Liza Goddard returns to Norwich Theatre Royal in classic farce Noises Off and her book club is coming to see her.
‘You’re just carried on this wave of laughter, it’s amazing,’ says Liza Goddard.
The actress - she gently corrects me when I say actor - ‘I’m too old to be an actor,’ she laughs – is currently touring the country in Michael Frayn’s celebrated farce Noises Off alongside Matthew Kelly and Simon Shepherd.
Feted as one of the greatest British comedies ever written, it follows the on and off-stage shenanigans of a touring theatre company as they shamble their way through the fictional farce, Nothing On.
The action hurtles from the final rehearsals before opening night in Weston-super-Mare to a disastrous matinee in Ashton-under-Lyne to their catastrophic closing performance in Stockton-on-Tees.
Liza, who lives near Fakenham, plays Dotty Otley, an actress in a Crossroads-alike TV soap, who has a lot riding on the show being a success.
And she’s bringing a bit of her much-loved home county to the show.
‘I’m playing Dotty with a Norfolk accent, which I don’t think anyone’s done before,’ she says.
Liza is adored by generations for roles in TV shows ranging from Skippy the Bush Kangaroo to the groundbreaking Take Three Girls, Bergerac, Woof! and as a team captain on the charades-based gameshow Give Us A Clue.
Also an acclaimed stage actress, she is absolutely sparkling company, frequently hooting with laughter.
She speaks to Norfolk magazine from Newcastle, one of the show’s early tour stops, and is clearly thrilled by the audience reactions so far.
‘I’ve not done a farce for a very long time,’ she says. ‘I’ve been in Ayckbourns, which have got farcical parts in them.
‘The amount of laughter takes me back to doing No Sex Please – We're British with David Jason hundreds of years ago.’
Not only is the play uproariously funny, but it’s a physical and brain workout for the cast, who she describes as ‘wonderful’.
‘It was extraordinarily hard to learn and yet in all three acts, we’re saying virtually the same lines, but slightly differently,’ says Liza
‘It’s one of the cleverest plays, once you get it it’s fantastic and it feels wonderful to do because you have to do it perfectly, you have to learn the lines perfectly and do the moves because that’s the only way it really works.
‘You don’t have to go to the gym, running about and shouting of an evening you get really fit.’
Liza is looking forward to returning to the Norwich Theatre Royal stage – and is thrilled that members of her book club have already got their tickets.
She’s starred in the Christmas pantomime a couple of times (‘I would happily do it again – you can put that in,’ she jokes) and last appeared at the venue in 2019 in A Woman of No Importance.
We’re speaking shortly after the sad news that the theatre’s former chief executive, Peter Wilson, had died.
‘I worked with Peter twice as a director,’ she says. ‘He was highly intelligent, had a huge sense of humour, a huge knowledge of the theatre and drama and also what his audience would like. And he transformed the Theatre Royal physically – his legacy is extraordinary.’
While she loves being out on tour, Liza says that coming home to Norfolk is a great feeling.
‘I miss it and it’s always a relief to get home. I must say, when I see the sign Norfolk - Nelson’s county I think “thank goodness," she says.
Nature plays a big role in Liza’s life. Her late husband, David Cobham, directed the classic film Tarka the Otter and in the early 70s made Vanishing Hedgerows, about the impact of modern farming techniques on the countryside, which is said to be the BBC’s first conservation film.
‘My husband was a great ornithologist and conservationist. He helped to start the Hawk and Owl Trust in 1969 and founded Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve over 20 years ago,’ says Liza.
‘One of the reasons my husband moved to Norfolk from Yorkshire was because the wildlife is so fantastic.
‘We used to walk at Holkham all the time and would go to Brancaster to see the seals. There are just so many places you can walk - where I am now there’s all these footpaths round the village. Within three minutes you’re out in fields and nature.
‘It’s magical all year round. You have these winter visitors and then they go and the summer visitors come.
‘When I’m back I shall go immediately to Holkham and see the widgeon, which are my favourite birds. We're very lucky to live in such a beautiful place.’
Liza always knew that she wanted to act.
‘From the age of six,’ she says. ‘And funnily enough my Noises Off co-star Matthew Kelly wanted to from the age of six as well. I think we liked showing off from an early age,’ she laughs.
Liza spent her early years in Staffordshire, then moved to Australia when she was 15 when her father, David, was appointed head of drama at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
While living down under she played Juliet in the TV mini series Love and War and, famously, Clancy in Skippy: The Bush Kangaroo.
When she returned to the UK, she made her name in the groundbreaking series Take Three Girls.
‘It was the first drama series in colour, the first drama series to star young women and the first to have a pop song as a theme tune. It was extraordinary,’ she says.
Other credits include comedy series such as Pig in the Middle, Roll Over Beethoven and That’s Love, as well as Doctor Who, Bergerac, and Mrs Jessop in the much-loved children’s TV series Woof! about a boy who could turn into a dog, which was directed by her husband.
‘It was fantastic doing comedy in the 70s and 80s because you did them in front of a live audience,’ she says.
‘You would rehearse for a few days and then you would have a live audience. It was marvellous because it gave you a boost of adrenaline and lifted you and I think comedy definitely benefits from that.
‘On stage I’ve been lucky enough, thanks to [theatre impresario] Bill Kenwright, to play all the Oscar Wildes, so Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Mrs Erlynne in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Mrs Cheveley in An Ideal Husband and Lady Hunstanton in A Woman of No Importance.
‘I’ve also been very fortunate to work for Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough - I’ve been in eight [plays] directed by him and four of those were new plays. It’s just the most magical theatrical experience of my life, working in that theatre.’
Despite having spent much of her career on the small screen, Liza says that she rarely watches TV – although she did enjoy The Last Kingdom, Peaky Blinders and The Witcher.
Instead, she loves to read and give her imagination a workout - and she’s been a member of her village book club for around a year.
‘I read two or three books a week,’ she says, adding that she’s recently enjoyed the latest Mick Herron, The Secret Hours.
‘Sometimes I just go to a bookshop and think “that’s a nice cover” and I choose that not knowing the author. It’s very good belonging to a book club because I’ve read things in the last year which I never would have chosen, and it’s been very educational for me.’
Noises Off is at Norwich Theatre Royal from November 7-11. Box office: norwichtheatre.org/01603 630000.
