Never short of drama...

JUDITH, still working hard at 70

Martyn meets... local acting legend Judith Barker
CLARKSFIELD was a quite brilliant school in the 1960s - a fact I am now able to acknowledge, having discovered the astonishing number of now-famous people educated there.

I don’t count myself among them, of course; but the latest “old girl” of the school I’ve met is Judith Barker, one of the borough’s most celebrated actors.

Judith reached 70 just days before we chatted in the magnificent house she shares with husband Kenneth Alan Taylor — yes, the giant of English pantomime — in Springhead.

And she behaves like she has just left our old school — with a girlish glee that exudes enthusiasm about just about everything.

There is a joie de vivre about Judith, a sense that all is well in her world and ever more shall be.

Her home is her castle, a haven of tranquility - though she is delighted when this serenity is shattered by visits from any of her five grandchildren.

There is pride, too - unspoken, but clearly the result of a life well-lived, with plenty more to come.

At 70, Judith continues to work, though concedes she is “more selective” about the parts she accepts these days - like her cameo in current hit series “Scott and Bailey” on ITV, crime drama based in our area and starring another local actress, Suranne Jones.

Judith plays the mother of Janet Scott - Lesley Sharp’s waspish character - and though most of her scenes are shot in Cheetham Hill it’s a part she enjoys. “It’s a long way to go, but I do enjoy it.”

Judith’s home Manor House is a fitting residence for Judith and her relentlessly active spouse (76-year-old Ken wasn’t at home because he was working at the Manchester International Festival); all three are magnificent edifices, with class and character in their very fabric.

Not that Judith is idle, exactly: when we met she was 48 hours from a shatteringly-expansive production involving a cast of 120 four to 20-year-olds over two nights at the Coliseum.

All the cast were students of Jude’s Drama - the school run by Judith and her daughter-in-law Adele Parry every Saturday at Springhead Congregational Church.

“It’s great fun, but very demanding,” explained Judith as we sipped coffee in one of the many spacious, interesting rooms that have been home to the family for almost 40 years.

This particular reception room was a treasure trove of memories, including a porcelain mug featuring three of Corrie’s most endearing and enduring characters — Ena Sharples, Martha Longhurst and Minnie Caldwell; the three old ladies from the earliest years of Tony Warren’s masterpiece.

The trio put the world to rights from the snug of the Rovers Return and helped put The Street on a fast track to worldwide acclaim.

Judith, of course, retains a soft spot for Granada’s soap, having appeared in many of the early episodes as Ken Barlow’s second wife Janet Reid.

“They were great days,” she smiled: “Granada was just setting up and there was lots of work for actors like myself.”

Judith also appeared in sitcoms with the great, Arthur Lowe and alongside many other actors who went on to become both household names and longstanding friends. People like Betty Driver, a stalwart of The Street for years.

Judith looks back on those days with a fondness that reflects her roots as a repertory theatre actor.

“In those early days Coronation Street was character led; now it is story led, with incidents and accidents and mishaps galore. How many murders can happen in a small street?” she asks... “But I still watch it.”

As Judith and I reflected on the memories, it all seemed an eternity away from her youth, when being an actor was never on the horizon.

Born in Waterhead, her parents Hilary and Jessie Barker were landlords of the Musicians Arms in Cobden Street before taking over the long-closed Temple and Bowling Green in Huddersfield Road.

Judith left Clarksfield School at 15 and joined the GPO in Manchester as a telephone operator.

“I would get the 98 bus into Stevenson Square and work from 8am-5.15pm, connecting people on the old plug-in exchange. It was great fun, as I got faster and faster!”

Her schooldays had left a mark on her teacher, Miss Longbottom — I remember her well myself — who was convinced the young tyro had more to offer.

Judith was persuaded by Miss Longbottom to take up part-time drama lessons at the Lyceum in Union Street and two years later, she was taken on as an assistant stage manager and part-time actor at the Coliseum by artistic director Carl Paulsen.

Her parents had already sent her to elocution lessons — “they didn’t want me to have an Oldham accent, long before they had a inkling I was going to become an actor” — and so a career was born.

One of her earliest influences was Kit Holt, a name familiar to many in Oldham.

But it almost didn’t happen. Judith didn’t bother turning up for her first audition-interview because her parents were on holiday and weren’t around to ensure their single-minded, spirited daughter did as she was told.

Given a second opportunity, Judith was taken on at a salary of £1 a week — “and my stamp was taken out of that!”

The work was hard and the hours brutally long for one barely 17 — but, as Miss Longbottom and Miss Holt had predicted, the girl was a natural.

Her first part was in a play called “Larger Than Life” and Judith recalls the Chronicle’s then-theatre critic Tom Parkinson giving her a “nice review”.

These were the best of times. Judith recalls a run of around 150 plays for a group in Lytham, plus all the Granada Television work.

Today, afte a long career in the limelight, Judith enjoys teaching and actually confessed to being “nervous and apprehensive” ahead of the Jude’s Drama nights at the Coliseum.

The group was performing mini-versions of five Shakespeare plays, the logistics of which was a drama in itself.

But teaching drama has been a huge part of her life for more than 17 years and she shows no signs of letting up. The whole caboodle has started again, with plans for the 2015 performance by Jude’s group now started in earnest.

Treading the boards has given Judith a wonderful life - one she wouldn’t swap - and she has words of wisdom for those who would follow in her giant footsteps.

“Training to become an actor costs a fortune. You need to be with one of the top five drama schools in the country to stand even a chance. Otherwise don’t bother.”

It is good, honest advice and you would expect nothing less from a Waterhead lass educated at one of Oldham’s greatest seats of learning... Clarksfield Secondary.