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Fascinated by her latest role: actress
Tracy-Ann Oberman |
Lady Porter role is so tough for Tracy-Ann
Television star finds disgraced politician ‘fascinating’
FORMER EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman says that her performance as disgraced politician Shirley Porter was one of the “toughest of her life”.
In her first interview since recording the BBC radio play about the former leader of Westminster City Council last week, Ms Oberman, who gripped audiences with her turn as Queen Vic murderess Chrissie Watts in the hit soap, said she became infatuated with Lady Porter’s character.
The play recounts the rise and fall of the now exiled Tesco heiress, from her early days as a councillor to the “rotten” 1980s and her execution of the infamous housing policy that gave way to one of the biggest local government scandals in history – now ingrained in the public lexicon as Homes for Votes.
It is due to be aired on Radio 4 next year.
Ms Oberman, 40, said: “I vaguely remembered Porter and the scandal but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you much about it. Then I read the book [Andrew Hosken’s Nothing Like a Dame: The scandals of Shirley Porter on which the play is based] and I was gripped. She is a fascinating character.
“What we tried to get across in the play was, not that she was misunderstood but that she did have a human side. In her way I think she was convinced she was doing a good thing.
“She could also be incredibly funny, in a repulsive, Spitting Image-type, way. She was more nuanced than Chrissie, who was also part victim part villain, so I had that experience behind me. It was definitely one of the toughest performances of my life.”
Ms Oberman now hopes to be cast in a stage spin-off of the play Shirleymander.
Lady Porter never faced any criminal charges for the policy, which saw thousands of Labour-supporting council tenants moved into asbestos-ridden flats.
Now aged 78, Lady Porter lives in Israel. In 2004 she paid more than £12million in surcharge settlement to Westminster City Council following investigations and court action. |
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