Call the Midwife's Scottish stalwart Georgie Glen: 'I don’t just want to be an old biddy in a hat'

We speak of that later, but what of this Scots actor from Helensburgh who is seemingly omnipresent on TV and rarely out of work? It’s hard to flick the remote without seeing Glen having transformed herself into Audrey in Waterloo Road, Miss Higgins in Call the Midwife – or Lady Fermoy in The Crown and Lady Bluff-Gore in The Larkins.

But how has she managed to work continually in a business that’s more competitive than Netfilx's Squid Game?

Glen offers up a recent story which offers real insight. “During Covid, I made quite a few self-tapes for auditions, and with one in particular I got quite far down the line of the process,” she explains, in a voice that barely hints of Helensburgh.

“But I couldn’t quite get the character in the script into my head. I couldn’t work out what to do with her. And it actually got to the point I couldn’t bear trying again.”

So, she walked away from the project? “I did. You see, I need to have a hook to begin work. You look in the script for the obvious clues, but if you don’t see them . . .” She smiles. “I don’t, for example, just want to be seen as an old biddy in a hat. I always want to fill the brief of the script – yet I need to find something about this person I can use in performance. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

Glen’s stance is particularly remarkable when you consider the competition for action work, and the fact that she may be a household face, but not a household name. But that doesn’t seem to matter. “I remember when I started Midwife the characters were written so as to balance each other, to make for an interesting mix and create the drama. Yet, I sort of fight against that, if I’m honest. I don’t want to play an outline, just a buttoned up, sniffy woman, for example. I have to find a reality.”

How does she do that? “In Midwife, I realised that I’m the same age now [she’s 65] my mother would have been at this point in the 1960s, so I am my mother now. And that helped inform my character.” She says: “When you have this character note you can deliver a snippy line in such a way that indicates there’s a bit of history there, that she’s a bit vulnerable.”

Georgie Glen is most definitely a person who will stand her ground. “I don’t want to be pigeon-holed. I’ve had directors who are not that interested in a 60-something woman. They are more interested in the young people snogging in the next scene. So, I know I have to create something.”

It’s this determination to make each role real that allows Glen to leap from playing ladies of the manor to ladies-in-waiting? She has also revealed a great comedy touch in the likes of The Fast Show with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. (“I love Harry. Such a lovely, well brought up young man.”)

Yet, the Scot reveals she didn’t grow up with plans to become Glenda Jackson or Diana Rigg. She never assumed for a second that she could make it as an actor. “My dad [the MD of Westclox] played piano and saxophone, and there was fun at home after dinner – it all sounds rather Victorian – but I never felt to take this further. I never appeared in plays at school.”

Glen may have had a lurking desire to take the stage – but not the self-confidence. As a result, her connection with theatrical productions was as the helper with the set.

Rather than apply to drama college, she studied graphic design at Glasgow School of Art and in her mid-twenties moved to London to work for a book publisher, designing covers.

It was the evening loneliness that prompted Glen to look at night classes. Unconsciously, she signed up for performance-related subjects, like Tap Dancing for Beginners, or Solo Singing for Beginners.

Glen loved the chance to develop self-expression. A little more buoyed, she auditioned for Questors Theatre Company in Ealing, watched the semi-professionals at work and learned, gradually taking on small roles.

Yet, she still wasn’t clamouring to take on a leading role. "I loved the world but I wasn't desperate to be up there on stage. The first part I had was in The Philanthropist and I didn't have a line to say. And it was perfect."

Glen attended Questors every night. Always mad keen. Always early. But her acting voice wasn’t screaming to be heard. Thankfully, a great encourager appeared one night who pushed her to take the next step.

Alan Rickman (who had also been a graphic designer and gone into acting in his late twenties) watched her perform. Glen reckons fate had kicked in. "Sometimes I think the universe takes control of our lives," she says. "This was one example. Alan said to me 'Write off to drama school. Tomorrow!' And I did. Literally. But if I hadn't been accepted, I'd have walked away from professional acting."

Glen studied drama at Bristol Old Vic, where her contemporaries included Mark Strong and Jeremy Northam. And the universe took control once again on the last day of drama school when Glen was offered a job at the Wolsley Theatre in Ipswich. Rep theatre taught her to do "anything and everything". She had a wonderful experience, gradually learning her craft. "I'm sad young actors don't get the chance to do the range."

Yet, while stage confidence grew, Glen became convinced she would never land the major roles, which perhaps endorsed her belief she needn’t bother trying out for them in the first place. She speaks of ‘having a face like a squashed cabbage’, revealing a strong sense of self-deprecation. Yet, she is also underlining the truth, which is that the entertainment world favours those who look good in a bikini.

Glen chose to play to her strengths, which meant acting very well and going for ‘character parts.’ “I know all acting should be character parts, but I think we know what that means. It's playing the Nurse rather than Juliet. It's being the Maid rather than the Queen."

Throughout her career, Glen has been happy to be part of the supporting cast. She was a handmaiden to Dame Judi's Victoria in Mrs Brown and was entirely happy with that. Glen would have played the Queen – but only if the Queen was a supporting player in the drama.

But surely it must have been galling at times to be playing a supporting character when you have the talent to play the lead? "Don't get me wrong, it's not great when you are in a TV show, or a play and the donuts come round, and you are bypassed because your part is so small, and you haven't even shaken hands with the director. I like to be respected as a supporting actor. But then again, I believe there's no such thing as a small part.”

Which is why she does her damnedest with every role, no matter how few lines she has. “It’s a great job. It’s a lovely job. But I realise many actors can disappear from the public consciousness very easily. Which is why you have to try your hardest every single time.”

Glen’s efforts have clearly been noted. “I’m really lucky to be offered varied parts. If you’re Suranne Jones or someone like that you’re not going to get the chance to create a different profile. But I’ll be given a period suit to wear, or a pair of shoes – and I’m away.”

That’s if she can find a way to play the character, of course. Glen brought her usual critical overview to bear when offered the role of Vivien in Who Are You? Award-winning playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker’s new audio play tells the story of Vivian, who lives alone at the top of a hill.

However, one day, she returns from collecting firewood to discover she is no longer alone. “Suddenly this ‘presence’ appears. Is it a real person? Is it a voice in her head? She finds herself asking and debating a series of questions about modern day existence. Is she speaking to a living person? Are they her conscience? Is she going slightly mad?”

Is Presence the conscience of the world, asking questions about the world’s ecosystem?

Glen, as is so often the case, didn’t immediately leap to accept the role. Not because she didn’t think the writing weren’t terrific but because she wasn’t sure how to play Vivien. “It took me a while before I said yes. But then I realised that this woman is me.”

The actor, like most of us, questions her true commitment to ecology. “My character says, ‘I don’t know what you want me to do.’ I think we all feel like that at times. I don’t think I’m a bad person but it makes you think about how much we could be doing. Should we encourage the bees to live in our gardens? Should we be putting up a fence around our part of the environment when, really, we have no right to do that?

“This story is saying we’re not doing enough. It’s a bit like a Beckett play. We’re not going to realise the hopelessness of the situation until it’s too late.”

Glen adds, with a gentle grin: “She doesn’t realise what she’s not doing to help. I’m a bit like that. For example, I drive a car up to Helensburgh.”

Sadly, not so often these days. A short time before Covid arrived at our doors, Glen’s mother died. “She was 99 and still living at home. But I’m relieved that it happened when it did. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I couldn’t have been with her.

“I’m really sad about all of those people who were in that position. It must have been horrendous. We were fortunate in that we were all with her.”

Has she been able to cope with the loss? “It was a mixed thing. She had been in my life for 63 years. We were very close. I got married in 1988 and before that I’d go on holiday with my mum. She was one of my best friends.

“When I got married, we stopped our little jaunts but looking back she must have missed those little trips to Cornwall or Devon. And to be honest I’m not even sure if I’ve processed it [the loss]. It’s like slightly unfinished business.

“We went up to Helensburgh in the summer and it’s the first time I realised I don’t have a home there. Before she died, I still had my room there. There were drawers with my old stuff in them.”

And David Cassidy posters on the walls? “Not quite,” she laughs. “The posters were from Jesus Christ Superstar.”

She adds: “My dad died 28 years ago. But all of his stuff was still there as well. The clearing of the house was an extraordinary experience. But then you realise we’ve all got to go. It was a gentle passing. It wasn’t distressing. It was nature. It’s much harder if someone younger leaves us.”

Georgie Glen had the support of her twin daughters (she leaned away from theatre towards television when Eleanor and Holly arrived) and actor husband Richard Braine. But was coping with lockdown and Covid traumatic? “Well, we managed to keep on filming Midwife, all carefully controlled. As an actor you do spend a lot of time on your own. In Midwife, we’re all apart in our little caravans eating our meals which have been pre-ordered which makes it quite insular. And on set we’re at least two metres away from each other, which is not acting as I’ve ever known it.”

She adds in heavy voice. “I don’t think we’re ever going to get back to where we were before. This is a major gamechanger.”

When not working, Glen didn’t spend her days watching daytime telly. “My daughters had an idea to put an ad in a local paper, to make mince pies and surprise deliver them here in Suffolk. And we took them to people in nursing homes. And we did a bit of Zooming, a quiz every week – until the smiles became a bit glazed.”

Now, she’s working again full time. All the time, it seems. And Georgie Glen’s track records suggest that will continue as long as she continues to accept the offers.

“Ooooh, I don’t want to tempt fate,” she says in deliberately dramatic voice. “What if it never happens again?”

She pauses to offer evidence of why no actor should take the career for granted. “After Waterloo Road, which was the first regular part I ever played, I did a Disney series called Evermoor, which was also great. But I read the script one day and I bounced up to the director saying, ‘What happens to me when I go off to this strange land?’ And his face revealed that my character would never appear again. It happens. But then Midwife happened.”

Glen joined to appear in just one Christmas episode. "Then they booked me for the next two. And the next two. And so on. But I’ve never had the feeling of ‘Yippee – I’m part of the show!’ I just wait to see if I get asked back.”

So, who is Georgie Glen? Clearly, she’s a grafter, an intelligent gifted actor who takes nothing for granted. Her ambition, it seems, is to keep on working, so long as she feels she can bring something a bit special to the role.

And she’s modest to the point of daftness. "I was once offered an Ayckbourn lead in A Woman in Mind. But I watched Julia Mackenzie do it in the West End and I thought I couldn't do it justice. I feel the weight of responsibility far too much."

Glen may have played lady-in-waiting to Dame Judy twice – in Shakespeare in Love and Mrs Brown – yet she has no desire to play a queen. “I still have an ensemble spirit,” she says, grinning. “I’m happy to do the jobs I’m offered, and to serve those parts, because each is as important as the other.”

Who are You? (29-31 Oct) is the final play in the opening of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, from October 29-31, a Naked Production from the new audio-digital venture Sound Stage.

Key Productions in the Life of Georgie Glen.

• Trombone player in Helensburgh’s Orchestra Club.

• Wolsey Rep Theatre in Ipswich.

• The National Theatre.

• Harry Enfield and Chums.

• Heartbeat

• Calendar Girls.

• The Thick of It

• Inside Number Nine

• The Crown

• The Snowman (narrator)