Lesley Manville Remembers... Top Girls

With an acting career that started in the 1970s, Lesley Manville is an established star of stage and screen, with TV roles ranging from Emmerdale to Harlots, films such as High Hopes and Phantom Thread and a stage career ranging from the RSC to the forefront of British writing at the famous Royal Court theatre. She is perfectly placed to tell us about Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, a play that quickly established itself as a landmark in British theatre. In 1982 she was part of the original cast, a production that garnered awards and a Broadway transfer. In 1991, she returned to the play for the BBC, playing the lead in a version led by the show’s original director, Max Stafford Clark.

Lesley tells us about her memories of the original stage show, how a cast that included Gwen Taylor and Lyndsay Duncan came to be aware of the power of what they were involved in. She explains some of the themes behind Churchill’s writing, the rise of Thatcherism, the impact that had on feminism, a woman gaining power but at the cost of her values. She discusses the cast, her memories of filming, the difference between acting the piece on stage as opposed to TV. But mostly she reinforces the role that Churchill’s work has established, not just in this country, but around the world, a play that to this day still speaks volumes.