Cleveland - PomPoms Up!: From Puberty to the Pythons and Beyond

Carol Cleveland:
Birthdays and Beauty

Sue Pomeroy:
She is the icing in the middle and the cherry on the cake.

Photograph of Carol Cleveland on Back Cover by Strat Mastoris

Every attempt has been made to contact the copyright holders of images used in this book; if any have been overlooked, the publishers would be pleased to hear from them directly.

She stood in front of the worlds excited media, half in the dark and half in the bright, beckoning stage limelight in front of her. She wasnt disappearing or withdrawing from the well-lit glare of the media circus she was re-emerging into it.

A week before, excited emails and text messages were sent scattering around the globe and shared out to her wide circle of family, friends and associates;

Im making my T.V. comeback!

Some weeks earlier Carol had filmed a meaty, comic part on Toast of London, a UK sitcom about a struggling actor. There was no hint of frustration in her voice when she warned us that her part had been drastically cut back.

Thats show-biz, she said happily, but at least Im in it! Blink and youll miss me. I play a wisecracking American actors agent. You may not recognise me. I look frightening! My character is supposed to have had a face lift but shes had more of a face stretch. Her lips barely move! But you know what? Carol went on, Im finally playing a woman of my own age and not a leggy showgirl or blonde bombshell. Its refreshing and Im rather pleased to have done this and hope you will be too when you watch. You will watch wont you?

We watched. We also watched when she would appear popping up as a busty, bustling, high heeled blonde named Orange, with a pink-dyed pooch on a lead called Strawberry, in the fast paced and colourful advertisements for the always hotly anticipated and amusing Pimms summertime TV campaigns.

When I first met Carol some years earlier she was on the arm of society photographer and graphic artist Ian Williams. He was the handsome man escorting her on a stiflingly hot summers day around a shiny society party for the Sussex property developer Mike Holland. The Holland party, an opening launch to celebrate the refurbishment of the historical Stanmer House, was held in a vast marquee on the sprawling grounds of the estate of Stanmer Park, in East Sussex on the south coast of England. This was an event where everybody who was anybody, and those like myself who were new to the Sussex socialite scene, were putting their best dressed feet forward and even the Mayor, who arrived by helicopter, was somewhat outshone, and not on purpose, by Carol Cleveland.

Her endearing American freshness and eagerness combined with her wide, warm and ready smile, glittering eyes and her long, thick, trademark mane of glossy, luscious blonde hair have always ensured that Carol shone out in a crowd. When we were introduced on that June afternoon she was the epitome of openness and friendliness, at a type of event where some might not have been so forthcoming to new faces. In the social exchanges that we had, as the afternoon gave way to evening, it was never mentioned to me by her (or anyone else for that matter) that I had been enjoying the company of the famous funny and only female member of the mighty Monty Pythons Flying Circus. Had I known I was talking to my favourite funny-bone Python goddess that evening back at that society party, our comfortable, years long friendship might have had a more embarrassing and star struck start.

The Carol I have come to know has worked tirelessly, developing and writing her one woman shows and building performances drawn from her own original material and experiences. She has crafted projects to keep her talents at the fore and, with producer Dimitri Devariani, masterfully created her poignant radio play War Baby. She drew her material from the Babys Diary that her parents wrote for her during the London Blitz. Her clever re-working and dramatisation of this diary explores the story of war, love, desertion, the climate of the film industry in the 40s and her own early formative childhood years.

Alongside her present day work pursuits, Carol lends her might to a variety of charities; and especially animal welfare causes that both she and Tallulah, her adored adopted dog, are passionate about. The actress calls Shoreham-by-Sea her home now, after having moved from her thirty-two year residence in Brightons Hanover area to a larger but more quiet space in which to enjoy her downtime between jobs and travel. Still a stones throw from her full social life in Brighton and an hour away from her social and work commitments in London, Carol enjoys the calm and quiet that she needs as she continues to write and research material for even more projects. She reviews the scripts that flow her way and she has not been remotely quiet over the years. Carol has appeared in over twenty films; nearly fifty TV shows; sixty or more theatre productions; BBC radio shows and any number of guest appearances on chat shows and interviews about her career, in and out of the Pythons shadows, in scores of magazines and newspapers.

TV and film roles like Edna in the American made-for-TV film The Sweeter Side of Life and Irene Jones in the sci-fi comedy feature film The Search for Simon, that won her a nomination in the 2013 Monaco Film Festival, seem to have arrived at a time when Carol the actress could easily have felt that her limelight days were now behind her. Yet never before has this independent and free speaking woman stood so tall and strong and eager to get on with it. A sort of accidental feminist, she has come from playing that stereotypical pretty blonde who dressed the jokes for a band of boys to achieving an individuality as a woman of her own certain age; an age she proudly owns. She owes her career to no man. Her continuous energy to secure the work she loves has often come solely from her own efforts and not those of an agent. Such is her determination to retain her dignity and commodity as a working actress.

Over the years Carol has not been too far away from her band of boys, now well grown men, who like her have pursued with their own zeal a variety of works engaging their talents and diverse interests. Carol last joined the remaining Pythons in 2009 to celebrate their 40th anniversary at Londons Royal Albert Hall.

You will watchwont you? she asked me when we spoke that afternoon before the airing of Toast of London. Before the week was out there were more excited texts and emails emitting from the Cleveland camp.

Exciting news!!!