Tracy-Ann Oberman A Taste of My Life

-Hello. Welcome to A Taste Of My Life, the show that serves up people's lives on a plate.

Food provides an almost edible journey back in time, from the smells and flavours of yesterday

through to the ingredients and tastes of today - which is why I will dine out with today's guest,

both through the food they love and the food they hate.

It may come as a surprise to fans of today's very familiar face

but she's already had a past career as a comedy writer.

It's got a tiny keyboard and I mean really, really tiny.

Go on, give it a go.

She's been on our TV screens recently

trying to bring about the end of the world as Dr Who's arch enemy.

-Cancel it.

-Oh, just as the legends would have it.

-The Doctor lording it over us, assuming alien authority over the rights of man.

-Let me show you.

But she'll probably be best known as the most famous murderess ever to grace our TV screens,

drawing over 17 million viewers into her web of deceit

after murdering her screen husband, Dirty Den.

Ah...agh!

Yes, today's guest who'll be joining me in the kitchen is actress Tracy-Ann Oberman.

And providing she doesn't go into labour, coming up in today's show...

Tracy-Ann's mum tells us what she really thought

of her daughter playing Chrissie Watts in EastEnders.

She became this horrible character.

I felt very uncomfortable to watch.

An old college friend hurls her in at the deep end with a culinary blast from her past.

Well this is a surprise to me because I think I was quite drunk through most of my student years!

Now you know what it's like to be me!

And Tracy tells us what it really was like being her.

Murder, betrayal, sex, love, vengeance, I got to play all these huge emotions.

Tracy-Ann Oberman, welcome to A Taste Of My Life. You were born in London, in North London.

-Yes.

-And was it to a traditional Jewish family?

Yeah, it was in some ways, I mean I would say we were culturally Jewish.

Food was quite a big part of our lives.

My grandparents were first-generation immigrants and my mother's side

had come from Russia, my father's side were from Poland.

So who did most of the cooking?

-Mum cooked?

-Mum, Grandma, my Great Grandmother, so it was a very big female tradition of cooking.

And the sort of things that Mum cooked?

I mean the things that you remember from your childhood?

School dinners were a luxury because we had whole-wheat pasta,

where all I wanted was spaghetti, alphabetti spaghetti. We never had alphabetti spaghetti.

It was all things like health, health - brown pasta - and I was like, "What's this?

I want white pasta." We had brown bread, wholemeal bread

when everybody else had Mother's Pride. I felt very deprived.

So at school when you get semolina, I'd be like "Fantastic!"

Shepherd's pie. "Fantastic!"

Thinking about the food you were eating, was any of it,

-was there anywhere you snuck off to and ate out away from home?

-Yes.

The height of sophistication for me, so exciting on a Saturday night,

a little gang of us would go up to Hampstead to the Milk Churn.

-The Milk Churn!

-And I don't know if anybody remembers.

The Milk Churn. It was like a sort of deli,

done in the style of a sort of American diner, I suppose, where they had milk churns.

And we would have potato skins filled with sour cream or different dips.

I mean this was like the height of sophistication at 11, 12, 13.

As well as potato skins, for Tracy I'm also making stuffed potatoes.

I always use King Edwards as they give the crunchiest skins

and remember, always use the insides of your spuds to make the fillings.

-Potato skins were quite new at that point because I didn't know them as a kid.

-Revolutionary!

Revolutionary.

The thought of a deep-fried potato skin, and you could get a chilli filling, sour cream filling,

you could get all sorts, but I always remember the sour cream.

Alongside sour cream,

another classic filling is tuna, mayo and sweet corn.

A great tip is to wet and salt your potatoes well before baking.

This way they'll crisp up nicely.

And you'd have a malt chocolate milkshake, like a proper old-style milkshake.

-The real thing?

-The real thing.

Because milkshakes for me when I was a kid, it was what the goody-goodies had, was milkshake. We wanted pop.

With a straw.

With a straw in a proper glass, it was all slightly chunky.

There are some to dip in a sour cream dip.

-Fantastic. Can I?

-Yeah, just...

-This is it...

I'm 13, I'm the most sophisticated woman on the planet!

-They were sophisticated, weren't they?

-I mean, who'd seen...

who'd have thought to scoop out a potato and deep fry it?

-Only Americans.

-Only Americans. But it's that thing of...

-And the soured cream. Mmm...

It's that thing of picking up something that is very...

-naughty.

-Mmm.

When you see your daughter academically doing very well at school

and you think "yes", you have a plan for them

and they turn round and say "Well actually, I want to be an actress."

There is something I think when your parents,

because they want to protect you, care about you and want you to be safe,

to go into something so insecure goes against everything.

Why would you do that? Why would you go into something where there's no rationale behind it?

Where there's no career ladder, where it's all up to the lap of the gods.

Try telling your dad, who's an engineer, that you want to do cookery at school!

I bet that went down well.

It went down very well!

-So you weren't there tugging at Mum's sleeves saying can I help?

-No.

Can I just eat it, or can I lick the bowl with the chocolate sauce...

Me and my sister were never that interested. She'd rustle up these amazing things and we'd eat them.

Had no interest in how they were made!

But I think that was because it was very much, "Come on, we're cooking now, get out."

-I think Mum has actually cooked something for you.

-Has she?

-I think, yes.

We're making chocolate roulade.

She was exceedingly clever from a very young age. I think...

not that she particularly liked school,

because her mind was always ticking,

ticking, ticking. She always had ideas and thoughts above her age group.

I was a freak! I was the freak child!

When Tracy was little, I mean food was, you know, one thing, we sat down, but...

teatime was very, very important.

One day it would be scones and jam, another day would be muffins

and there would always be some special sort of cake.

But the roulade really came a bit later and Tracy one evening saw this

wonderful chocolate. "What is it?"

I said, "Chocolate roulade, but don't touch it." She said, "I hope there's some over," and there was.

and the next day she had some for her tea and that was it - roulade forever.

She wasn't a girl that particularly wanted to be

surrounded by a crowd. She had one or two friends

but books was her love, her head was always in a book.

I did have friends!

She wouldn't have been that little but she was still young.

Oh, what was the man, the erm...

Michael Crawford, doing...Betty?

Everybody and his dog can do an impression of...

-Like nobody else could do it.

-Oh, my God!

She'd do that round the table, "Oh Betty, the cat's had a whoopsie."

Oh...!

Oh, look at that.

Aw...

I love my mum. Lovely lady.

I think the sad thing was I think she came in as a lovely character -

you know, she was going to pull this family together -

and then, unfortunately, she became this horrible character!

I found that very uncomfortable to watch in a way.

I didn't like that.

When she did the murder, that night, I remember watching the telly, "Oh no!"

This is the bit Tracy used to like - the bits where she could lick to bowl after.

Yes! Me and my sister used to fight over that.

Tracy, you're going to be a great mum.

You're going to bring so much to motherhood and you're going to bring so much to that lovely new life

that you've got and you will have and you've got so many attributes to impart to a new life.

I think it's going to be magical.

Aw...

You've made me cry!

Oh, if you only knew...

It's a terrible thing, the icing sugar normally will go all over you.

I know, but...

-That brings back... I'm seven again!

-Isn't it just heaven?

-Fighting my sister for this. Gorgeous.

-It's heaven.

You were doing quite serious acting at that point in the beginning of your career,

but then there's a big move.

I did a comedy course with my friend Ashley at the City Lit. I could write comedy.

I was very good at characters and accents and I remember somebody saw me do some stand-up

and suddenly I was on Radio Four on every sketch show going.

I remember Sean Locke had a sketch show called 15 Storeys high and I was the woman for the sketch show.

I had 30 female characters in one episode, all from South London.

-I had to find different ways and different characters...

-You did every one yourself?

-Every one.

I said, "Sean, can one of them come from up North?" "No, London."

Did you feel at any point you were being a success?

No, not really.

I'm a grafter, it was just a job. Every job ends

and I think, "I'll never work again."

As long as I was making a living, I was working, I was happy.

Things that come with being successful and working very hard,

travelling, eating out, all that sort of stuff. I mean, was there time for that?

There's a meal I really associate with suddenly feeling like a success was when I got into EastEnders.

My character Chrissie Watts, in spite of everything that'd gone on

with my co-star and everything had become this huge character.

I'd been working hard, we'd done the murder of Dirty Den,

it'd gone out, 17 million viewers had seen it, it was everywhere.

And I remember a little gang of us girls that'd been working very hard from EastEnders on a rare night out.

We rang that morning and got a very good table in an exclusive restaurant

and I remember having - it was fantastic, blackened cod and it was perfectly done.

I just, "Yeah, maybe I've made it, maybe this is success?"

And I can order another one if I want.

The art to this dish is getting the sweet miso mix just right.

Make sure you use pale miso paste

as the dark stuff is very strong and salty.

Grill until it browns and then transfer to the oven until it's opaque at the centre.

So tell me, what was it like getting that part in EastEnders?

And how did you feel at that moment?

It's bonkers really, because I'd gone for this audition

and I was told it was for a regular character's wife, I assumed it was Ian Beale.

I had a good audition, and thought "They'll get me in for a cameo, maybe I'll play a police woman."

I got a call saying, "They really liked you, you're to come for screen test."

I'm expecting to meet Ian Beale and they go, "You are going to be reading with Leslie Grantham."

My jaw dropped to the floor. I met him, had some banter with him.

He's quite sarcastic so I batted it back.

I think they kept the camera rolling and there was quite a bit of chemistry.

I didn't take any of his nonsense, he didn't take any of mine. And I got the part.

Must have been good once, what went wrong?

Angie. Sad, mad Angie.

Was she like that when you met her?

No, she was fun at the start.

'In 18 months I got to play probably about three years worth of storyline'

and also epic stuff, I mean really epic.

It was like, you know Shakespeare, Greek drama, these were huge things,

murder, betrayals, sex, love, vengeance. I got to play all these huge emotions.

Now you know what it's like to lose the one thing in the world you love most.

Now you know what it's like to be one of us.

Now you know what it's like to be ME!

-About as different as you can get from helping Dr Who?

-Well, you see...

For some people their biggest dream in life is to walk in to the Queen Vic.

For mine it was seeing the Tardis.

-I was a big sci-fi fan as a kid, massive...

-You were a real fan?

-I love sci-fi. I really do love it.

COMPUTER:

On line.

MACHINE BEEPS

ALARM BEEPS

-I saw the very first episode of Dr Who.

-Did you?

-How amazing.

-From behind the sofa with my hands over my eyes because I was so scared...

-The black and white one?

-Yes, black and white!

In the 1840s...

-This is delicious by the way.

-It's black cod.

-Gorgeous.

-Just gorgeous.

Still to come on A Taste of My Life...

I quite literally fall to pieces over the food Tracy loves and hates.

Chocolate spread...

and white bread, apparently, is not very good for you.

Sorry.

She's surprised by her closest friend, Harvey.

We're having fairy cakes made by a real fairy...

And Tracy talks about the pressures of diets, food and being an actress.

I think it's very, very important to be able to say, you can be normal sized,

you can be curvy, sexy and still be a woman, you don't have to be stick thin.

Of course you're eating out with girlfriends you work with and stuff,

but are there any particular friends that you've had for years.

My really close soul mate is a guy called Harvey. He's the Will to my Grace and vice versa.

He's like my real soul mate.

-That's strange because he's sent a little message for you!

-Has he?

Today we are making...

special, loving fairy cakes

made by a real fairy...for Tracy.

I'm going to add the eggs one at a time.

The zest of an orange...

I'm so impressed!

I actually think that when you're cooking you have to start right from the very basics.

For me, that's finding the right outfit to be cooking in.

You have to find a matching tie and apron or it's just not going to work.

Tracy is an amazing girl,

she's hilarious and fantastic and incredibly talented.

We understand each other and it's so nice when you have a really deep connection with another person.

It's true, he's like my soul sister.

He is.

My special tool is...this...

When these things get shown, is Nigel literally sitting there with his head between his hands,

just going, "What the hell does he think he's doing?!"

I'm hoping she's watching this and she's proud.

I'm so proud...

The bun is in the oven Trace! You're not the only one!

Really, I think I owe you one, Nige.

Does that not look like a traditional, proper, '50s cake?

Harvey, you've excelled yourself.

I'm going to make chrysanthemums for you -

as you know, your very favourite flower -

using these chocolate buttons.

Oh...

-It's the thing as well. It's the actual, erm...

-Oh my goodness!

-Isn't that beautiful?

-It's his cake stand.

-He loves this. He said he'd bought a beautiful cake stand.

Oh, look at all the little buttons.

-They're nice, aren't they?

-He knows me so well.

Love you, Harve!

So tell me, what sort of cook are you?

Well, um, I'm not the world's most confident, I'd say, but I like food

-so you'd have thought I'd be good.

-It's a good start.

-I love it but I'm not good at following recipes.

-Instinctive cook, rather than a follow-the-rules cook?

-Yes, thank you for that.

Yes, I'm going to tell my husband that on record, I'm an instinctive cook, not a follow-the-rules cook.

So, will you tell me a little bit about your college friend, Phil?

Phil is a very old friend of mine who I lived with at university.

Have you spoken to Phil?

Well, he's been telling me just a little bit about Tracy-Ann the chef.

Oh, God!

Just a bit.

We had a little thing going on in the house, a weekly cooking competition

of this thing called tuna surprise. We'd take it in turns,

although I don't actually remember Tracy doing many turns!

And every week one of us always had to take up the challenge

of introducing a guest vegetable into the dish of tuna.

I seem to remember some very over-the-top drama around a bag of carrots with Tracy.

I'm interested in this tuna surprise.

I've obviously completely blocked that out of my head.

I just remember there was something to do with pasta and tuna and...

something studenty, coming back from the pub being hungover and it was easy to rustle up.

That's what I remember.

-It sounds like you've got the recipe just fine.

-Tuna, mayonnaise...

I don't remember the carrot drama!

And I'm always one for a drama. I don't know.

Remind me of the tuna surprise,

in fact maybe you'd make it for me?

-I'll help you.

-I can't remember. Oh, Nigel!

Off to the kitchen.

Phil was talking about your tuna surprise.

But this is like the thing that you pick up on your way home from the pub -

the tin of tuna, a tin of sweet corn, the onion - it really is.

The whole thing is a surprise to me, because I think I was quite drunk through most of my student years!

This was what we picked up on the way home from the pub

when you were just that bit ... The surprise would be how to cook it, because I can't remember a thing.

There's a special way of chopping, isn't there? I remember seeing that.

Where you put your finger so you don't chop it off but you go fast.

Take absolutely no notice. Whatever feels comfortable to you.

-Hiring someone in.

-Hiring someone in(!) We've got someone else.

It's I've had too much to drink food, and I'm hungry.

But I'm going to make myself a meal.

-And it's starting to smell quite good.

-It is.

-What's so good is it smells delicious.

-Does all student food have to have tinned tuna?

-I think so.

-Is there some unwritten...?

-And a tin of tomatoes!

-Let's chuck some other stuff in.

-That does look yummy.

Anybody watching this, that is studying somewhere,

-and can only afford a tin of sweet corn and a tin of tuna...

-Who's only sober enough to find a tin of tuna!

This could save their life!

Mmm!

Lovely! Look at that. Delish.

You have to be drunk, don't you?

That is really horrible.

So, I mean, you're pregnant at the moment, heavily so, if I may say.

This actually looks almost like craving food rather than comfort food.

-Yeah, worrying!

-Are you having cravings?

I had a very horrible first few months of just being sick all the time, and the only thing I could eat

was white bread.

I mean, tahina,

hummus, jam...

chocolate spread, Marmite - these are all things that...

they have that ability to coat your mouth. It's a comforting, sticky...

Yes. I actually have, in the last few months, craved through this pregnancy,

like hummus and tahina, there's something about

the chick pea, savoury, there's something about that.

Some of this food here actually isn't your comfort food, it's almost the food that you'd actually hate.

-I've got fizzy drinks, what I used to call pop.

-Urgh!

-Excuse me -

Brussels sprouts.

Urgh - I can't even... The smell of Brussels sprouts is sort of counteracting the joy of eating that.

In my head, as a kid, I sort of had this thing in my head that olives tasted like eyeballs.

And Brussels sprouts tasted like ears. I don't know why.

-Oh, it's the waxiness of them.

-The waxy, ear-ness of it all.

Was there a pressure, as an actress, to be disciplined?

The more normal-looking women on TV, the better it is for the health of the nation.

It worries me when you see little girls looking at the Americans in Friends - these lollipop heads -

and looking at the Nicole Ritchies and the Paris Hiltons. These tiny little stick...

and I think it's wrong. And I think that British TV, God love it,

and particularly soaps like EastEnders and Coronation Street, have real-sized women.

I think it's very important to be able to say, you can be normal-sized, curvy, sexy and still be a woman.

You don't have to be absolutely stick thin.

So it wasn't so much that. Actually,

it was more about feeling very tired, and feeling very lethargic, and getting very bloated.

And then I started to look into it and I found this sort of food!

So, amazingly, apparently,

..chocolate spread, and white bread, is apparently not very good for you!

Sorry!

Stop it!

This really is a Feast with a capital F, isn't it?

I mean, this has got to be the most wonderful piece of meat I've ever seen.

Fantastic. But what a luxury to have, you know, a real roast.

-It looks like a joke piece, it's so perfect.

-Look at those juices.

It's the best cut - the rib - with that bone in.

And it's just so succulent.

When you were on EastEnders and you were playing such an major part that everybody knows,

how do you kind of...? How do you sort of shift on to the next thing?

Being in EastEnders was just - just brought me to a much bigger arena.

It hasn't been too difficult. I've had a lot of offers in, which has been great, and very varied.

And then, obviously, I got pregnant, in the middle of doing Dr Who!

That sort of halted up a few projects!

But then this great drama called Sorted turned up.

Oh, this is the - this is the sorting office, this is the postmen?

She's a beauty, isn't she?

I've always had a thing about older women.

Your fully qualified landscape gardener.

Mutual friend, said she was a stunner. Stunner, his exact words.

She's all right, she's got a pretty face.

'After Chrissie, it was a nice part to play.

'She's Mancunian, she's a mum of two, and her toyboy lover is madly in love with her.'

It was just happy, it was just a lovely part to play.

They have sex the whole time.

And you've got Yorkshire pud.

Oh, this is just my idea of heaven.

This is my last one.

-If you are going to do it

-... D'you want two Yorkshires?

-Oh, go on, I'm pregnant.

So my final supper, my final feast.

Unbelievable roast beef which just looks, just gorgeous.

Yorkshire puddings, the full thing here with all the veg.

A bit of horseradish.

-And for pudding?

-Oh for pudding - yes!

Like a chocolate sponge, and then you cut into it, and then hot chocolate oozes out.

And it's my favourite thing ever.

You'd have to die, really, at the end of this meal, wouldn't you?

Tracy, you've done so much.

I mean, from Shakespeare to Sorted, you've been through EastEnders and everything.

Is there anything you haven't... is there any regrets?

No - not regrets so much about what I've done.

It's a shame for me that my father didn't live long enough to see what the career that frightened him

so much kind of developed into. You know, a successful career.

And if you had - suppose if you had one wish, what would it be?

I think if you can live your life and know that you've had the bottle to do the things that you wanted to do.

I think a lot of people get frightened,

and I think I've gone against fear to just do the thing that frightens you the most. Just do it.

Don't make a drama out of the small stuff.

Just get as much enjoyment out of life as you can. One of which is food!

So, sod it! You know, if it's got a few extra calories in it, just eat it.

-Now, you've got five guests.

-Oh yeah!

-Who would they be?

-Well I think my first guest would be a Roman writer called Suetonius.

He was like the sort of 3am girl of Roman history!

He would go round, he picked up all the scandal, he was a real gossip-mongering journalist.

-Dorothy Parker.

-Oh, yeah.

Just because I think she was the wittiest woman alive.

I think I would then have, either - I'd put the offer out to Mel Brooks first,

and if he couldn't come, I'd have Larry David, who does Curb Your Enthusiasm!

And then I think I'd invite Bette Davis, cos she's my icon - I love Bette Davis.

And I think her and Dorothy would be interesting.

-An explosion!

-Well I was going to originally invite Bette Davis and Joan Crawford!

I thought that would be very interesting. And I would like to have Nelson Mandela.

For obvious reasons. I think the man's and inspiration, and he would temper all the egos at the table.

Tracy-Ann Oberman, thank you very much for being a guest on Taste Of My Life.

-Thank you very much.

-Nigel, thank you very much, I've loved it.

A pleasure! Thank you.

-Cheers.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

-Nice apple juice.

-Great apple juice.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2006

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