About two weeks later there was a message on the answering machine from the Edmonton police. Would Lynda Bellingham please call at the earliest possible convenience? What was going on? I was doing a show that night so, because of the time difference, we had to wait until I got home. We both sat by the phone on the desk and dialled. A lovely policewoman took the call. She explained that there had been a complaint made against Michael which they were duty bound to follow up as it was clear that Marjorie had dementia and was therefore deemed very vulnerable to fraud. Fraud?! She explained that Sylvia Moorhouse had called the police as we had used Marjorie’s credit card to pay for some air fares. Marjorie had no recall of this transaction and so the police were investigating. I was devastated. Why had Marjorie not called me?
It was Marjorie’s idea she paid Michael’s expenses. In all the years I had been to visit I had paid my own fares and hotel bills because I never wanted Marjorie to think I needed anything from her. But now, realising that she had the money, we agreed to let her pay Michael’s air fare but that we would pay the hotel bills. We had sat with her in her apartment and trawled through the websites looking for cheap fares. In the end we booked Michael BA from London to Calgary and then internal Canadian Airlines from Calgary to Edmonton. My mother had never used her credit card so we activated it online, all together, and wrote down everything we had done to show her and anyone else what we were doing.
I explained to the police officer who I was, and how we had written down all the details of the transaction and left it with Marjorie. Well, of course, she couldn’t remember any of this and to be honest her study was a mess – piles of bills and paperwork everywhere. I was in tears by this time and the policewoman was trying to calm me down, saying they knew there must be an explanation because, as much as there was a complaint against us, all round Marjorie’s apartment were pictures of me, and a copy of Hello magazine which she kept proudly showing to the police, and telling them all about her daughter, the famous actress. Also, they had already contacted social services and had received a glowing report of how much hard work my husband had done for the ladies. So we bade the police farewell and put the phone down. We just sat there for a while both trying to understand what on earth was going on.
We decided I should ring Marjorie at once. As I listened to the long distance dialling tone I was reminded of the first time I ever rang her number after I had first been given it twenty years ago. But the voice that answered this time was very different. Brusque and unfriendly, my step-sister Sylvia asked, ‘Who is this?’
‘I want to talk to Marjorie please. I want to talk to my mother.’
‘She can’t come to the phone right now. She is in the bathroom.’
‘Then I will wait,’ I replied. But then I couldn’t stop myself, ‘Sylvia I do not understand what your problem is. Why have you reported us to the police? Surely you have talked to Marjorie about the situation. This is ridiculous, we have only been trying to help.’
‘I know what your husband has done. He is not welcome in this house ever again. I believe he is a criminal and wanted by the FBI.’
Now we had never mentioned any of this to my mother because there seemed little point. It had all happened a long time ago and to be perfectly honest it had taken ages for me to get my head round the complicated aspects of the whole thing, so how would one explain it to a ninety-something old lady who was deaf as well?
But still it seemed so unfair to jump to conclusions after everything he had done for Marjorie. I am hoping that one day I will be able to write Michael’s story, which is absolutely fascinating. So watch this space!
Eventually Sylvia let me speak to Marjorie. She was very distressed and confused. I must confess I got tearful as well. I asked her why she had not talked to us, but all she kept saying was, ‘Why was the air fare so expensive? And why was the BA fare more than the Canadian Airline fare?’
I tried to explain that one set of flights were BA from London and the other fares were internal. But she couldn’t take it in. She didn’t know where the piece of paper was on which we wrote all the details. She didn’t remember booking the flights with us. It was a nightmare. How could we have been so stupid and not made sure the receipts were safe. It was even more distressing because I could hear Sylvia in the background.
Finally, I was so frustrated I said, ‘Marjorie, Michael is only trying to help you. Please don’t jump to conclusions. We may have to take legal action if people make false accusations about us.’
‘Oh Lynda dear, how could you even think about doing anything against my family?’
I was stopped in my tracks. Her family? I was her family! All we had tried to do was help. I just wanted to scream at her. It was so unfair. I had been a secret all those years and now I had a chance to be part of her life, and to care for her, she was denying me.
I became very calm and said, ‘Okay Marjorie, don’t worry. Don’t get upset. I will see you soon. Just remember I love you.’
I put the phone down and sobbed.
I had lost my mother the first time round now it looked as if I had lost her again.
Ironically, Marjorie and Shirley are now happily settled in the care home that Michael worked so hard to find for them. We are in constant touch with a friend of my mother’s who is a member of the same church. I am sad to say that in the last few months Marjorie’s health has deteriorated and the Alzheimer’s has really taken hold. I do not think she would know me any longer. I have kept my distance partly because my commitment to Calendar Girls has meant I am unable to travel, but a little bit of me has never quite got over the sense of betrayal. However, it will be interesting to see what happens when Marjorie passes away because I feel I want to be able to go to her funeral and face some of these people I have never met. To many I will be a secret they wish had remained a secret.
I am happy I found my birth mother and it has given me a certain closure but, as I have said before in this book, I loved Donald and Ruth Bellingham with all my heart and soul, and they were my real hands-on parents.
So life goes on and now I am still enjoying my time on the Loose Women panel. Things have changed a bit there over the last two years. Jane McDonald has taken a year out to pursue her career as a singer. We had a real heart to heart and I told her that in my opinion she has a wonderful voice and stage presence and she should have a stab at a really big musical before she gets too old. She produced a one night concert at the London Palladium in May 2010 which was spectacular. It was the first time I had seen Jane in concert and I was knocked out. Hopefully she will take time out from her concert tours and take my advice. Coleen has gone from strength to strength as has Denise. Carol had a huge success with her autobiography and I am really pleased for her. I think she should do more writing. Lisa Maxwell and Zoe Tyler became regulars. Lisa and I go way back together. The format has changed a little and there are more of us. I am not sure that is always a good thing, as I personally think the audience like their regulars, but I guess nothing stays the same.
My youngest son has proved a big success in the hotel business. He is now on reception at the Athenaeum hotel and I am so proud of him. My stepson Bradley has finished his apprenticeship as a chippie, and is hoping to start his own business soon. My dear husband has been toiling away for nine months setting up an online estate agency called Virtual Property World and hopes to sell franchises round the UK. His laptop is glued to his lap and his mobile is permanently stuck to his ear. I am determined to write my first real novel. It would just be perfect if it takes off and then maybe next year we can go travelling. I never did it when I was young, as I was too busy trying to earn a living. I am not sure I want to backpack round the world though, more like glide after my luxury luggage into yet another five-star resort. Well I can dream! And let’s face it guys if you don’t have a dream how you going to have a dream come true? See you around and watch this space.
Lynda, January 2011
Michael and me in Paris for our first wedding anniv
ersary, 31st May, 2009 (he is such a smoothie)
Loose Women at work. We look very genteel here – very deceptive
ITV / REX FEATURES
Strictly Come Dancing with Darren Bennett – you can’t see the terror behind my eyes!
BBC
My new family: Michael and Michael, Robbie, stepson Bradley, stepdaughter Stacey and stepgrandson Cooper, who looks less than sure about us all
ALAN OLLEY / CAMERA PRESS
The lovely Loose Ladies – don’t they brush up well!
ALAN OLLEY / CAMERA PRESS
Third time lucky! Michael and me on our wedding day, 31st May, 2008
ALAN OLLEY / CAMERA PRESS
Sugar Mummies, 2006 – it’s tough at the top
ALASTAIR MUIR / REX FEATURES
This is scary! Playing Irene Radford in The Bill, 2004
FREMANTLEMEDIA
Czarina Alexandra in The Romanovs, 1998 – a far cry from making gravy
I do love a corset – My Uncle Silas with Albert Finney, 2002
ITV / REX FEATURES
With my best friend, Nickolas Grace
Meeting HM Queen Elizabeth, with Harry Hill and Nicholas Parsons, 2005
KEY MCKAY / REX FEATURES
Second Thoughts, another of my families, 1993
ITV / REX FEATURES
Being caught by Michael Aspel for This Is Your Life (on the Second Thoughts set), 1993
FREMANTLEMEDIA
Marjorie Moorhouse, 1947
Marjorie and me in Edmonton, 1993
Ladies who lunch, with Princess Diana and Annie Nightingale, 1987
What a star! Michael Peluso, 1983
What a cutie! Robert Peluso, 1988
My second wedding day, July 1981, with Lynda La Plante, Mum and Biggins (nice to see he dressed up for the occasion)
Out on the town with Nunzio
NILS JORGENSEN / REX FEATURES
One of my many families, All Creatures Great and Small, 1988
BBC
My famous Oxo family
THE ADVERTISING ARCHIVES
I loved the period costumes in Funny Man, 1981
FREMANTLEMEDIA
Definitely a passing resemblance to Joan Collins in Doctor Who, 1984
BBC
My first wedding, to Greg Smith, November 1975
In The Sweeney – Oh, the innocence of youth!
FREMANTLEMEDIA
India 1977, with Jean and Barbara
As fat nurse Hilda Price in General Hospital in 1972 (I was wearing padding)
Confessions of a Driving Instructor with Robin Askwith, 1975 – love the big hair
First professional role as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1966
A family portrait: Dad with Barbara, Mum with Jean, and me to the side, 1953
My little pony, Tiddlywinks, 1958
Jean, me and Barbara, bathing belles, 1957
Calendar Girl – hardly Playboy centrefold!
JOHN SWANNELL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank: my sister Jean, for all her help; my editor, Charlotte Cole; Gordon Wise, for encouragement and support; and Sue Latimer and Oriana Elia for keeping faith with me. And finally my thanks to anyone and everyone who has read my story.
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First published in 2010 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing A Random House Group company
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