plughole very quickly."

Does she think things have changed much for women in the industry?

"There are a lot more women producing and making stories, which is great.

"I remember going to America the first time. I was about 19 or 20. I just felt so deficient because my legs didn't go on for six years. I wasn't particularly sexual. I didn't have the right body. I just thought there was no career for me. 

"And then looking back on it, I was like, why on earth was I so fixated on the fact that I didn't have the right body? And so for years there weren't many roles, but that's basically why I did costume dramas - because I thought those are good parts, that's where the writing is."

These days, we're likely to see more of Bonham Carter on the small screen.

"The movie industry's dying, unfortunately," she says. "We're barely in the cinema. And television is a great new medium. That's where you get the best characters."

Nolly begins streaming on ITVX from Thursday 2 February.

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