In The Words Of

By Carl Marsh

One year on, I am still driving my Asda van, not as much as I was 12 months ago, but I am still doing what needs to be done to earn a wage. I can only hope that swimming pools can reopen soon to continue with my teaching of lessons.

I want to recommend a few TV series to watch, but something tells me you will be aware - unless you live on the moon. Line of Duty has returned. I have not seen episode one yet, but I’m excited for what this series can hopefully bring based on the last five series. Keeping Faith is also back for a final season. I have seen the first episode of this, and all I can say is it’s impactful, and Eve nails it like she always does. This third (and last) series has a time jump of 18 months to 2 years in the future, and we find that Steve has ended up living in the woods, and Faith is not with him. Faith also has set up her own law firm. I am saying nothing else. Just get stuck in! And if Eve Myles reads this (I’m told she does read the magazine) - the last scene, yikes!

Interviews

This month, I enjoyed chatting with two immensely talented women in their respective fields of work. Melanie Blake, our cover star, is the author of Ruthless Women, a fictional tale about the goings-on (and off) of soap operas. Melanie has plenty of experience of this world that her book is set in, seeing as she has been working in it for over 20 years. As I said already, it’s fictional but based on real characters! My second interview is a real treat as it’s with one of the world’s biggest rising stars in the acting world, and she’s Welsh and from Penarth! Morfydd Clark has been in so many productions, last seen in Saint Maud, Eternal Beauty and His Dark Materials. She is now filming in New Zealand for the Amazon Prime series of the Lord of the Rings. Morfydd is now nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star award, and we can all do our bit by voting for her. The link is at the bottom of the interview I did with her.

That is all!

I will see you next month, so do stay sane, keep healthy, and have as good a month as best as you can!

Carl Marsh

Twitter - @InTheWordsOf_CM Facebook - @InTheWordsOf YouTube - InTheWordsOf

With one bestseller under her belt with Thunder Girls and a sold-out tour of the theatrical shows, Melanie Blake has another bestseller on her hands here with Ruthless Women. Having been on Australian TV that morning, she was about

Carl Marsh

I’ve read the book, and based on my own experiences, the characters are authentic, maybe too real. Very early on, we get to meet a character called Jake Monroe; people like him - embarrassingly - do exist, don’t they?

Melanie Blake

Jake Monroe is absolutely real. When I wrote that book, I got (something) like 50 emails from actors, and I thought no actress in the world would ever speak to me again. Soap operas are their bread and butter. This book does not paint soap operas in a good light. My favourite review is that it’s ‘The Devil Wears Prada of the soap industry because it can only be written by an insider’. (Actress) Stephanie Beacham quoted that too.

Carl Marsh

And of your friends and contacts in the entertainment industry, you must have ruffled quite a few feathers?

Melanie Blake

You should see my inbox. It’s full of threats. I literally send them back and type, “Listen, you’re lucky that I’ve not named you!” - and they shut up quickly. And I will tell you this when the readers meet the characters of Ruthless Women, they’ll be thinking: “Oh my God, some of these characters that are supposedly nice, yet are so awful, can’t possibly be true?” Well, I’ll tell you, dear readers, if you want to know who’s nice in show-business. You watch for the woman holding up the biggest ‘Be Kind’ sign because she is stone-cold nasty: Every-single-time! The nice woman, the woman who is the salt of the earth, the woman who will treat you with respect. She doesn’t need to hold up a sign saying ‘Be Kind’. But equally, I’ve been overwhelmed with women saying, ‘Thank you for sharing our story. I’ve had Beverly Callard and Kate Ford (Coronation Street) quote; Samantha Giles, Gaynor Faye and Claire King (Emmerdale), and even Sally Lindsay. They’ve all tweeted. This is a toxic book, you would think they would stay a million miles away from it as it’s their bread and butter, but they’re drawn (to it) like a moth to a flame, saying: “You have to read this book, guys”. And what does that mean? They want people to know.

Carl Marsh

Well, I loved the book too. Even before I read it, on the back of the book, I read the blurb, and it says: ‘Hell hath no fury like a ruthless woman scorned’, and it always bugged me

Melanie Blake

Thank you so much for saying that, because that book was turned down by 30 publishers, who told me - and we obviously can’t spoil it for the readers - (spoilers deleted) “Are you joking?” And I said: “You need to trust me, I know what I am doing”. And when you get to it [the ending], every single bit of it makes sense. For me, what I have loved is to read the reader reviews. Apart from The Times, none of the (other) high brows are reviewing this. I am the only person in the Sunday Times Top 10 that is working-class, uneducated, as I’m educated in the school of life. I’ve got no qualifications. I’ve not got a degree. I’m not a Booker Prize winner. I’m not a female Prize winner. I’m an outsider in that top 10. And therefore, I’m being ignored by the establishment. Four weeks a Sunday Times bestseller, and not a single review in any of the high-end newspapers, because they do not want (to know) the fact that I have written a book that the real people of this country will love. And with the publishers that turned it down, they didn’t want something out there - and coining a weird phrase when you’re an agent where they’d go: “it’s the wrong money”! And that’s because they want to be cool. I don’t want to be cool. I want to be popular.

Carl Marsh

When you wrote this book, was it before or during all of this COVID stuff?

Melanie Blake

I wrote the book for 17 hours, seven days a week, in the first lockdown. I had been an agent for 20 years. And I’ve been reporting to actresses living all their lives, bankruptcies, betrayal, sackings, whatever. Like, I didn’t know what to do with myself when the agency closed down because of COVID. So, for some reason, I went to work and reported to these fictitious women of Falcon Bay, where I then told their story like a medium. I felt like Whoopi Goldberg. It literally just came out of me. And I was just putting it out there. When I read it back, I just thought that this is either the craziest thing in the world, or this book will go all over the world. It’s now translated into Hungarian, Romanian, and Russian. It’s in Australia, America, Canada. It’s insane. Literally, it’s going all over-the-world.

Photographer: Guy Coombes, Stylist: Paris Mitchell Temple, Hair and Make-Up: Kath Gould.

Penarth’s Morfydd Clark is an actress that is going places, her last movie role, as Maud in Saint Maud, blew everybody away, so much so that she has been nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star award this year. Currently filming the Amazon Prime Lord of the Rings (LOTR) series in New Zealand, I had a very early morning video call with her.

Carl Marsh

You’ve been nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star award 2021, and I know you’ve worked with many people to get you to this glorious position where you are, so of them, who would you say has had the most significant influence?

Morfydd Clark

I would say it’s Gary Owen (Welsh playwright). I’ve been really lucky to be in two plays of his, and one of which was my first play in London. The play Violence and Son was life-changing for me because it was just the most amazing play and most brilliant character. It was also about lots of things that I was very interested in in terms of kind of consent, the legacy of our parents and grandparents, and being on (the) stage in London. Then I did The Cherry Orchard in the Sherman Theatre, and being on the stage that I’d seen plays on all through my childhood was a wonderful thing. I think many people who have

Carl Marsh

Had it not been for what you are filming right now (Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings), I know you would have been leading the way in many US movie productions, as you’ve already made those foundations in Hollywood with your stellar performance in Saint Maud. Does a part of you wish you hadn’t signed up for this lengthy filming schedule [reportedly seven years] as more options would have come your way?

Morfydd Clark

I am finding (with) this new stage of my career where I have the luxury of choice, inducing because you have different paths that could happen. But in terms of [LOTR] - I’ve never done a series, and I’m really enjoying the new challenge of that because it is the long game, And I also love series’. I love films, but I’m always sad when they’re done at two hours. I’m always like, “When’s the sequel”, “Is there a prequel to this?” And so, I’m really glad to be a part of something that I love. At the moment, I’m obsessed with Black Sails and The Last Kingdom. And Black Sails only had four series — which is sad!

Carl Marsh

We want Wales to get behind you by voting for this public voted BAFTA Award nomination. What message have you got for them to vote for Morfydd Clark, as I know we can’t force anyone to vote (laughs)?

Morfydd Clark

I don’t know if it’s “Why vote for Morfydd Clark?”, but I just feel that as I’m far away from home at the moment. And I’ve been living away from Wales for a long time, and I do think that if I hadn’t been Welsh, I very well may not have pursued acting or had so many of the experiences within the arts that I have. I’m incredibly grateful for the privileges of being Welsh that I’d had no concept of when growing up there, and they’re now so much more apparent. I’m just really thankful to have grown up in Wales.

Please vote for Morfydd Clark via this link to BAFTA: https://ee.co.uk/why-ee/ee-baftas#rising

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