Episode 6 Arlene Phillips
First shown on ITV Monday 3rd October 2016 8pm ITV1
Arlene at home today in North London
Famous faces revisit their former homes
to share memories and secrets from when they lived there. Choreographer Arlene
Phillips revisits the house where she created outrageous 80’s dance group Hot
Gossip and reveals how in her 20’s she was a babysitter for famous movie
director Ridley Scott’s young son.
Arlene Phillips is perhaps
best known in her role as one of the original judges on Strictly Come Dancing,
but she’s had an illustrious career in dance spanning more than 50 years. She
was born in Stockport in 1943 and although she dreamt of coming to London and
becoming a dancer her dream ended when her mother died and she had to stay at
home and look after her dad and 13 year old sister.
However in 1966 aged 23 she had
the chance to attend a week-long dance course in London’s Covent Garden. By the
end of that week her life changed forever. She was offered a scholarship by the
legendary dance teacher Molly Molloy and Arlene remembers ‘That was it. I never went home. I stayed in London and I don’t know
how I did because I had not a penny in my purse.’
Arlene revisits Ridley Scott's former home in SW London where she was a babysitter
Molly found Arlene a job as
babysitter and nanny to a friend of hers, a young television and commercials
director Ridley Scott, who would later become the top Hollywood director. This
pretty house in South-West London is the first house Arlene revisits. She
recalls ‘this was the kind of house that
I aspired to. It was all white when people didn’t have all white’. It was a
far cry from the flat she grew up in above her father’s barbershop. It was
Ridley Scott who would later give Arlene one of her first big professional
breaks. Molly choreographed for his commercials, and Arlene became her
assistant. One day when Molly was away Ridley asked Arlene to step up, and she
began choreographing big budget commercials.
Arlene outside the 'orange' flat she shared with influential friend Molly, East Finchley London
Her next revisit is to the
flat she and Molly shared in East Finchley. She remembers before stepping back
through the front door ‘the thing I
disliked most about this flat is the wallpaper was bright orange’ she is
almost speechless when she discovers 50 years later the walls are still painted
orange! She reveals that she was very messy and her dance clothes discarded
everywhere, while Molly was meticulous.
In 1971 Arlene married
fashion designer Danny Noble and they purchased their first house – a mews in a
new development in Hampstead. ‘It was
bought for £35,000 – which I could only just scrape together with a mortgage.
It was a fortune in those days’. Arlene
remembers that it was while she lived here she first put together the
controversial dance troupe Hot Gossip.
At the time Pan’s People
dominated dance on TV. Arlene says ‘They
were beautiful girls and lovely dancers, but it felt to me pretty, and pretty
was not what I was about. Hot was what I was about.’ After a slow start Hot
Gossip were booked as regulars on ITV’s Kenny Everett Video show where their
racy routines in skimpy outfits made headlines and Mary Whitehouse called for
their overtly sexy routines to be banned.
Arlene was finally enjoying
the career she’d dreamt of, and when work took over she chose dance over her
marriage. After separating she had a brief affair that produced daughter Alana.
Despite the demands of being a single mum Arlene was about to re-invent dance
yet again when Andrew Lloyd Webber asked her to collaborate to create a musical
on roller skates – and Starlight Express was born.
In 1984 with her career in
full flight Arlene and daughter Alana took another on the property ladder. She
revisits the newly built home she’d seen being built nearby in North London. It
provided the minimalist space she’d been inspired by when she stayed at Ridley
Scott’s house, and naturally she painted all the walls white – although in
keeping with the 80’s the kitchen was black with red accessories.
Arlene remembers it was when
she lived here she started choreographing pop videos for artists including
Whitney Houston, Donna Summer, Duran Duran and Freddie Mercury. Working on
Freddie’s ‘I Was Born to Love You’ video Arlene met her current partner Angus,
and they have daughter Abi together. In 1997 Arlene, Angus and their daughters
moved to their current home.
Now Arlene has really been
able to create the home she aspired to when she first clapped eyes on Ridley
Scott’s home. She has created her fantasy – an all white home with light wooden
floors. She even has her own dance area where she can devise routines. Recently
she’s created a solo piece for the Royal Ballet. Of course she also lived here
when in 2004 the BBC invited her to become a judge on a new TV dance contest.
She wasn’t sure but her friend Bruno Tonioli who she’d worked with when he was
a pop video dancer (Arlene choreographed Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing’
which Bruno featured in) begged her to take part. Arlene became one of the original
judges and remained for 6 wildly successful series, before being sacked from
the show in 2009. She says now ‘In truth
I was devastated about Strictly. The press disruption and the things that
followed, I think I was a sort of living ghost.’
But Arlene never stopped
dancing and is remains very busy with the career she dreamed of as a girl
growing up in Stockport. She says ‘hard
work, determination and never giving up – ever, can work it’s magic.’
Arlene at home today in North London
Celebrity Home Secrets: A So Television / Sunnyside Productions Co-production
Executive Producers: Graham Stuart, Andrea Miller, Jerry Foulkes
Directed and Filmed by: Rebekah Levine