Actress Lucy Briers on the Impact of Having a Very Famous UK TV Actor Father, Majestic Recovery After Betrayal & Divorce & the Poignant 'De-Tethering' of her Mother’s Alzheimer’s

Ladies n' Genminminmin (er, min...) please welcome Award Winning Actress & fellow Bristol Old Vic Theatre School Alumni, Lucy Briers to 'The Clearing'.

Lucy is from Theatre & Show Business Aristocracy here in the UK, as she is the daughter of Richard Briers, the famous UK TV Actor and National Treasure, now sadly no longer with us, but listen with delight as Lucy describes her joy and luck at having her very own 'Dad cupboard: With 250 or so DVDs, capturing his wonderful career on screen, if ever she needs a 'top-up' to watch him speak and move!

Lucy Briers chooses Sheep Meadow, Central Park Manhattan as her ‘Soul City’ and as her 'Clearing'. 

Despite her ‘weird blood disorder’, Lucy is almost always smiling or chuckling - even when dealing with big or bittersweet issues. Like her father Richard’s fame and popularity interfering with their walks together as a child or her mother’s progressive  Alzheimer’s disease changing almost everything about her behaviour in her final years. Lucy herself alludes to her own serious illnesses in earlier years and how hands-on healing, helped her shrink a tumour by half! 

Listening closely to her narrative, we get a wonderful picture of a privileged, posh, bright, private-school-educated Sloane Ranger-type choosing a radical alternative to Oxbridge: a highly political, reputedly ‘gay’, transformative, red-brick university - Lancaster! - to do a Degree in Theatre and Sculpture (Independent Studies). Here our lovely young Lucy shaved off her long hair, dyed what was left a bright orange and picked up the placards of protest. 

Then she went on to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School - to learn how to act. 
In 2019 Lucy Briers won the prestigious Clarence Derwent Award for Best Supporting Actress. (Lucy hadn’t heard of it either - check it out, it’s impressive, with the likes of Gene Hackman & Christopher Walken as previous recipients!) 

Lucy now sees herself as a ‘structured person’ (even though she wittily describes herself as still being nevertheless ‘deeply superficial’!).  But Lancaster was the first 'radical reconstruction' for her. So was getting divorced. So was the deeply poignant story we also get to hear about caring for her mother through the 'great de-tethering' of her Alzheimer’s. 

Lucy has learned a lot of life’s lessons the hard way and changed, she believes, for the better. That is her objective - to deepen her understanding of the human condition and share it on stage, with the spirit of her famous father supporting her whenever needed with words of encouragement from the wings. 

Lucy admits to a continuing crush on Ryan Gosling as well as personal and professional admiration for Tom Cruise. She is a most fascinating paradox: a very private person, who is also an extrovert. 

Here is

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email me about the Show: chris@secondcurve.uk
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Chris Grimes: 0:07

Welcome to another episode of The Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, Chris Grimes, The storytelling show that features the clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, And where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5-4-3-2-1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to The Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, Chris Grimes. Are you sitting comfortably here? Then we shall begin. Look at that. I count to four, as usually in my head, which says we editing later. Ladies and genmin min min, quite literally min min min. Would you please welcome the glorious Lucy Brier's award-winning, thrice-nominated, once-won award-winning actress. Very true, Your performance in Rosmarscholm, I think you'll find Yes very, very good.

Lucy Briers: 1:18

Most people don't attempt it, well done.

Chris Grimes: 1:20

Here all week And it was the Clarence Derwent Award. It was, yes, it was the Clarence Derwent Award until I won it.

Lucy Briers: 1:28

But quite a pedigree, and I'm very, very happy to say that people like Jean Hackman and Christopher Walken have won that award. Yes, they have in New York, oh Yeah, parted on Broadway and then moved into the West End in the 1940s.

Chris Grimes: 1:43

So yes, yes, yes. And, by the way, thank you for that delicious word, pedigree, because obviously we can't talk to you without acknowledging the fact that you are from sort of theatrical film or TV in the UK aristocracy, because you are the daughter of the wonderful, now sadly departed, richard Briers.

Lucy Briers: 2:00

As well I am indeed, and I will be talking about him in a minute.

Chris Grimes: 2:06

And you've said some really, and please do mention the wonderful moniker he learned for himself because of his love of wine. Later on I will. I will Thank you so much. So you're extremely welcome. You're an English actress most famous for obviously winning that award, And well done for the illustrious company of other pedigrees that also have won that same award.

Lucy Briers: 2:24

Thank you very much.

Chris Grimes: 2:25

What's the story between Clarence Derwent? Is he someone who is?

Lucy Briers: 2:28

No, clarence Derwent was a British actor and he moved over to New York in, i think, the 1920s And he was very much sort of part of Equity and he was a supporting actor and he started the Clarence Derwent Award for the best supporting actor and actress on Broadway And that's where it started. And then he moved back to the UK in the 1930s 40s and he brought the award with him. So, yeah, it's very nice to win. You know, you are basically named the best supporting actress, as I was for 2019 in the West End. You can't say fairer than that, can you?

Chris Grimes: 3:06

That is awesome. And the fact you didn't know anything about him. Now you're a complete ambassador for it.

Lucy Briers: 3:12

I am. Yeah, I looked him up.

Chris Grimes: 3:14

I like to know what I've won And it's such a joy brother. So we had the Ritalovic Theatre School in common. we weren't there at the same time, but I know we went there. We're both alumni nominum.

Lucy Briers: 3:23

We are, we are. Yeah, we are. Yes, I'm a little bit older than you.

Chris Grimes: 3:26

I don't think you are. Oh, okay, i've Googled you and you were born in. Well, do you mind if I age?

Lucy Briers: 3:32

you, no, no, i'm very open about things like that because I think otherwise one colludes with the patriarchy. I like you. As a woman if you're constantly going. I'm 32. No, i'm 55.

Chris Grimes: 3:44

Yes, and I'm 60. I was born in.

Lucy Briers: 3:46

You were 67.

Chris Grimes: 3:47

So, yes, yes, and let us not collude with the patriarchy, I love that?

Lucy Briers: 3:51

No, no, let's not do that. No, no. Or the obsession with youth No, no, no. Age is over.

Chris Grimes: 3:56

You are extremely welcome to the Good List, newtich. Thank you Stories of distinction and genius which are going to be giving us by the bucket load. Anyway, we've had some really lovely conversations and I've really enjoyed researching you to get it to this point too. So it's going to be my complete joy to bring you into a clearing or serious happy place of your choosing. Then there's going to be the usual construct which makes everybody feel safe, warm and fuzzy, which is a clearing, a tree, a juicy bit of Shakespeare, a couple of random squirrels and a cake. So it's all Lovely. There's some storytelling apples, there's a golden baton, there's cake and there's squirrels, oh, of course, and there's really a.

Chris Grimes: 4:29

There's a gold bar as well, while I'm sharing.

Lucy Briers: 4:30

I like the look of that Absolutely.

Chris Grimes: 4:32

So, because it's going into a thing to show shortly, it's also going to have all this common paraphernalia.

Lucy Briers: 4:35

And a bell.

Chris Grimes: 4:37

Always To go into any rabbit holes, which I'm sure I will. Good, okay, so welcome aboard. So there is a clearing for Lucy Briers. Where do you go to Clutterfury Inspirational? Where is your serious happy place?

Lucy Briers: 4:51

Manhattan, the island of Manhattan. But let's get very specific and say the sheep meadow in Central Park.

Chris Grimes: 5:02

Gorgeous.

Lucy Briers: 5:03

Tell us a bit about that With no one else in it for today. For today, manhattan, new York, is my what I call my soul city. I've been very lucky. I've worked there twice. The last time I worked there I lived there for five months, so I feel I know it quite well And it's just where I feel happy. I am certain if I lived there all the time, it wouldn't be that Probably London would be my soul city, because I think living in a city like Manhattan is hard work. It's hard work, but the energy of that place makes me feel like anything is possible. And my stepdaughter said to me once when she was over visiting when I was working there. She said you're always happier here, aren't you? And I went yeah, i am, there's something about it, and I've always been an Americanophile since I was a kid. So, yeah, central.

Chris Grimes: 6:00

Park, and when, as a kid, did you first get to go to America? Was that in working I didn't go?

Lucy Briers: 6:05

to New York until 1996. Yeah, i was in my late 20s And I went out to visit my dad and my mom was with him as well. He was doing a play on Broadway And I remember stepping off the plane I mean, i hadn't even got to Manhattan stepping off the plane And I just went. Oh, i love, i love this place, jfk airport, and yeah, and there's that cab ride. I mean, i now kind of go by public transport because I know how to do that now, but the first time I got there, the cab ride when you suddenly see Manhattan on the horizon For me. I've watched so many American movies in my life. I was obsessed by Starsky and Hutch and Six Million Dollar Man and Kojak. I know they're not all set in New York, but I was obsessed by America as a kid And so I felt like I'd kind of come home. It was a very, very strange feeling And I've been like that ever since. About it, yeah.

Chris Grimes: 7:00

And I'm a South professed American afile, as you very deftly put. Have you ever done that sort of Hollywood LA thing where you've gone to hang out in LA?

Lucy Briers: 7:08

Yeah, not Sakeen. No, you know, we have friends in LA. They've actually now moved to New York, which is great, but I did do the pilot season when I was about 42, which was deeply soul destroying. Although what I found very funny was I would turn up for meetings and I actually had a casting director say this to me I'm going to do a slightly dodgy American accent now. She went what I love about you is that you're 42, but your face still moves. I'm not joking And I was like OK, she said you've had no filler, you've had nothing. And I went no, i've had. It's amazing.

Chris Grimes: 7:46

The travesty of Botox was like camera in action. So yeah, absolutely So yeah.

Lucy Briers: 7:52

I realized that that was probably the pinnacle moment where I realized this city is really not for me. But I do love San Francisco And I love San Diego. but LA is a tricky place. I think It's a tricky place. It's got a weird environment, energy to it because you've got a lot of people who are desperate.

Chris Grimes: 8:12

I can confirm that your face is still moving beautifully. Thank you, Yes, still no fillers guys, still no fillers.

Lucy Briers: 8:18

It's occasionally tempted to lift the jowl, but still no fillers. I'm not gonna do it, I promise you.

Chris Grimes: 8:23

Wonderful. So you said very beautifully as well you wanna be on your own, and you called it the Sheeps Meadow, did you?

Lucy Briers: 8:28

Yeah, it's a kind of massive bit of clearing like Greengrass in Central Park, the south end of Central Park. Yeah, i mean, if we're going to be, you know, peaceful and groovy doing this thing, then no, i don't want anyone disturbing it. It's a huge area. I'm being very selfish, i just want it to myself at this time.

Chris Grimes: 8:45

yeah, Take me down a rabbit hole of the sort of gangs of New York, when it used to be a Sheep Meadow.

Lucy Briers: 8:51

Yeah, yeah, it was absolutely, absolutely, yes.

Chris Grimes: 8:53

You wouldn't mind too much if someone like Daniel Day-Lewis turned up, obviously.

Lucy Briers: 8:58

And yes, because he'd be far more interesting than me. So yeah, so Daniel P, please carry on, carry on.

Chris Grimes: 9:03

You don't wanna be upstage? we'll stop there.

Lucy Briers: 9:04

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, although he is, yeah, a BOVTS alumni yes, i was very struck with.

Chris Grimes: 9:11

He is absolutely astonishing. But he can't possibly have learned what he does at the Bristol Orvick Theatre School.

Lucy Briers: 9:19

No, it isn't that kind of school, is it? No, no, it isn't no. But you know, it gave me a huge amount of. I always described the approach of that school as it was like being given a theater school buffet that you could literally just pick. There was no methodology, and I really loved that about that school, and so I approach each job totally differently. I don't have a method that I oh right now I do this character work and I literally approach every job in a slightly different way, and that, i think, was the most valuable thing that I took away from Bristol.

Chris Grimes: 9:53

Yes, and you know when we have to start again. You know, there's always that imposter syndrome in all actors. We think, oh God, will my method, however formed or unformed it is, will it ever work again? Yeah, well, i ever work again. Yeah, it is a lovely punchline. I love that. Thank you, that wasn't a rabbit hole. I was just giving you a bell, thought that was a good punchline. Thank you very much.

Chris Grimes: 10:14

So, even though you wanna be on your own, if I may, i'm gonna now interrupt you with a tree. It's a bit waiting for God to arrive existentially with a tree in your clearing And shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. How do you like them apples? So this is your response now, within the Sheeps Meadow, within Central Park in Central New York, in Manhattan, where this is your response to five minutes to have thought about four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention. That's where the random squirrels will come in. And then a quirky or unusual thick about your. That's Lucy Briers. We couldn't possibly know until you tell us. So over to you to just interpret the shaking of your canopy as you see fit.

Lucy Briers: 10:54

Okay, so shall I, because I'm quite a structured person. So I will go through exactly what you've asked me. So, the four things that have shaped me, I mean, do I go into any details? Shall I list them all and then go back to the top and do it?

Chris Grimes: 11:08

How long you can do it how you want. I'd like you to go into a bit more detail. Okay, great, if you had an instinct to do it that way. that's really lovely.

Lucy Briers: 11:14

No, no, no. So number one would be being the child of a famous person. Now, i really thought about this, because it's not until you I think this is true of anybody's childhood It's not until you come out of your childhood that you understand how unique your childhood was in any way. You know, everybody's childhoods are unique, but I think it's very odd being the child of somebody well known. I mean, my father was at his height of fame when my sister and I were children. So you are walking down the street with your dad and he stopped every third person by every third person to say, oh hello, richard. You know, i loved the good life last night or whatever it was you know, and we would be stopped on holidays. We would be. You know all of that.

Lucy Briers: 12:05

Now, my father was an extremely lovely person and he gave time to each and every person who stopped him because, as he always said to my sister and I, if it wasn't for the people who loved my work, i would not be working, which is absolutely right. But of course, as a kid, it's a bit annoying because you're like I'm out for war with my dad. Why do I keep getting interrupted? And so I think how it shaped me was that I am actually, although I'm quite extrovert and I enjoy a social and I love a chat, and that's quite a private person. That's what I've realized. I don't reveal a lot of myself to people unless they're in my kind of inner circle.

Chris Grimes: 12:54

Yes.

Lucy Briers: 12:55

So I think that shaped me a lot And also you learned my sister and I've talked about this you learned how to present the brand.

Chris Grimes: 13:03

Yes.

Lucy Briers: 13:04

The Richard Brice Family Radio Times Family Brand, which is what we called it, and you compartmentalize that And that's how you present yourself to the general world. And then, of course, there's your actual family life with all its ups and downs, and it's all the things that everybody has.

Chris Grimes: 13:19

So, yeah, it taught me how to do a private and a public self And indeed in the research that I really enjoyed doing into you. You made some beautiful comments about how you had to, sort of you know, navigate the differentiator between the man who was my dad rather than the man who was, as you say, the good brand Richard Briers. Yeah, and, of course, in how everyone's narrative gets confused. I almost can imagine you walking down the street close to Serbeton because that's where the good life was, but of course that's complete nonsense.

Lucy Briers: 13:47

Yeah, yeah, it was London, it was West London. Yeah, that's where we were brought up. Yeah, but no, it wasn't Serbeton.

Chris Grimes: 13:54

And you may talk more about this. But also the other thing I was really interested to ask you about was that you're, you're the way you've handled the grief of it, your profound sense of both absence and presence. He's still there, obviously, but absence and presence. And then you said, particularly when you're working in theatre, which I find really interesting, almost like an angelic presence He totally is, he totally is, he was there on stage.

Lucy Briers: 14:14

Yeah, yeah, i think he like well, i think I'm very much like him in this respect. But I think he was happiest in theatre and and as a genre, so am I. That's my kind of place of great content in my work And I always, i always feel his presence kind of towards the opening of a show And you know, and occasionally, you know, halfway through a long run, i'll kind of feel like he's just standing in the wings going. You know, right, love come on.

Chris Grimes: 14:42

Keep going, you know.

Lucy Briers: 14:45

Yeah, i and I do still. I don't know how other people experience this, but I feel his presence now very much comes and goes, whereas when he first died, which is 10 years ago now, i felt it very, very strongly. But but yeah, he comes and goes, he turns up, which is lovely. Yeah, it's really lovely.

Chris Grimes: 15:02

And maybe you'll talk about this as well, but I was also really struck with you describing your dad cupboard. So you've got a cupboard you go to when you need a top up, if you like.

Lucy Briers: 15:10

Yeah, how lucky, how lucky am I that I have my dad on like 50 different DVDs. I mean, how, how extremely lucky is that? So yeah, if I need to just see him move and talk, i will just go. It's usually an episode of ever decreasing circles Because he was so genius in that And it's just lovely. It's just lovely to see him and and just hear his voice. Yeah, and how lucky I just. I just feel very privileged that I'm able to do that.

Chris Grimes: 15:38

And just while I'm there, the other thing that I was really struck by was you. you reported that when he died your mum and you received and I gather your mum's no longer with us either Is that?

Lucy Briers: 15:48

right, she died a year ago. Yeah.

Chris Grimes: 15:49

Yeah, and you received 750 letters almost immediately afterwards telling stories about him that you had no idea about, but they were all attesting to his extraordinary generosity Stuff, like you know, sending a check to someone to get them through drama school Just just wonderful stuff to attest what a gorgeous human being he was. The brand was consistent.

Lucy Briers: 16:10

Totally And what you know I'm so not that kind of person. I'm the kind of person Yeah, I've just made a donation to. You know, i can't help myself. I have to like get a pat on the back for some sort of altruism. But my father was not like that. My father, yeah, as I say, you know he did, he did many things for people that my mum was just not aware of, you know, and just acts of kindness and time that he spent with people And, yeah, it was extraordinary. I think in the end my mum got about 1500 letters after my dad died within two weeks. It was extraordinary, i mean, it was. It was kind of too much In terms of like we just went, oh my God, and they're all still in box files actually, which is sort of ruthless, but but yeah, it, it, it. It was a testament to him. It was wonderful. It was wonderful, yeah.

Chris Grimes: 16:57

Wonderful And how appropriate that you mentioned him as the first profound shape, if you like.

Lucy Briers: 17:03

Yeah, yeah, he, he really, he really is and was you know, he still is. He still is very much. A lot of my approach to my work is is sort of founded on what he taught me and how he advised me. And what was lovely is, as I became a professional actor and we would actually advise each other, he would sometimes send me scripts and go what do you think? Should I do this or not? Yes, i am, the reason he's in cockniz versus zombies. Of course you are, because I read it and my mum was like there's so much swearing, and I just, and my dad was like there is a lot of swearing And I went, yeah, but it's going to be cult, you've got to do this Wonderful. So he did it, yeah.

Chris Grimes: 17:40

And is it your sister you talked about as well? Has she gone into acting as well?

Lucy Briers: 17:45

My sister trained at Lambda to be a stage manager and worked her way up to be a company manager in the West End, and then she had kids and so she took time out to do that And then when her kids left home she'd brilliantly retrained to be a primary school teacher. She is about to retire. I don't blame her because my God, my God, how hard they work. But yeah, she, she, she, she started out in theatre and then you know has. But I think being a teacher is almost like being a performer, exactly, yeah.

Chris Grimes: 18:16

My daughter's just recently trained as a primary school teacher, so wow And. I love the fact your sister gave it up to go and stage manager family instead, which she did indeed.

Lucy Briers: 18:24

She did indeed. Yes, so we're in the Kennapeville Tree Delicious.

Chris Grimes: 18:29

We're talking about the second apple now of shape University.

Lucy Briers: 18:35

So I went to a very, very privileged private school in London And I about, i think something ridiculous like 75 or 80 percent of my year went to Oxford or Cambridge. Ok, that's what you were supposed to do. Really, from my school And because I wanted to be an actor, i kind of didn't want to go to university at all. But my parents were like you are going to university. So I was like, ok, and I think now they'd be different, because of course now you can't get grants for more than, like you know, you can't really get grants for a much to all nowadays. But let's not get into that. But in those in my time, my young days, i was very lucky, as we all were to, that we could get grants, like for quite a lot of further education. So I went to Lancaster University and I was the second pupil from my school to have ever gone there.

Lucy Briers: 19:21

Lancaster was founded, I think, in the. I think it's 1965, but anyway, mid sixties, very left wing, very political. At the time I went it was kind of known as the middle of the 60s. It was kind of known informally as the gay university of the UK. I did not know this. So I turned up and I turned up as a basically a Sloan ranger with hair down to sort of here. I literally taught like this. I mean I literally barely open my mouth. I mean my father said to me once he said I've spent thousands of pounds on your education, i can't understand what you're saying. She, like I didn't know what you mean. Dad, god, you're so like ridiculous. So I turned up to this left wing, highly politicized school I think there are about three or four percent of the students came from private education, everybody else grammar comprehensive. It was incredibly tough because I also came with I have a famous parent.

Chris Grimes: 20:18

Yes.

Lucy Briers: 20:19

But it was the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me. It was, it was extraordinary. I was, i was broken down and I was rebuilt, and it was. let me say to you that by term three, i shaved my hair off and dyed it orange And it was an eclectic subject.

Chris Grimes: 20:38

You went to theater and sculpture.

Lucy Briers: 20:41

I did. I read theater and sculpture. because Lancaster is one. I don't know if it still does, i hope it does It's. it's based. it bases its degrees on an American thing where you can kind of make units, you pick units from different subjects to create your degree. So I have a degree in independent studies That's what my degree is called, and independent. indeed it was Independent. indeed it was.

Lucy Briers: 21:04

It was an incredible transformative time for me. I became very politicized. I mean, i was already politicized. I stood for what was then the ecology party, now the Green Party, when I was 11 at my posh school's mock elections, and so I was already like out there and kind of politically engaged. but Lancaster completely engaged me And I've never brandished more placards in my life. I'm still a big old protest march person. but I have three friends from that period who are still really three of my closest friends, because one in particular basically got me through my first year, because I wouldn't say I did not have a breakdown. but I think what happened was that everything I thought I was about was challenged.

Chris Grimes: 21:55

So you had a recalibration, in a way, totally, totally A reawakening. Yeah.

Lucy Briers: 21:59

A total awakening of what life was actually about, and it wasn't about living in quite a gilded bubble in West London in my very privileged school with my famous parent, and yeah, so it changed my life and I am forever grateful to it for doing that. I don't think I'd have gotten to drama school if I hadn't had that.

Chris Grimes: 22:22

Okay, and indeed the preparation for drama school doing theater and sculpture makes you great for tableaus.

Lucy Briers: 22:29

Oh, so many tableaus. Thanks very much.

Chris Grimes: 22:33

That was perfect, chris. I'm very glad that joke worked, thank you. Thank you very much.

Lucy Briers: 22:38

So yeah, so I am very grateful to that.

Chris Grimes: 22:41

And you said it was the demographic of being renowned at the time as being the principal gay university in the UK. Does that mean that the demographic most of your friends were therefore gay as well?

Lucy Briers: 22:51

No, no, no, no, it didn't. I mean, i actually surprised quite a lot of us when we were there. We were like, oh, really, okay, but yes, there was a very robust LGBT. You wouldn't have called it this now. You would have said LGBT, would you? Yes, lgbt movement, then Yes, now, obviously, lgbtq plus I, plus plus I. Oh, i'm being so terrible now I do notice, sorry guys. Lgbtq, i plus there we go, that's it. And no, there was a very robust movement there And I became a part of that in terms of supporting my gay friends and actually having gay friends.

Lucy Briers: 23:31

I mean, nobody at my school had come out at that point when I left, after A Levels they have since, which is marvelous, but yeah, it was a huge education in every possible way as university should be, yes, as university should be, and I would occasionally go to like Oxford or Cambridge to visit old school friends and I would just walk about going. Oh my God, is this like being in the Truman Show? I know the Truman Show hadn't come out yet, but it was kind of like, it was weird. It was just like being at school, but everybody was older.

Chris Grimes: 24:03

Yeah, ironically also, it's normally drama schools that have a reputation of breaking you down and rebuilding you, whereas you had a little bit of that or a lot of that, rather very profoundly Lancaster, before you then went to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Lucy Briers: 24:15

Yeah, totally, totally, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great And loads of devised work and loads of political work and it was fantastic. Yes, stop, stop, stop. I could talk about it all day.

Chris Grimes: 24:24

Thank you, thank you so much. So now we're up to the third apple of shapeage.

Lucy Briers: 24:29

Okay, so we get a little bit darker now.

Lucy Briers: 24:31

My divorce Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha. So ha ha ha. Oh, i love that. Fun times everyone Buckle up. So I got married when I was 28 and I got divorced when I was 37 and I'd been with my ex-husband for three years before that, so it was a 12 year relationship in all.

Lucy Briers: 24:51

My divorce was deeply painful. I'm going to be very open about why it happened. He left me for one of my oldest friends Fun times That happens more than you think. Everyone. Ha ha, ha ha. Yeah, you know, and nobody talks about it because it's all there's to do. Yeah, it was a very, very, very difficult time and what it apart from literally exploding my life, because I had absolutely no idea any of this was going on, it had been going on for about a year. Was that, of course, what that does if it's not just the person you've married, but it's also involving someone you've known since you were like 10, 11. Gosh, yes, you literally go. Oh, i can't, i'm a really bad judge of character. So you then start questioning everything about your life and who you've chosen as friends and who you've chosen as lovers, and I mean it just imploded everything. It was a very, very, very difficult time.

Chris Grimes: 25:58

However And whilst we're going there, just can I ask how did you find out? Was it honorably disclosed or did you find out because of this subversion?

Lucy Briers: 26:05

I. It took a long time for him to disclose He did that terrible thing which if anyone ever says this to me, i will literally go goodbye. He said that thing of like I need some space. Oh, yes, i need some space. And I, naively and foolishly for about six, seven weeks, was like okay, well, all right, well then, maybe we'll just live apart for a bit. And blah, blah, blah. I was so sort of like trusting of just that, that is, i took it at base value. No, it was nonsense. And eventually I kind of got it out of him over the phone and did some very bad voice work because I screamed. So I was so stressed, i screamed and I pulled a muscle in my neck, wow. And then sort of walked around like this for about two days because I don't know if life wasn't bad enough. But you know what, there we go terrible And lots of people have been through this.

Lucy Briers: 27:01

But what came out of that divorce? I would say the first year was very hard And I kind of hit a weekend where I just could see nothing but hopelessness. And I was extremely lucky that I had not only my amazing family but I had some incredible friends who got me through this. I don't know how you get through something like that if you don't have a support structure. To be frank, and from that weekend where I literally just went, i don't think I can get through this.

Lucy Briers: 27:38

Things started to improve And we sold the marital home. I put all my belongings into storage because I thought I can't even think about what I want to do next, and I went and rented a room in a friend's house in North London for 18 months. I was 37, 36, 37, and it was like I was back being 22. And the most extraordinary thing happened that I just got lots of work because I didn't care. I was so brave because everything was so gone. The way I thought my life was going to go had disappeared, so I had no fear. I had no fear, so I'd walk into auditions and I think I came across as this slightly interesting kind of enigmatic person, and of course that means people employ you because they go. Oh god, they're really interesting, aren't they? And they haven't got that usual sort of whiff of desperation that we all used to have in auditions, like, oh please, i'm so available, you know.

Lucy Briers: 28:39

So I got so much work and I had money coming in and I went and travelled and I was answerable to no one, and it was extraordinary, and what it taught me, what might have been how it shaped me, was I found a strength and resilience in me that I didn't know existed and has basically made me a happier person ever since. I'm not going to say to my you know ex-husband and the person involved that he was involved with Thanks, guys. Oh, that was so great. My life just became so much better because of you two. No, i'm not going to say that It's how I reacted to it, it's how I handled it, and that has made has led me to a much more fulfilled life, i think, and I'm a much stronger person because I got through it.

Chris Grimes: 29:24

And my assumption is that there wasn't the complexity of children involved in that. to make extra, extra, extra, I was we were.

Lucy Briers: 29:30

We were about to do IVF.

Chris Grimes: 29:33

Yeah, oh, blimey, i'm well escaped, madam, if I may say so.

Lucy Briers: 29:36

Indeed, indeed. And you know, much as I am very sad I've never had a child of my own. I am a very happy and stepmother And I have been for the last 16 years And that's brought me a huge amount of joy. But you know, i am really pleased actually that I didn't have to go through that And I didn't have to put a little person through that, because that would have been horrendous. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Grimes: 30:01

Yeah, In the extraordinary sort of cataclysmic catharsis.

Lucy Briers: 30:05

is there now a piece of cord with ex-partner and older best friend or I have no idea where my ex-husband I kind of vaguely know what he is and what he does. He has kids, which I'm really happy about. Yeah, i don't. He did go. He kind of said I'd love us to be friends. I'm like, really I just can't see us sitting over a cappuccino catching up. I just I just can't see that at all.

Chris Grimes: 30:29

I can't see myself not throwing it all over you.

Lucy Briers: 30:31

Exactly, and and you know I'm I'm very much a believer of like kind of move on and clean slate it really. And as for my old friend, no, i have no interest in in that. I think, yeah, no interest at all, and I wasn't trying to build that bridge for you. Exactly. No, i hope she's fine, but I have no interest at all. I have, i have my friends who I love and I don't spend enough time with them. So why would I waste time?

Chris Grimes: 30:56

Well, as you very wisely and safely said, it happens far more than we think. And isn't it interesting how, when something at the time feels absolutely catastrophic, yeah, ends up actually being one of the best things that could have ever happened for complicated, dark reasons? But actually it's not how we're not over in life, it's how we get up again and how we keep going.

Lucy Briers: 31:14

Exactly, and kind of university and divorce. I'm realizing. And the last thing I'm going to talk about, they're all mass, they're all massive challenges. I don't think life shapes you when you're just having a great time, you know. I just it doesn't. It does it's. It shapes you when you know the chips are on the floor and you're you just kind of go oh my God, my life is just ruined, or this is very difficult, or whatever it is, and and it's how it's exactly what you say, it's how you react and the choices you make from that. That's what shapes you. I think Yeah.

Chris Grimes: 31:47

Yeah, and that reminds me also of that lovely sage like comment, which is easy to say but it's more complicated. but the difference in life between what you get and what you want is what you do. So it's the action towards. it's always what action you take. you know when chips are down and the movement, so you moved away, you've got the new flat. So it's all very commendable and very, i'm sure, resonant for anyone listening who's been through something similar. Thank you, yeah, having the there is light.

Lucy Briers: 32:14

There is light. If anyone's going through it right now, there's definitely light at the end of the tunnel. Just keep going.

Chris Grimes: 32:21

You described the weekend of hitting rock bottom as well, from which it then started to get back again. Yeah, yeah, rich, wonderful staff. Thank you, lucy.

Lucy Briers: 32:30

So the final one I've got we've got time, i mean the final one and this is this is again quite dark is my mother's Alzheimer's. I will be very brief about this. My mother passed away a year ago. Just over a year ago. She'd had Alzheimer's for, we think, about nine years. It was only diagnosed about seven years ago. And because I lived, lived close to her and my sister's job is full-time and she lives out of London, i happily stepped forward as the person who would sort of coordinate care, help her run a house, et cetera.

Lucy Briers: 33:05

Anyone who's had any experience of a relative or a spouse who has had dementia or has dementia. It is. It is the worst of illnesses For many reasons. There is no cure, there is no prescriptive treatment. So it's not like having cancer and somebody goes okay, so now we're going to go and we're going to do this treatment and then that might work. And the other thing is that many friends disappear because they're frightened. So again, and I'm, my mother actually said this, you know, and by this point she had Alzheimer's. About two weeks after the diagnosis she said I wish I had cancer. Wow, actually said that. Yeah, because everybody kind of not everybody. She had some amazing friends who stayed put right till the end, but a lot of people disappeared, and also the wonderful National Health Service, which is just about still standing. They don't have the funds, they don't have the capabilities to help you after diagnosis, so you are truly left on your own And it's between the lines as well.

Chris Grimes: 34:12

As we know, it's the great to detether up, because people are detethered from their own sense of being and it's friends. It just untethers everything.

Lucy Briers: 34:20

That's a brilliant way of putting it, it really does So. I, my journey with my mom was one of. I'm a very impatient person and I learned patience because I had to And about for the first year after a diagnosis. I was impatient with her because, also, i hadn't quite accepted it that my amazing, intellectually robust and brilliant mother, who I'm very, i was very close to, was going to disappear, was going to sort of flake away in front of me. And so she used to do these things and I learned. I learned how to enter her reality, i learned how to accept her illness, i learned to be patient, all these things which you know. As I say, i'm a really impatient person, which was incredible.

Lucy Briers: 35:05

But there were things like she, very early on, she would do this thing. We'd go for a walk and she loved dogs, as I love dogs And she would bark If she saw a different dog she'd go, and at first I just found it so embarrassing And like, oh my god, my mother is barking because there's a rabbit or coming towards us, and after a while I was just I just bark with her. You know, I was just like, okay, this is how my mother's reacting to this dog And we're just going to bark together And that's going to be great, and I do think there needs to be more awareness generally.

Chris Grimes: 35:35

And there's a lovely comedy, improvisational strategy, which is, if in doubt, join in. So the fact, you're barking and she's barking, so let's get barking, let's get barking.

Lucy Briers: 35:43

And, very briefly, another example of that would be that this is quite late on in her illness. We were all sitting around the kitchen table. There was me, there was two of my mom's carers because by the end she needed two carers at home And she suddenly was on the tube line. She was on the Piccadilly line. She suddenly was like, oh, the doors have opened.

Lucy Briers: 36:02

And by this point I was so into improv, by this point, with my mother, Okay, we're diving in, I say what doors darling. And she went up Gloucester Road. We're at Gloucester Road. So I went okay, we're on the Piccadilly line, We went into town. We went into town And we got off at Green Park because my mother decided we were going to the Royal Academy And we went. We went and then I took her into the sitting room And we looked at the paint pictures on her sitting room wall as if we're in a gallery, And then we got back on the tube around the kitchen table and came home. It's absolutely marvelous. So it taught me a lot. It taught me a lot. It was exhausting and horrendous and all those other things, But it taught me a lot.

Chris Grimes: 36:40

And by the way that's just resonated. So you know the beginning I said about your grief about absence and presence working in tandem, how the fact your mum is actually becoming absent but you stayed monumentally present with what her presence needed to be.

Lucy Briers: 36:53

Yeah, that's true, and in a weird way, there were moments where I felt I was closer to my mother than I'd ever been, because the illness kind of whittled her down to her essences. Yeah And yeah, that was.

Chris Grimes: 37:05

That was an example, by the way, resonates beautifully with what comes at the end, which is the Seven Ages of Man Resonance, and when we talk about legacy, so, so brilliant. That's wonderful Apple shape. Just forgive me, just getting a slight lick on with the con. So now we're into three things that inspire you. Please, Lucy.

Lucy Briers: 37:20

Okay, I'm going to be really quick with this. Okay, the first thing that inspires me is great acting. I love watching great acting. I've just finished Succession, which is a work of art, and I love to watch, especially on film and television, because those are genres I still kind of I still have a massive imposter syndrome in it. I've done quite a lot of them. I still turn up on set going I don't think I can do this really Working those actors Great. You haven't worked for if I haven't worked for a while. I actually love to watch something like that And it reminds me of why I do what I do and why I do what I do Great. The next inspirational thing I find is art, because I did sculpture at university. I don't do this enough, but I love going to art galleries. I love just wandering around and just, you know, absorbing painting, sculpture, anything. It makes me calm and it makes me very, very happy.

Chris Grimes: 38:15

And finally, travel, yeah, and by the way is the art an eclectic mix of all art, or are you going to? are you honing it on a particular type of gallery?

Lucy Briers: 38:22

No, i kind of love everything. I'm not a big one on them. I think I'm more modernist. I love sort of anything from kind of mid-19th century onwards. I don't like I find religious painting quite creepy, i do. I just kind of I don't know why it just makes me feel a bit. We've just been to Grenada, in Spain, and we walked around the huge Catholic cathedral and it just freaks me out, just anything like that, just I don't know why very strange. Probably need some help on that. But anyway, i'm probably more modernist. I love kind of mid-20th century, all of that. I love David Hotney, you know. Yeah, i'm quite eclectic. So and finally travel, which I'd sort of slightly lost the habit of because of the pandemic and I'd lost a bit of courage on that because I was clinically vulnerable, because I have a weird blood disorder. But I did actually do the most amazing four months of travel with my ex-husband about two years before we got divorced.

Chris Grimes: 39:27

I know well they.

Lucy Briers: 39:28

You know, they weirdly are, and I'm still really happy that we did that. We traveled to South America, we traveled to Australia, we went to Japan. It really was fantastic and it still feeds me. So I think travel is hugely important and inspirational. If one can do it, it doesn't. You don't have to go that far either.

Chris Grimes: 39:46

I don't think you know just a bit of wisdom, that relationships aren't necessarily pointless just because they've ended. They would have had great memories and great, oh my god, absolutely Not that you ever said that, but I'm just a friend.

Lucy Briers: 39:56

No, no, no, no, no. A healer friend of mine said to me the reason you were with your ex-husband was he taught you how strong you. He's shown you how strong you actually are.

Chris Grimes: 40:08

Wow.

Lucy Briers: 40:08

Yeah, yeah, so you can, that's a lovely cherry on the cake.

Chris Grimes: 40:12

It is, isn't it? Pretty good, So yeah those are my inspirations.

Lucy Briers: 40:14

There we go. great acting art and travel There we go.

Chris Grimes: 40:17

Gorgeous. And now here come the squirrels. What are the monsters of distraction, The squirrels, what?

Lucy Briers: 40:24

two things never fail to oh well, now I'm going to reveal how deep, please shallow and superficial I am. The first one is Ryan Gosling.

Chris Grimes: 40:36

There we go. I mean I can be point of view everything about Ryan Gosling.

Lucy Briers: 40:41

And you know my partner. God love him. He respects and is very patient about my love of Ryan Gosling, to the point that when Blade Runner 2029 came out I mean, he's a massive sci-fi fan, so this was for him as much as me He booked us to see it at the IMAX in Waterloo.

Chris Grimes: 40:58

Big up close Love that.

Lucy Briers: 41:00

What a happy girl I was. I mean, yes, great cinematography, but yeah, that was wonderful. And the other thing is and I know we're coming on to cake, but the other thing is red velvet cake. If that kind of wafted past me, i'm gone Although. I am recently now under what I call the think Clint, which I've made up for myself because my partner said to me recently Clint Eastwood says the reason he's lived so long is he's never eaten dessert. That's great advice.

Chris Grimes: 41:33

I love that.

Lucy Briers: 41:34

And I swear, I swear, I now do it. I'm now like, okay, we're at a restaurant and we get to the dessert menu. I always look at it because I have this kind of Calvinist sort of self-plegulation thing about me. I always go, and then I go no, because Clint wouldn't, what would Clint do?

Chris Grimes: 41:47

What would Clint do?

Lucy Briers: 41:48

He wouldn't have that chocolate brownie. He just wouldn't do it. So, yeah, so, but if it was my birthday, it would always be. If it's my birthday, red velvet cake, yeah. So there's two distractions. They're very shallow, i'm terribly sorry, there's nothing. And have we found?

Chris Grimes: 42:00

ourselves sort of creepily up close to Ryan Gosling in our life yet, or? have they not, no, sadly not. Twitter feed I noticed you've you'd found yourself at the premiere of Mission Impossible. Well, not the premiere.

Lucy Briers: 42:14

Let me say I actually met. I met TC. I actually met him. I've loved that man since I was 15. Not in a kind of not in a Ryan Gosling way, but in a I just love him. There's something about him. I love his acting. Yes, i know we I'm not going to talk about all the other stuff in his life, that's not important to me. I just love his acting. I love the films he's made. I love Mission Impossible. I'm an action film junkie. They're great. I love the fact he does his own stunts And this one number seven. it's the best. yet Everyone, go and see it. Even if you don't like Mission Impossible, go and see this film. It's astounding. And he is five foot seven and a half, maybe even five foot eight. everyone Come on. I know this. I'm five foot seven And he's a delightful person. So yeah, i would. I was one of the greatest evenings of my life.

Chris Grimes: 43:05

And does he say hi, lucy, when he sees you now? So no, simon Pegasus, i very much doubt.

Lucy Briers: 43:09

No, i very much doubt he'd remember me from anyone, because he must meet thousands of people every day, but he was. He did that thing that certain brilliant people do, which is they make you feel like you're the only person in the room when they're talking to you. So that was you to go distraction.

Chris Grimes: 43:25

What's the quirky or unusual effect about you, Lucy Brian's? we couldn't possibly know till you, tell us.

Lucy Briers: 43:29

I'm not fully qualified, but I have done. I have trained as a hands on healer.

Chris Grimes: 43:35

Lovely, Is that right Reiki type thing?

Lucy Briers: 43:37

No, it's actually spiritual healing, but we don't call it that because people get freaked out by it. So when I was much, much younger, when I was in my 20s, i was extremely ill and I went to a healer and he sort of like what he did, he sort of changed my life. So ever since then I've been very interested in that aspect of health and approach.

Lucy Briers: 43:59

And so, yeah, and I was about to take my full qualification and my father died and I've never got back on track with it. I do occasionally. A friend will occasionally say to me can you do a few sessions? and I do it for free, because obviously I'm on a charge, just not you know.

Chris Grimes: 44:13

But yeah, that is a quirky fact Lovely, and you're attesting about it beautifully. It's not jiggery quackery, it's actually something that you have experienced directly working.

Lucy Briers: 44:22

Completely. Very briefly, i was very ill in my 20s and I had to have a very large operation, which would have then meant I would have had to have reconstructed plastic surgery. I went to this healer for six weeks once or twice a week. I then went and had the operation. I came out of the operation and then my surgeon said to me you don't need to have reconstructed plastic surgery because the tumours reduced by 50, 50%. Oh yeah.

Chris Grimes: 44:50

Oh yeah.

Lucy Briers: 44:51

Yeah, so I'm proof, you know. And also, anyone can learn how to be a hands-on healer. It is not some thing, it's. We're all capable of it, and that's why I love the National Healing Trust and that's who I trained with, because they're not about it being something special or a special gift or anything like that. We all have the potential within us, which is great.

Chris Grimes: 45:16

Lovely, yeah. So now we've shaken your tree, hazar, we're now going to stay in the clearing. Move away from the tree. Next we'll talk about alchemy and gold, please. So when you're at purpose and in flow, what are you absolutely happiest doing? Lucy? Being on stage, yeah, and that's when you feel the presence of your dad to this day.

Lucy Briers: 45:36

Yeah, Not all the time, but yeah, that's when I have my moments of greatest contentment. It's that wonderful thing when you're in the middle of a run of a play usually a long run and everything about that play, everything about each performance is almost automatic. You know, you come off stage and you know exactly what you're doing and you, I love that feeling. I love that feeling of when yeah, I just because it's what I was sort of here, It's what I was here to do. You know, I was here to be an actor and I'm very, very lucky that I always had a vocation. You know, I think that's a very fortunate thing to have. And, yeah, so that's when I'm most in flow.

Chris Grimes: 46:17

Yeah, So your true flow state went on stage Lovely And now I'm going to award you with a cake, please, hurrah. So you get to put a cherry on your velvet cake, which is stuff like what's a favorite inspirational quote that's always given you sucker and pulled you toward your future.

Lucy Briers: 46:31

I forgot about that one Make one up. I suppose it would be a bit of shakes. For here would be when Polonius says that I'm going to paraphrase be true to your, to thine own self, be true, There we go. It's always a good touchstone, isn't it? Yeah?

Chris Grimes: 46:46

There we go. Certainly is What notes, help or advice might you profit to a younger version of yourself, Lucy?

Lucy Briers: 46:51

Pick the nice guy. Lucy Lovely, yeah, yeah, lovely. I ditched a couple of nice guys before I got married. Pick the nice guy. I fortunately am now with a nice guy. Yeah.

Chris Grimes: 47:05

I learned He's not Ryan Gosling, but you love him anyway. That's lovely. He's beautiful, of course he is, and now we're cranking up to a bit of Shakespeare. And, by the way, this is a very authentic prop, because this is one I actually had at the Brestelorby Theatre School. Oh my God. But just before we get there, this is past the golden baton. Please. Who in your network would you most like to pass the golden baton on to?

Lucy Briers: 47:26

I don't think I can say it because he hasn't come back to me.

Chris Grimes: 47:29

I will leave it enigmatic then, okay, good, yes.

Lucy Briers: 47:33

Yes, yes, but yeah, he's an actor and a writer. I hope he says yes.

Chris Grimes: 47:38

Lovely And he sounds he could be quite juicy and exciting. Thank you very much.

Lucy Briers: 47:42

He will be very juicy and exciting Yeah.

Chris Grimes: 47:44

Yeah, so your mission should be to accept, it is to influence that particular bit of Yeah, i'm doing my very best, and so your vision is snagged slightly there, but you're still there. Okay Now, inspired by Shakespeare and all the worlds of stage and all the bit of women merely players. When all is said and done, lucy, how would you most like to be remembered?

Lucy Briers: 48:09

As somebody who spent a lot of time trying to investigate the human condition and understand life and improve myself. I haven't always been. You know, when you're young you're like well, i was not always kind to people, but kind of especially, guys. So I would like to be remembered as somebody who worked on myself and therefore improved my relationships with people.

Chris Grimes: 48:31

And, by the way, when you listen back to this, you will see that you've given that gift to yourself. You have indeed worked on yourself to have. You're still here and you're the right way up, which is fantastic.

Lucy Briers: 48:39

Thank you. Yeah, gosh, it takes effort, doesn't?

Chris Grimes: 48:44

it by this time in one's life?

Lucy Briers: 48:45

Yes, Age equals wisdom It does, it does Yeah.

Chris Grimes: 48:48

Wonderful. So where can we find out more about you? on the old Hinterweb, if we want to find out extra more stuff about Lucy Briers.

Lucy Briers: 48:57

I don't know really I'm not. I don't have a website, i don't. I mean, you can go onto my agents website, i mean? no, i'm terribly old fashioned like that. I'm a little bit enigmatic. I try. I am on Twitter, but I try not to sort of reveal very much about myself because I sort of think that's the duty of an actor, because if I'm on stage and somebody's gone, oh you know, i know all about her house and her this and her that and the other, then what am I doing? I quite like to be slightly unknown.

Chris Grimes: 49:26

I like that. I like the cut of your jib, madam, in that regard. Thank you, thank you. So, as this has been your moment in the sunshine, in the Good, listening to share stories of distinction and genius, is there anything else you'd like to say? Lucy Briers?

Lucy Briers: 49:39

No, but I've really enjoyed the hour in New York.

Chris Grimes: 49:44

It's been lovely, wonderful. So, ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to the adorable Lucy Briers. I've been Chris Grimes. Tune in next week for more stories from The Clearing and good night. You've been listening to the Good Listening to show here on UK Health Radio with me, chris Grimes. Oh, it's my son. If you've enjoyed the show, then please do tune in next week to listen to more stories from The Clearing. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, then please do so. There's also a dedicated Facebook group for the show too. You can contact me about the program or, if you'd be interested in experiencing some personal impact coaching with me, carry my level up your impact program. That's chrisatsecondcurveuk On Twitter and Instagram. it's at that, chris Grimes. So until next time for me, chris Grimes, from UK Health Radio. I'm from Stan to your Good Health and goodbye. So, lucy, could I get your immediate feedback on what that was like to be curated through this journey in this structure?

Lucy Briers: 50:38

Yeah, it was really lovely. I really liked having a structure, because for me I can wiggle on a bit, so it was really good to know that the bell would be wrong and I got my little prepped notes and things like that. No, it was great, it was really good, i really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed prepping for it actually and thinking about it, especially the things that have shaped me.

Chris Grimes: 51:04

Yeah, really lovely And thank you so much for all of that due diligence and working very hard to come up with some really spangly. fantastic answers, really lovely conversations. It's a pleasure And thank you so much for knowing that I'm trying to grow it. so whoever you can pass it on the golden baton to would be really appreciated. Thank you very much.