Famous Faces
It’s all thanks to Tallulah
Despite being busier than ever, actress Angela Griffin has more energy and feels fitter than before. Here she explains what inspired the healthy changes in her lifestyle.
AWAY from the lights, cameras and scissor-snipping, Angela Griffin — who plays hairdresser Darcey Henshall in the BBC’s hugely successful drama series
Cutting It — is planning to marry her partner Jason Milligan.
“We got engaged last July, but it won’t be until next year,” admits Angela, “purely because the place we have in mind is very popular, and it’s booked up a long time in advance. Jason and I know the location, and so do some of our families, but for everyone else, well, it’s a bit of a secret.”
“By 2006,” she says, “our little daughter Tallulah Jae will be toddling, and we’d both love her to be a bridesmaid at the wedding. I’ve already asked my best friend from
Cutting It, Lisa Faulkner, if she’d also be another bridesmaid and, bless her, she’s said yes,” Angela laughs.
“I have no idea what sort of dress I’ll be wearing, but I’m going to thoroughly enjoy myself during this year, going and trying on every style and shape I can find. I know we won’t be having a conventional wedding cake though — I can’t stand that really heavy fruit cake with all the icing. There’s a Starbucks carrot cake I adore, and we’ll be having it made out of that if I have my way! I think I’m going to drive Jason mad but there’s so much to choose from and so much to organise!”
Tallulah is one this month, “And just perfect,” says her adoring mum. “She’s a quiet little girl, very interested in what’s going on around her, and she’s absolutely no trouble at all. She’s a little darling, and we both adore her. Having our baby around has been the most wonderful experience. To be honest, I really do want her to have brothers and sisters. I’d like to have four children — but then I also have to see what Jason says about that idea!”
Angela (now 28) and Jason (a presenter on the TV channel Bravo) have been together for two years, and live in North-West London. Jason (34) reveals, “We are both in pretty unpredictable businesses — in work one month, and (sometimes) out of it the next, and we thought that we’d only be able to afford a smallish flat. But when we went house hunting, we found this amazing and really beautiful house, and although we both wondered if the asking price was a bit beyond our reach, we finally convinced ourselves that we could just about afford it.
“It’s one of those places that you just fall in love with instantly, it’s just right. The neighbourhood is very quiet and leafy, ideal for taking Tallulah out in her buggy.”
Angela says, “Jason is a wonderful dad, he does as much as I do to look after Tallulah, if not more. We share everything. He’s just an instinctive father.”
Jason, the older brother of actor Max Beasley, had known Angela for years before they got together as a couple.
He laughs, “We were both out and about on the scene in Manchester. We were just good friends, we always seemed to be with someone else as a partner. And then one day, over a drink somewhere, Angela said to me, ‘You know, you have never ever given me your number or asked me on a date.’ I replied that neither of us had been single before at the same time, and that she’d never asked for it anyway! She said ‘Well, I’m asking now’, and that was that. She’s a terrific lady, and we’re a very contented family unit.”
When Cutting It is filmed Angela, Tallulah and Jason base themselves in Manchester for months. “That’s so convenient for us,” Angela explains, “because Jason’s family are close by, and mine live across the Pennines in Leeds. There’s a ‘Granny War’ on over who looks after Tallulah if she’s not with me on set!”
Having a baby has changed Angela’s life. She is now a fanatical crusader against smoking. “I know, I know,” she confesses, “I used to be a smoker myself, probably up to about 30 a day at one time. I started when I was just 13 years old, like a little fool, and managed to puff my way through life until a few months before I discovered I was pregnant.
“One day I just decided that it was a filthy habit, and realised I had to quit. Then, about three months after that, we found out that Tallulah was on the way, and there is absolutely nothing that would make me start up again.
“Recently when we were at my mum’s house and I was putting the baby to bed, I smelt cigarette smoke. We were right at the top of the house and I went downstairs to find my two older brothers enjoying a fag in the front room. I was very cross with them and said, ‘Don’t you know that there’s a wee one in the house?’ They replied, ‘She’s nowhere near us!’ But I got very bossy and went on about passive smoking so that in the end, to keep the peace, they went into the garden to smoke.
“As far as I’m concerned, the sooner that a full ban on smoking in public places comes in, the better. I don’t want to take my baby into a restaurant where someone is puffing away at the next table, and I’m convinced that the majority of mothers feel the same way. I feel so angry when I see a mum in the street, pushing their baby in the buggy while carrying a lit cigarette. It’s almost like using the child as an ashtray! Do they know how harmful it is?”
Angela reveals that she’s “a bit of a morbid mum, always worried about the ‘what if’ things”.
“But I think that any new mother has these visions, and doesn’t ever want their child to come to any harm,” she smiles. “I think I had Tallulah at exactly the right time though — not too young and not too old — an age where you become aware of responsibilities. Having children changes your attitude to everything.”
So intent is Angela on keeping healthy that she released her own keep fit DVD,
Dancemix Workout. “I wouldn’t have even thought about going public with my routine,” says Angela, “unless I really knew it worked — and it does. I dropped four dress sizes from what was a pretty hefty 16 down to a 10. I haven’t been this slim since I was 19.
“I used to eat so much on the set of Cutting It that my mates in the cast nicknamed me Angela The Buffet Slayer! It got to the point where I could devour a reasonable sized cake every day. I couldn’t walk past an Italian restaurant. If someone said, ‘Here’s an extra portion’ I couldn’t say no.
“The trouble is that, when you’re on a film or TV set, there’s food there all the time. The catering is usually pretty good, but it is nearly all what I call ‘comfort food’ — fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, sausage and mash, that sort of thing. It fills up the crew and cast and makes us all happy, but it also piles on the pounds.
“I had to do something — and the idea of the DVD came up at precisely the right time. I got myself a trainer, Niki
Wibrow, who also works with Patsy Palmer and Zoe Lucker, and things started to change for the better. When I went back to film this series of
Cutting It they couldn’t believe their eyes — I was much slimmer than I was before I had Tallulah.
“I did before and after photographs for the DVD cover when I was on the regime, and I promise neither was retouched in any way. The profile of me before I started the exercise is just horrible — I couldn’t believe what my neck looked like and how big my bum was! But if I can be an inspiration to others, I don’t mind people seeing the pictures. I couldn’t believe that I could lose so much by, basically, dancing around my handbag in my own front room! But I am going to keep on doing it, because I love my food too much — I look on it as a body maintenance thing.”
Now, Angela explains, she’s more aware of portion sizes and the importance of a balanced diet.
“My routine is that I go to work, have a sensible lunch, come home, look after our baby and then put her to bed, then I do a bit of a workout and have a light dinner with Jason. I have a gym membership but I go about half a dozen times a year, so I don’t get good value from it and it costs a fortune! Doing my routine at home is far better for me,” she laughs.
“And then, yes, I settle down to watch Corrie, I’m still hooked. I love my soaps!”
By Phil Penfold/Planet Syndication.
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