Celebrity Interview – Michelle Collins

She played Ian Beale’s wife in EastEnders for eight years and the landlady of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street. Now Michelle Collins is taking on what she describes as the role of a lifetime.

Michelle will be getting dolled up for the role of Miss Scarlett in Cluedo, a new play based on the addictive board game that she was obsessed with as a child.

“We all need a bit of glamour in our lives, don’t we, darling?” says Michelle.

She reveals that whenever she played Cluedo with her family, everyone wanted to be Miss Scarlett, the femme fatale who is regarded as young, cunning and highly attractive.

“Miss Scarlett is one of the most iconic characters, along with Colonel Mustard and maybe Professor Plum, which makes it more difficult to play.

“Me and my sister would go and stay with my five cousins and we would all fight for that part. But because I’m the bossy one I would always get it,” she laughs.

“I think because of lockdown people have gone back to board games. It’s funny that they’ve brought us back together when you find out that Cluedo was actually invented almost out of boredom during the Second World War when people were stuck at home during air raids.

“It adds a lovely dollop of nostalgia to the fun – and the murder! – of Cluedo.”

If you’ve never played Cluedo, you may not know that the object of the game is to determine who murdered a victim, where the crime took place and which weapon was used. Each player assumes the role of one of the six suspects and attempts to deduce the correct answer by strategically moving around a board representing the rooms of a mansion.

Hollywood turned the game into a film called Clue in 1985. Now the play is on tour and is slightly different from the board game. 

Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs Peacock, Reverend Green, Mrs White and Colonel Mustard arrive at a country house one dark and stormy evening. They are surprised to find they have all received the same intriguing invitation from Lord Boddy.

There are shades of Agatha Christie’s mystery And Then There Were None as the inhabitants and guests of Boddy Manor are killed off one by one with a variety of weapons.

The play, described as a “hilarious spoof of a thriller” will “keep you guessing right up to the finale as both the guests and audience try to work out whodunnit with what and where”.

“It’s a comedy whodunnit,” says Michelle. “I’ve done a Miss Marple and everyone loves those. It’s great to dress up in period clothes, 1940s clothes which are so glamorous.

“We’re in the hands of the perfect director in Mark Bell. He did the smash hits The Play That Goes Wrong and A Comedy About A Bank Robbery. 

“It takes a very particular director to get the best out of something as fun and escapist as this.”

She says she will put her own stamp on the role of Miss Scarlett.

“It’s really exciting to play someone who, like most women, has more going on than you see on the surface. She has a history. She looks glam and dressed up but she’s a smart cookie.

“I’ve never seen the film but this will be very different: very funny, very dry, a little dark at times but ultimately great entertainment. 

“I think it’s the perfect climate for something feelgood like this. People are desperate to get back to the theatre. They miss that creativity in their lives. It’s great that the play is something for all the family, something everyone can enjoy after the couple of years we’ve had.”

Michelle Danielle Collins was born on 28 May 1962 in Hackney, east London to a Welsh mother and a father who had English and Flemish heritage.

After getting her first theatre job her career changed direction when she performed in the video for the Squeeze hit Cool For Cats in 1978. She went on an 18-month tour with the band who worked with artists including Marc Almond, Level 42, Altered Images and Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

When the band broke up Michelle went back to acting. While she was filming a BBC play in 1988 she was spotted by EastEnders’ producer Julia Smith who asked her to audition for the role of Cindy Beale, a character featuring in 11 episodes of the soap.

She excelled in the role of renowned villain, so much so that she became a regular in the series.

When she left EastEnders she had a string of drama roles for the BBC. She acted in two series of Real Women, two series of Sunburn for which she also sang the theme tune and three series of Two Thousand Acres of Sky.

Michelle then moved to Weatherfield, playing Stella Price, the landlady of the Rovers Return, for three years. She left after claiming she was “unhappy” about the lack of screen time for her character.

But she has continued to appear on the small screen, guesting in Casualty several times as well as Death In Paradise and Midsomer Murders.

A former Midsomer detective, Daniel Casey who played Gavin Troy, joins Michelle in Cluedo as Professor Plum.

Michelle is excited to be doing Cluedo which is on tour for six months. She lost a lot of her work because of lockdown.

“I was in the middle of doing a tour of Pinter’s The Birthday Party – Meg, a dream role. Then I was doing a one-woman show in Edinburgh and that had to close.”

Michelle thinks the Cluedo tour will fly by and will be a real antidote to what she describes as “a real rubbish year”.

She explains: “My mum died. A really good friend of mine died of Covid and I was quite ill for a while. It’s been horrible.

“My mum was fine during Covid but she had cancer and couldn’t have her immunotherapy treatment through lockdown; she was on a trial and it was really keeping her going.

“But I feel like she’s giving me her blessing because she always knew I was happiest when I was working. She would want me to push forward.”

The last major tour Michelle performed in was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when her 25-year-old daughter Maia Rose was just a child. Michelle will be going back to many of the theatres she visited during the Chitty tour.

“I’ve got friends in most of the places we’re visiting, so it’ll be fun to see them. Touring can be hard but you get used to living out of a suitcase and my partner will come and see me.”

So did Miss Scarlett commit the dastardly deed with the candlestick in the ballroom? Or was it Professor Plum with the lead piping in the study?

Michelle is giving nothing away: “Well, you’ll just have to come along and find out, won’t you?”

* Cluedo is at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Monday 28 February until Saturday 5 March.