should get your hat and coat on and go up to Bradford and meet those
women like I did. And then you wouldn’t tell me what my series is really
about. It takes a certain courage to talk to a producer like that. I think my
life experience, so di�ferent to his, gave me that courage.
Anthony and I did go through a bit of a rough patch. When I went into
further education, Bretton Hall College, Anthony was out earning a living,
looking a�ter the kids and putting a roof over our heads. And I was moving
in a di�ferent direction, towards drama, writing, acting. In many ways, I was
leaving him behind. He was stuck in that alpha male, motor mechanic,
‘got to put the food on the table, got to pay the mortgage’, breadwinner
mindset. Educating Rita, that was my story. I should have written that. I
always felt like Willie Russell beat me to it.
But god bless Anthony, he knew that if we were to sustain our marriage,
he would have to change. So he went to Stockport College and got a
degree in social welfare. And he became interested in education and
politics. So we caught up. There was one day, we’d gone on holiday, maybe
to Majorca, with the kids. And we were sat on that beach, and we were
talking about things that interested both of us. Our minds were both
opening. We were still juggling two small girls, and we had bills to pay, but
we were connecting on a di�ferent level to how we had as young people.
We were looking at architecture, noticing things. Our brains were both
starting to open. And I started to grow closer to him.
I think if the 16-year-old Kay could look at me now and see that people
actually know my name, and see that I make television, and that my
name goes up as writer and creator and director... I think that would blow
her brains out. In a million years, she could never have dreamt that. And
she’d also see that you can be happy in a long, long relationship if you work
at it. I’ve said so many times – people fall in and out of love. And that’s
alright. If you look for what it was that fundamentally attracted you to that
person. Not just the physicality, but that person underneath, the letter in
the envelope. Don’t throw it away, because you’ll just have another letter.
And then you’ll get bored of reading that letter.If I could go back and live one day again, it would be from the fi rst time
I went to the Caribbean. It was a mind-blowing moment because it was
such a di�ferent culture. We’d never seen anything like it. It was our fi rst
big holiday and Anthony’s 40th birthday. We went to Barbados, St Lucia.
And it was just like paradise. It took my breath away, it was just so utterly
beautiful. A sort of simple life, but so beautiful. I remember standing
on our hotel balcony, watching the fi sh being netted by these young
Caribbean lads. The sun, the sunsets, the palm trees, the colour of the sea,
the colour of the little houses – everything about it was just glorious. I felt
like I was in a great big fi lm. Those images will stay with me all my life.Season Four of The Syndicate will air on BBC One
in late March
Interview: Jane Graham @Janeannie1967
THE YEAR KAY
TURNS 16- Sandie Shaw wins
Eurovision for the UK - Celtic become the
fi rst British team to
win the European Cup - Che Guevara is
executed in Bolivia
Find out what other big names told
The Big Issue in our Letter To My
Younger Self book, on sale nowFROM 01 MARCH 2021 BIGISSUE.COM | 21