Top presenter Denise Welch started out as an actress. Now she’s back on stage in a powerful, nostalgic new play
WORDS: ALISON JAMES
Denise Welch is excited – and rightly so. For a couple of weeks now, she’s been wowing audiences at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre with her portrayal of Corral, a memorable character in a new play The Gap in which she stars with Matthew Kelly.
“Acting in the theatre is what I trained to do when I started out,” she tells us. “When I was at drama school in the 1970s, we never talked about being on TV, it was all about the theatre.
“I’ve been lucky in my career as I’ve acted on TV and have also diversified to present on television. I’ve also done some reality TV. But my first love is my proper job – acting.
“I don’t feel I have to prove myself to anyone but it’s good to challenge myself and remind myself that I started out as an actress in the theatre.”
So what is the play about?
“The Gap is about two old hell-raisers, Walter and Corral,” she says, “played by Matthew Kelly and myself. They’ve known each other for years but you’re never quite sure what kind of relationship they had. Just friends or something more. What we do know is that there’s a wonderful bond between them and as youngsters, they left the north to move down to London together – specifically Soho.
Once there, they had a wild time! Hanging out in all the iconic Soho pubs like The French House and the Coach and Horses where characters like the painter Francis Bacon used to go.
“I did, too, so it’s a bit like a trip down memory lane for me.”
Lovely – but what exactly is “the gap” in this instance? Denise laughs.
“It could refer to several things – the gap between Walter and Corral, the gap in their lives when they weren’t with each other any more…
“But The Gap actually refers to that gap of flesh between a woman’s stocking top and her knickers. The gap of soft skin that drives men wild and makes them putty in your hands!
“When as a young woman Corral ran out of money she, ahem, started taking on gentleman callers. The play’s not at all smutty, though. It’s a beautiful story of how two people who loved each other find each other again.
“There’s humour, sadness and nostalgia rolled into one great, very moving play.”
Denise was a bit of a hell-raiser for a while and has spoken about this often. However, she
