TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO 4
WITH COLIN PATERSON
6.11.2017

TOYAH: It's the most defensive script I've ever read. It's political. It's sexual. It's rude. It's abusive and it's shocking.

COLIN: Toyah Willcox on the first ever stage adaptation of "Jubilee" 40 years after the late director Derek Jarman's film

TOYAH: It is the first ever punk rock movie to be made. We shot it in a bombed out part of London, near Tower Bridge, which is now the most expensive real estate area in the world. So the whole kind of weirdness of what we have today in comparison to back then is actually addressed in the play.

COLIN: In the original film Toyah played "Mad", a pyromaniac in a murderous girl gang. For the stage version at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre she has swapped roles, playing Elizabeth the 1st who time travels to see what has become of her country. The script has been updated and will be changed every day to reflect what's in the news.

TOYAH: It's a very sexually political version of "Jubilee". There's seven murders, very graphic murders within the play. And I think about five full on sex scenes. I think we constantly need to be reminded that life isn't always about comfort and shopping. I think it's one of the cleverest things I've ever been in.

COLIN: However, during the final week of rehearsals, it was decided to cut the section of the original script where "Amyl Nitrate" explains her manifesto for life, and describes the Moors murderer and Myra Hindley as a "hero" and a "true artist" for realising her dreams. The speech was in the play until late on ... what changed?

TOYAH: There's been discussion all along, group discussions, about whether that line should stay in. I think Derek Jarman put it in 40 years ago into the original film because of the shock factor and punks in the beginning did do things to shock. But as punk had its maturity and it developed ... for me punk took on a social responsibility and gave voice to those that were marginalised.

And I think today it undermines the whole play if in the opening scene there is homage to Myra Hindley. We all agreed as a group, who are performing in Manchester, that it was beyond disrespectful. I couldn't bear to even hear Myra Hindley's name. We did not want people going out of the theatre, not hearing the message of the brilliant politics within the play, because of this one line

COLIN: You've had a remarkable career. There was the early 1980's, all the Top 10 singles and the Smash Hits awards. You did fims starring with Katharine Hepburn and Sir Laurence Olivier. Still, maybe, the work heard by the most people ... is the Teletubbies?

TOYAH: Isn't that ironic? I put the top and the end voice on, it was a favour to a friend. The only time I needed security on the streets was during the arrival of Teletubbies. It was extraordinary!

COLIN: It was just two lines you did? One at the start and one at the end?

TOYAH: Yes, I wasn't even seen - it was just my voice. "The sun is setting in the sky. Teletubbies say goodbye."

COLIN: What would the punks in 1977 have made of you doing Teletubbies?

TOYAH: I think they'd have loved it because I think Teletubbies was brilliantly surreal

You can listen to the interview HERE