Hello Hackstraw,
I have found the following information about Patricia Hodge's life and
work.
A reasonably comprehensive biography of Patricia Hodge, with details
of her school and college education, as well as dates of film,
television and theatre performances, and contact details for her
agent, can be found at
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/hodgepatric/hodgepatric.htm
As a student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art she won
the Eveline Evans Award for Best Actress. She is currently helping in
a campaign to raise £5 million to buy a permanent new home for the
Academy after the National Lottery Fund pulled out of the project (BBC
News, March 25 2002)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/entertainment/2002/oscars_2002/newsid_1892000/1892216.stm
She gained her first acting experience in the theatre, where her first
appearance was in No One was Saved at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
in 1971 when she was 25. Before that, she had worked as a teacher.
Her first major part was in Rookery Nook in 1972.
In July 2001, Patricia Hodge was awarded an honorary degree by Brunel
University (Doctor of Letters, honoris causa).. The speech given by
Brunel’s Chancellor gives more details about her. Here is how it
starts: “Once upon a time a little girl lived in a far away place –
well, Lincolnshire, actually, but let’s not spoil the story – and life
was normal, if a bit dull. Then she was given piano lessons and went
to singing, recitation and dance classes and was mesmerised by it all.
The point of no return came when she was taken to London to see Where
the Rainbow Ends with Anton Dolin as St. George. There was pageantry
and romance and excitement and the little girl was hooked, her
ambition firmly set on the stage.” It goes on to tell us that
Patricia Hodge received a a merit in drama and a distinction in the
practice of education before she went to the London Academy. This was
at Maria Grey college which is now a part of Brunel University.
However, after teaching for a year in Chorley Wood, she decided to
become an actress.
The Chancellor’s speech tells of her conviction that television makes
you famous, but you need the theatre to get the proper grounding
needed to be an actor. You can read the whole speech at
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/news/degrees/2001/hodge.html
Patricia Hodge has tended to be cast as refined upper class women. So
the play Noises Off which opened in October 2000 at the National
Theatre was a bit of a departure for her. In this play she was
“beautifully disguised in a working-class voice and clothes to match,
plays Mrs Clackett, a daily help involved with adultery, the duplicity
of Jeff Rawle's sly tax-exile and Aden Gillett's lecherous estate
agent.” However, this is only part of the story, because the comedy is
about a theatre performance, so we also meet Patricia as the actress
who plays Mrs Clackett: “Dotty Otley, a TV star who has appeared as a
lollipop lady in 320 episodes of On the Zebras” You can read the
reviews at http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/rd/more/noisesoff.html
One of Patricia Hodge’s most recent endeavours is “The Falklands
Play”. This was initially commissioned by the BBC in 1986, five years
after the Falklands War. However, it was considered by some to be
politically biased. The Controller of the BBC1 TV channel at the time
said it was jingoistic. It was finally filmed and premiered on BBC4
on April 10 of this year. The Guardian web site has an article about
it, together with a picture of Patricia Hodge in her role of Margaret
Thatcher, UK Prime Minister at the time of the Falklands War.
The article on the Guardian web site cites from its own review and
those in the Times and Telegraph:
“Patricia Hodge as Margaret Thatcher achieves the near-impossible by
making you feel for the PM”
was the verdict of the Guardian’s theatre critic.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/firstnight/story/0,11131,682469,00.html
As well as acting, Patricia Hodge also features in talking books. Her
rendering of Elizabeth, by David Starkey, a tale of Elizabeth I,
obtained the following review: “The narrative is superbly voiced by
Patricia Hodge in dry-ice tones of sustained menace.”
http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4129498,00.html
Patricia Hodge is President of the Caxton Theatre.& Arts Centre in
Grimsby. In 1999 she visited the theatre to present an evening of
poetry, prose and personal anecdotes in order to help fund-raising
efforts. http://www.littletheatreguild.org/ltgdetailcaxton.htm
Patricia Hodge is a red head, and the web site of Red and Proud tells
how at the Olivier Awards in 2001, Patricia Hodge “lost patience with
the “amateurism” of the organisers and staged a one-woman walk-out”
http://www.redandproud.com/Red%20News%20Apr%202001.htm
I hope this has given you some insight into the multifaceted talents
of Patricia Hodge. |
