Helena Bonham Carter displayed her love for the north as she was spotted filming the new ITV drama Nolly at the iconic Salford Lads' Club in Ordsall. The Harry Potter and The Crown actress looked delighted as she held up a black T-shirt with the slogan The North while working on the three-part series from It's a Sin and Queer as Folk writer and creator Russell T Davies.
Nolly stars London-born Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning star Helena as the late TV legend Noele Gordon who played motel owner Meg Mortimer in the long-running soap Crossroads from 1964 to 1983. And she was transformed for the role with a short coppery brown wig, a candy-coloured coat dress and T-bar heels.
According to ITV the drama explores the 'all-powerful reign, and fall from grace, of the inimitable Noele Gordon, TV legend and Queen of the Midlands' 40 years after her shock sacking from Crossroads. As flame-haired widow Meg in the long-running soap she was one of the most famous people in Britain.
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Then in 1981, at the height of the show’s success and the peak of Nolly’s fame, she was axed. Nolly has been commissioned for ITV by head of drama Polly Hill.
Polly said: "Russell’s scripts are magnificent and a great tribute to Noele Gordon, but also to our national love of soaps and a celebration of the incredible women they create. Helena Bonham Carter is going to be amazing as Nolly and we can’t wait for her to step into those shoes.”
ITV says Nolly is a "love letter to a legend of television, and to the madcap soap she starred in" and a "sharp, affectionate and heart-breaking portrait of a forgotten icon."
Helena said about her role: "Noele Gordon was a fascinating, complex, brilliant and gutsy woman – none of which I knew before I read Russell T Davies’ script. I’m so thrilled to help tell Nolly’s long overdue and largely forgotten story. Russell’s screenplay is a work of brilliance and I hope I’ll do him and Nolly justice. I can’t wait to start.”
Russell said: "“One of my very first jobs in TV was a trial script for Crossroads, and I've wanted to write the story of behind the scenes on that show for 40 years. At last, the truth can be told!”
And Nicola said: "I couldn’t be prouder or more excited that the first drama we will be filming for Quay Street Productions is this beautiful script by Russell T Davies. And that Helena Bonham Carter will star as such an iconic British woman is dream casting.”
