Updated 16th September 2003
Lisa Dingle
Jane Cox |
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A Huge Big Thank you to Paul Berridge who has made various profiles and photos availabe to me. They were previously on his Beckindale site (that is no more). This paged is based on some of his original material. I have inserted the navy blue box. See also IMDB entry for
Jane
Cox |
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First Appearance: 13
August 1996 Born: 1956 |
ITV.COMDing Dong At The Dingles
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| After his wife, Nellie, left to care for her father in Ireland, Zak Dingle's broken heart was mended when Lisa Clegg arrived on the scene. Actress Jane Cox, who plays Lisa, enjoyed the chance to play Steve Halliwell's love interest in Emmerdale. 'I was told that Lisa was a big lady and most comfortable in wellington boots,' says the softly spoken actress. 'I originally auditioned for the role of Nellie. It was between me and Sandra Cough, and Sandra landed it. I'm glad I got this part instead because I enjoy this character. She's very practical and down to earth. I like the fact that she spends most of the time in a boiler suit but can be sassy. | |
| I was quite surprised that she could have love scenes with Zak! 'The key thing is to bring truth to the character and what she does. That's how humour works. You have to be careful that you don't go over the top with it. Steve and I had worked together before in Christmas shows with the M6 Theatre Company at Middleton Civic Theatre, in Lancashire. He usually played the baddie and I played the dame.' | |
| It was her father's love of Shakespeare that led Jane into acting. 'He was a physiotherapist but loved language and I liked listening to him read,' she recalls. 'I was quite good at verse-speaking as a child; then there was a period when i wanted to be a painter, so I left school and got a place at art college. But I ended up as an assistant stage manager at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, in 1971, when Robert Lindsay was doing his first professional work there. | |
| Jane subsequently decided to train as an actress and went to the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. 'I wanted to learn the craft,' she says. 'Three years later, when I left, I wanted to go to the north because I had never been there. I started with a community theatre company in Newcastle and loved the north-east. It was very different from the south the people were just so warm and friendly and lovely. There was more a sense of community, which relates to the nature of how work is and has been - people have worked together in factories whereas, in the south-west, tourism is the industry. After Newcastle, I moved to Leeds Playhouse and did a lot of community theatre, then fringe theatre. I believe in taking theatre to the people.' | |
| Two years at the Barbican, London, with the Royal Shakespeare Company was an experience Jane will always remember as a chance to spend time with other actors and writers exploring the characters. By then, jane had already made her television debut in the second series of the childrens programme Return of the Antelope, in which she played Ethel the cook. She then made five series of another children's programme, Allsorts, as well as appearing on screen in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and The Ghostbusters of East Finchley before the role of Lisa in Emmerdale came along in 1996. | |
| 'I'm really happy doing this job,' says Jane. 'I like the character very much. It doesn't compromise women - it strikes a blow for women with bigger figures. I always think I have to get thinner and that I'm fat. But suddenly I had all this love interest.' | |
Taken from the emmerdale companion by Anthony Hayward
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