Mad
About Alice - Amanda Holden plays Alice
 We've
seen her out for revenge in Cutting It, playing for laughs in The
Grimleys and hunting for a husband on the West End stage, but never
before as a mother figure.
Yet
Amanda Holden's latest TV role is the one she'd most like to tackle
off screen – if only she could find the time.
When Amanda Holden trills, "Everything today is thoroughly
modern!" in tonight's West End performance of Thoroughly Modern
Millie, she could quite easily be singing the theme tune for BBC
ONE's Mad About Alice.
In
the new family sitcom, Amanda and co-star Jamie Theakston play Alice
and Doug, a couple who split up long before their marriage was over
and who, because of their nine-year old son, Joe, are still very
much a part of each other's lives.
"It's
a good reflection of family life as it is now. Something like one
in three families have parents who are separated these days and
there's no such thing as the 2.4 kids family anymore – modern
families are a lot more confusing," says Amanda of the series,
which also stars Gregory's Girl favourite John Gordon Sinclair.
Alice and Doug's relationship certainly has its fair share of confusion
– not least because, though both are seeing other people,
there are still times when they're forced to think and behave like
a couple again: when organising Joe's birthday surprises, or answering
his awkward questions about why a woman might be impressed by the
size of a man's lunchbox...
"It
was a completely different thing for me because I've never played
a mother before," says the 32-year old blonde.
"To
play somebody who has a kid and is quite chaotic and disorganised
really appealed to me. I always seem to get either very nice girl-next-door
roles or very glamorous, rich girls, so it was lovely for me to
play that part."
Amanda
speaks warmly of her fellow cast members, in particular Jamie, whom
she describes as a gifted performer, but she reserves her highest
praise for the show's youngest stars.
"The
kids were just fabulous," she laughs.
"Billy,
who plays my son, Joe, is cute as hell and the little girl, Jessica,
was just adorable. For me, she has the best lines and she steals
the whole show – though I think she was basing her character
on the Addams Family.
"I
was very fond of both the children – they were very grown
up and adult … and when they weren't, it was even better
because it meant that Jamie and I had someone to play with!"
Amanda's
first experience of being a mum has also confirmed something that
she already had a good inkling about – especially now that
she's armed with an answer to the inevitable lunchbox question (something
to do with the size of his sarnies, apparently):
"I
definitely know that children are in my future – definitely,"
she smiles. "Though I've probably got a bit too much on at
the moment…"
She's
got a good point - in October, Amanda returned to the West End stage
for the first time in 10 years, wowing critics in the starring role
of the jazz-age American musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. As the
actress points out, a baby bump could hardly be hidden behind a
string of flapper beads.
Nor
is it particularly compatible with the rigorous exercise regime
Amanda has embarked upon to keep on top of the role. There's more
to this part than the Louise Brooks bob, you know.
"Literally
since last June, I've had tap dancing lessons, ballet lessons, I've
been in the gym, I've had tennis lessons to get my stamina up. It's
really demanding but it's such a challenge. I'm so exposed, I'm
so out there every single night," says Amanda, clearly delighted
to be treading – or rather tapping – the boards again.
"It's
such a fluffy, feel good show that even if I were in the most miserable
of moods, I'd cheer up after the first number. Without sounding
like Miss World, the company I'm working with are just the nicest
bunch of people ever and I'm having a really good time."
Amanda
has grown particularly close to co-star Maureen Lipman: "She's
fabulous, she's a real woman's woman – very strong, very feisty
and really supportive of me. It's great to work with someone you've
admired for so long, to see how she does it … and to find
out she's as neurotic as the rest of us."
Like
her Mad About Alice playmates Billy and Jessica, Amanda caught the
entertainment bug young.
Growing
up in Bishops Waltham, near Winchester, she would treat her mum,
sister and stepdad to regular shows – making her diva-style
entrances wrapped in a pink blanket emblazoned with the words 'Dancing
Queen'.
"I
used to rush down on a Sunday, turn the telly off – even if
they were watching it – and make up song-and-dance routines,"
says the actress, who had also perfected her Oscar acceptance speech
by the age of nine.
Fortunately,
Amanda's ever-patient family encouraged her blossoming talent and
were hugely supportive when, aged 17, she left home to join London's
Mountview Drama School.
"It
was strange being in a room full of people just like me and trying
to get my voice heard," Amanda once said. But that didn't hold
her back for long.
After
roles in The Bill, Goodness Gracious Me! and Jonathan Creek she
landed her first major TV part in the BBC's Kiss Me Kate and was
soon on her way to juicier roles in the dramas Hearts And Bones
and Cutting It.
But
there is, she reveals, yet more excitement to come – and Mrs
Holden had better dig out that Dancing Queen blanket.
"We're
going to be making the cast album of Thoroughly Modern Millie at
Abbey Road Studios in the New Year, so I'm really excited!
I'm going to pretend I'm a pop star!" she giggles.
While
we're on the subject of pop stars, there is, Amanda confirms,
absolutely no truth in the rumour that she's lined up to appear
in a celebrity version of a certain reality TV music show.
"No!
Absolutely one hundred per cent no way! Simon Cowell can go away
– he can come and see Millie and he can judge me on that performance
but that's the only performance he can judge me on!
"I
definitely wouldn't do one of those programmes – I have enough
people scrutinising me without that," she laughs, ruefully.
Amanda
does reveal, however, that she hopes to make a splash in Australia
in 2004.
"I'll
finish in Millie next summer and I really want to go to Australia
because I'm a keen diver," she says.
"I
just want to see the world but I think I'll have to do it gradually.
My sister lives in Thailand so I think my boyfriend, Chris, and
I will go there too, then come back and do a bit of work to pay
for the next trip."
And
though for years Amanda has laughed off suggestions that she could
'do a Catherine Zeta-Jones' and hot foot it over to Hollywood, it
has not escaped her attention that LA might make an ideal stopover.
"It
would be fantastic [to work in LA] – I have a great manager
out there who's constantly begging me to go over and is getting
lots of people to come and see me in the show over here.
"But
I'm not brave enough to sit and wait for it to happen and turn down
work in England.
"I'm
also not sure I'd like to live there … though since
I've gone on a big health regime and I'm not drinking,
I'm eating healthily and I'm keeping fit, I practically
am Mrs LA at the moment!"
This,
coupled with Amanda's admission that her ideal next role would be
a musical film – "I would have loved to have done Chicago"
– can only mean one thing.
Watch
out Catherine – it can't be long before they're mad about
Amanda over there too.
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