Angela Hagan
The Mirror, 8 February
(Copyright 2003 Mirror Syndication International)
Not only does she like to speak her mind, but Bernie Nolan expects others
to do the same. So when she landed a plum role in The Bill and duly handed
in her notice at Brookside, she was stunned to get the cold shoulder from
her soap bosses.
"I'd like to say they wished me well, but they didn't," says Bernie, 41.
"Phil Redmond never spoke to me again. I'd made that difficult decision to
go in April and I left in September. He never uttered another word to me.
"There was no, 'Thanks for your loyalty for the last three years' speech.
In fact, he didn't come to my leaving do. It was all a bit weird. Phil's
such a successful man, I don't know why he had to act like he was in this
big sulk with me.
"I'm an upfront person and like things out in the open, not left unspoken with bad atmospheres for months on end. A lot of people said I should be
flattered, but I never saw it like that. You can't expect people to stay
where they are forever.
"I'd been offered more money in The Bill, which is watched by nine million
people as opposed to, what, two million? And it's such a fantastic show.
It's an offer you really can't refuse."
And it's a good job she didn't because, just after she left, came the
bombshell that Brookside could be axed later this year.
"Even the powers that be there were shocked by the news," she says. "I
feel sorry for all my friends in the cast and crew, but I'm pleased I got
out when I did. Phil kept sending us memos telling us not to believe the
papers about us being axed because it wasn't true. I don't think even he
saw that one coming."
This week Bernie is back onscreen in The Bill. She loves her police
uniform and insists that apart from "the usual speeding offences", she's
never been in trouble with the law. As Sergeant Sheelagh Murphy, she is a
sort of mother hen figure at SunHHill.
"She's got three kids and is happily married... for now," grins Bernie.
"Watch this space! She's going to cause a stir."
Bernie herself is used to causing a stir. Born in Dublin in 1960, she was
the second youngest of six musically talented children. When she was two
the family moved to Blackpool and, 11 years later, Anne, Denise, Maureen,
Linda, Bernie and Coleen hit the working men's clubs as The Nolan Sisters.
By the late '70s they were a household name with singles in the charts.
"We were billed as squeaky clean, but we had a wild time," laughs Bernie,
who was the lead singer. "None of us were ravers, but I was smoking 40
fags a day and I drank a lot of vodka after the shows."
Even though she is now married to freelance drummer Steve Doneathy and
they have a three-year-old daughter Erin, Bernie still loves to let her
hair down.
"We drink about a bottle of wine a night," she admits. "I always love a
good family party, but I hate clubbing now."
In 1994, Bernie left The Nolan Sisters and branched out on her own. She
appeared in several pantos and musicals, including the West End hit Blood
Brothers. Three years later she broke into TV as Brookie's troubled
stepmum Diane Murray.
She had only just done up her five-bedroom house in Lytham St Anne's, near
Blackpool, when she got the part in The Bill. It has meant uprooting her
family and moving down South.
"I'm used to moving because I toured for 21 years with the group, so
wherever I lay my hat is my home," she says. "I do miss my family, but as
long as I've got Steve and Erin with me I'd be happy anywhere. Plus I've
got two sisters living down here. We're currently looking to buy a nice
big house in Surrey. Our house in Lytham is on the market and another one
we own there we've rented out, so it's all sorting itself out."
Her former brother-in-law, Shane Richie, is also enjoying a career
resurgence thanks to the soaps. Shane, whose marriage to her sister Coleen
collapsed after it emerged he'd been unfaithful, has gone from Daz adverts
to EastEnders.
"He's very talented," says Bernie, diplomatically. "He phoned me before he
got the part asking for some advice on being in a soap.
"I don't like what he did to my sister... but he's doing well and good
luck to him."