No.1 for Interviews - Bernie Nolan
Bernie Nolan

The actress and singer tells Emma Hayley Dixon why she doesn’t miss singing with her sisters and how she never fails to shock her fellow cast members with her ability to party.

Bernie Nolan is a name familiar to many of us. As one member of arguably the hardest working family in showbiz, Bernie has been entertaining the nation, one way or another, for over 30 years. The success she had with her siblings in their pop group The Nolan Sisters, led to TV, theatre work and the release of solo material.

She has starred in The Bill and Brookside and is now heading to Glasgow for a stint in the ever-popular musical Flashdance. We caught up with the 48-year-old for a chinwag about her latest role and what it was like to tour with Ol’ Blue Eyes.

You’ve been successful for years – what’s the secret to surviving and working for so long in the entertainment industry?
Talent! I think longevity does have to do with talent. If you can do it then you can go for auditions and get work, which I’ve been doing for the last 12 years. If I hadn’t been able to it then I’d have fizzled out by now – but I keep getting the jobs. I don’t mean to sound big headed but I think with a lot of groups these days it’s overnight success and then you don’t hear from them again. Noel Sullivan is in Flashdance with me, and he was in Hear’Say. He’s talented – a great singer and actor – and you can tell he’s got what it takes to go on and on. It helps having more than one string to your bow – I can sing and act.

How did you get into acting after having done music for so long?
I did lots of work when I was still in the group. When I left the group I did shows and then I did Blood Brothers for three years. From there the Brookside people called my agent and I went for the audition thinking, ‘There’s no way I’ll get it’ but I did! I love acting and I’d like to get back into telly again.

Do you ever miss singing with your sisters in the group?
I don’t actually. I did it for 21 years and that’s a long time. We had a fantastic career, sold millions of records and had a great laugh but when I left it was time to move on. In some ways, I think I should have left earlier. You’ve got so much more independence as a solo artist – you don’t have to look to other people for approval and if I do an interview, everything I say is coming from me. I used to get in to trouble with the group saying, ‘Well why did you say that?’ and I’d say, ‘I said it for me not for you!’ You were always just lumped together. Also, you don’t have to split your money five ways! [laughs].
 
You’re starring in a stage production of Flashdance – tell us how you got into that?
My agent set me up for the audition and I got the part! It’s always a very exciting process – it can be disappointing but in this case it wasn’t – I was chuffed to bits. I loved the movie in the 80s, that’s my era!

Do you have to do any wild dance sequences?
I play the mother so my part is mostly acting and singing. I do like dancing, I used to dance a lot, but I leave that to the young girls now – they’re amazing. It’s quite good for me because I’m a major part of the story and that’s great because I love acting.
How do you keep fit for all of the shows you take part in?
We have two shows at the weekend back to back, which can be quite hard – for the dancers not for me though. It’s not very physically taxing for me at all – mentally it can be, you have to be really on your mark. You have to be careful with your voice, I have a cold at the minute and that makes it touch and go whether I can go on. I did last night though and it was fine. It‘s one big party on the road to be honest with you, so the tendency is to overeat, over drink, stay up late – so you have to say to yourself at some point, ‘Right, I need to slow down and have a rest.’ I’m still as bad as all of the younger cast members – I think they thought that I’d be a good influence because I’m older but it’s quite the opposite to be honest, which they’re quite surprised about.

How do you prepare before going onstage – do you have any little rituals?
I always get in about an hour before the half hour call. I always put the kettle on and have a cup of tea and then we have vocal warm-ups. But I don’t have any superstitious rituals, I’ve been in the business too long now.

How do you fit it all in with a family?
It’s difficult but my husband gave up his career to look after our daughter. For the last eight years I’ve been in telly so I’ve been home all the time. I just started touring again last year. But my daughter’s been fantastic – she’s nine now and very secure – we have a great relationship with her and her with us. She knows that I’ll be going away but she knows I’ll be back. She spends all of her summer holidays on tour with me which she loves and I try to get home every Saturday night, no matter where I am I’ll drive or fly and then we spend our Sundays together. Sometimes I can commute from a venue so then I can take her to school and pick her up from school, then go to the show. You have to just try and work it round children really.

Does she enjoy sitting in the audience and seeing her mum up on stage?
Oh yes she loves it. She wants to be a singer unfortunately [laughs].

You do a lot of charity work, tell us a little about that?
I’m a Patron of S.A.N.D.S, which is the Stillbirth And Neonatal Death Society because I had a child who died at birth, so I try to do as much for them as I can. Two of my sisters have had breast cancer as well so I try to do work for them too.

You toured with Frank Sinatra in 1975, that must have been an experience – did you get to spend any time getting to know Ol’ Blue Eyes?
We were all brought up on Sinatra’s music from a young age, and my dad had bought two tickets on the black market for a show. He was going to have one himself and one was going to be raffled amongst the family. But then we got the call to say we’d be on the tour, well we all just screamed! It was so good because he was my dad’s hero and I got to take him backstage at the Royal Albert Hall and say ‘Mr Sinatra, this is my father’. My dad was completely gobsmacked. Frank was really nice to us, he’d come and say hello before the shows and he bought us all a present at the end. It was such a fantastic experience.

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