Sue Devaney: Why I will always owe a debt of gratitude to Victoria Wood

There was a poll on Twitter the other day which asked simply, ‘Who is Sue Devaney?’ Eighteen per cent went for Debbie in Coronation Street, Jane in Dinnerladies got 23 per cent and “Our Rita” in Jonny Briggs was the runaway winner with more than a third of the votes. The rest went for “something else”. “Sue Devaney is something else, I quite like that,” laughs the actress on a break from rehearsing JB Priestley’s When We Are Married which will open at York Theatre Royal later this month. “It’s funny, when you’ve had a part in a soap or a sitcom like Dinnerladies as soon as you’re not on it any more or it comes to an end, people think your career is over too. Honestly, I can sometimes see people looking at me thinking: ‘I know her, she used to be an actress’.”

For some actresses the idea that they might not be recognised while doing the weekly shop would have them straight on the phone to their agent, but Devaney has always been comfortable in her own skin. Plus, while her career may not have yet taken her to the big screen, her list of television and stage credits is impressive. Now 50, she’ll soon be able to add a Northern Broadsides’ debut to her CV in a production which will bring her career full circle.

Devaney was 18 when she made her West End debut in When We Are Married. The story of six couples all married on the same day in the same chapel who discover on their silver wedding anniversary that the ceremony was not legally binding, it’s often regarded as Priestley’s best work. Back then Devaney portrayed the play’s irreverent maid, Ruby Birtle, starring alongside Patricia Hayes, who, despite the age difference, quickly became not only a colleague but landlady and close friend.

“I’d moved into my sister’s flat, but there wasn’t really enough room, so Patricia said: ‘Why don’t you stay with me until the end of the run?’ I did and seven years later I was still there. She was lovely, so funny and such a mentor. I will never forget one night a taxi came to pick her up to go to some awards ceremony, but half an hour later it was back. The driver knocked on the door and said: ‘I’m sorry to disturb you, but I think Ms Hayes has forgotten her teeth’. I had to go and retrieve them from the side of the sink.

“They were fantastic times and because I was so young I was also fearless. I remember early on in the run sitting in a cafe with Bob Geldof on the next table. I thought ‘Look at me, I’ve made it’.”

Devaney was drawn back to the play by Northern Broadsides’ irrepressible artistic director Barrie Rutter who she was introduced to through a mutual friend.

“Afterwards I wrote to him and said: ‘C’mon on now, Barrie, I’m 50, how about a bit of Shakespeare?’ He said: ‘Sorry, Sue, we’re not doing Shakespeare this season, but how about Priestley?’ I’ve always wanted to work with Broadsides so I didn’t need asking twice and it’s been everything I hoped it would be.

“Some directors tiptoe around the cast. Not Barrie. If you are doing something he doesn’t like, you soon know about it. But I like that and I love his energy and his enthusiasm.”

It’s something Devaney isn’t short on either. While she didn’t come from a starry, show-business family, she had her first taste of performing a the Oldham Theatre Workshop and before she had finished school landed her first professional role in the Thora Hird sitcom In Loving Memory.

“It was before I’d joined Equity, so I was still known as Susan Barber. As my career went along I would bump into Thora every so often and each time she’d say: ‘Well, Susan Barber, you’ve not done too bad for yourself, have you?’

“And you know what? I haven’t. I might just bob along picking up parts here and there, but that’s fine with me. Before this job I hadn’t worked for four months, but I am good at pottering about. And I tend to keep in the moment, in this business I don’t think it pays to have too many grand plans. It’s a philosophy that’s worked for me. In fact, probably the only regret is that I didn’t go to drama school. I haven’t ruled out going back even now because I love learning and I think it gives you confidence that you can’t get by just working.”

While Devaney has played numerous straight roles, it’s comedy where her heart lies and she has got to work with some of the best, including Victoria Wood who wrote and starred in Dinnerladies.

“That was just amazing. There I was in a studio with Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and Celia Imrie who are just absolute legends. I’ll always be grateful to Vick because she always had faith in me. She 
was also incredibly brave. Back in the 1970s when she was first making her name, there was no one doing what she did, but she went out and did it. I really admire her for that and we lost her far too soon.”

In recent years, Devaney has been making her name in musicals, first playing Gracie Fields and then starring in the monster hit Mamma Mia!

“It’s funny, before I did Gracie I just never thought that my voice was good enough to do a big musical. That was an incredible part, because she was born just down the road from me in Rochdale and so I felt an incredible responsibility to get it right.

“From there followed Mamma Mia! which took over my life for two years and took me to some incredible places. I remember touching down in South Korea and thinking I’d walked into the set of Blade Runner. It is a strange place, but you know what, Asian audiences do love a musical. When you are on a long tour like that, the adrenalin keeps you going, but as soon as you stop you suddenly feel all the aches and pains.”

What helps is knowing that she now has a home close to where she grew up that she can return to.

“My mum became ill a few years ago and I decided then to move back north. I’d missed it. My sister and brother are both there, so are a lot of my friends and once work has finished it’s nice to be surrounded by the familiar. I also found love quite late in life, prompted by a friend who asked me one day: ‘Sue, what do you do when you’re not working apart from clean the house?’

Life is good for Devaney, who recently ticked another box with an appearance on Pointless Celebrities. A children’s TV-themed edition, it saw her reunited with Johnny Briggs himself, Richard Holian.

“He’s now a City banker, but I could recognise him by those ears,” she says. “We’ve both grown up, but you know what I’m fully embracing the menopause and as an actress it’s the perfect excuse for a little drama.

“There’s a freedom as you get older. I came home the other day with a pair of silver shoes. I said to my partner: ‘So what do you think of these?’ I could tell he thought it was the purchase of a mad old actress, but I don’t care. I reckon being a bit crackers can be incredibly liberating.”

When We Are Married, York Theatre Royal, to September 24 then touring. northern-broadsides.co.uk