Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

The Courier-Mail Tuesday 6 July 1982 Many roles of black actress . By---- M~tthew Fynes-Clinton JUMOKE Debayo, dis– playing a perpetual grin, twisted in her chair and talked about how Richard 8urton played "hangman" during breaks in the film– i_ng of "Brief Encounter." . Miu Debayo's part in the movic, a 1975 remake of the clas– sic shot 30 years earlier, is 1 nc of the achievements to establish her as perhaps the most succeuful actress to come from Nigeria. "All the people I have worked with arc just so professional - but so much fun. Richard could make anyone laugh. He liked playing games while we were waiting around. We used to sing Welsh songs ever so loudly, or pop sonas - whatever we felt Jikc." Miss Dcbayo, (about 43), has also worked with Anthony Per– kins, Sophia Loren, Cleo Laine •. . an impressive list. But she is impressive in her own right. She is in Brisbane to promote her Festival '82 collec• tion of masks, jewellery and cos• tumes from Commonwealth countries. How did it all begin for her? "It's so hard to know where to start. My mother and father were both of nobility. They were heads of different areas. Such people always sent their children to Brit– ain to be educated .. . the aristoc• racy sort of thing. Anyway, after a few years my gradin$s were good enough to get me into the Guild Hall School of Music. I wanted to study the arts as a pro– fession. "From there 1 started pro– ducin$ and teaching drama and organising school plays. against my father's wi~h. He wanted me tn h,, •n orm11nlant." JUMOKE DEBAYO . . . ..Who knows what I'll do next?" She broadcast for the BBC af– ter completing a television course - "so much fun ." She bubbles with enthusiasm. "Who knows what I'm going to do next? I like to have many op– tions, I must keep busy. There's no way I can afford to let myself get tied down . I don't want to thirik of stopping." She has acted in "hundreds of British soap operas", including "Softly, Softly," and "Love Thy Neighbor." "I sul"'posc most of them were comco ..s, though." But she sees herself as a se– rious actress and "would never stay in one of those TV series, "That's the tragedy with so many actors. People get used to you as a particular character and you can't get away from that. A television aeries can really kill you off. "I suppose I was the first black actress to take comedy to the British people. It's just so great when you arc able to build a rap– port with an audience." The funny times? "There have been so many. I remember when we were doing Macbeth in Lon– don's Royal Court Theatre. There was Gordon Jackson." (From the Professionals?) .•• "Exactly! ..Anyway, he was performing and someone dropped a paper handkerchief on the stage from ., up top. But he was a ghost - he { just couldn't pick it up." Miss \ Dcbayo broke into a loud chuc- kle. She always chuckles. "Oh, that was funny. "Another time we were doing this comical thing and I turned ,my back to the audience and starting laugh in~. Then the audi– ence collapsed 1n laughter but they couldn't see what was amus– ing me. That was a magical moment - when you can make people hysterical with your back to them, simply by laughing yourself." Miss Dcbayo has also been in• volvcd in the production of sever– al magazines and was assistant editor of the Third World Out– look newspaper. She was hostess of the popular British children television show, "Pipkin" where she'd "jump and sing for kids . .. I'll show you." She stretched out her and sang: "Clap your hands. stamp your feet, wiggle your fingers ." She was ·chucltling again. She also hosted a chat show called "Join Jumokc." "I was able to get anyone I wanted. Oh. Cleo Laine .•. there were many of them. "No, I have very little to do with the social scene over there. I have a lot of good friends but I don't want anyone knowing about my private life . That's mine." Exactly!