Sue Holderness on Marlene, Only Fools and Horses & an Untold Family Tragedy
5/5/202643 min
This week on A Night In with Sally Lindsay, Sally chats with her good friend Sue Holderness. Sue is best known as the unforgettable Marlene Boyce in Only Fools and Horses - a role that proved iconic - and, more recently, for starring alongside Sally as sharp-tongued Judith Lloyd-James in The Madame Blanc Mysteries.
Sue talks about her early days on stage and how she joined one of Britain’s most loved sitcoms. She explains how she got the role of Marlene, why she never auditioned for it, and how it changed her career.
She also shares what it was like behind-the-scenes of Only Fools and Horses, her close friendships with co-stars, including the late John Challis, and the joy of creating characters that audiences still love after all these years.
For the first time, Sue opens up about the death of her younger brother Simon and how this loss affected her and her family.
This episode is warm, funny and full of incredible stories. Sue talks about everything from near-death experiences on set to how self-defence skills she learned for a role once helped her get home safely. You’ll hear Sue Holderness as you’ve never heard her before.
Watch The Madame Blanc Mysteries on Channel 5.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsHayden0:00
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast, and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
Steven0:08
And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
Hayden0:11
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, Mistborn. But here's the catch: Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
Steven0:20
That's right, hey, hey. So each week, you'll get my unfiltered, raw reactions to every single chapter.
Hayden0:25
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong.
Steven0:32
Newsflash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy Fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
Sue Holderness· Guest0:39
[upbeat music] And I heard a lot of screaming going on, and the alligator was heading straight for me. [gasps] I was very nearly a goner.
Sally Lindsay· Host0:49
Now, do you remember your first big audition?
Sue Holderness· Guest0:51
Yes, I did have an audition with Mike Leigh, and that to this day is agony because I was hopeless. Well, quite honestly, I'm not Fussy Sally. I wouldn't mind seducing any of them. I'll seduce anything that twinkles back.
Sally Lindsay· Host1:04
And that's Sue Holderness, ladies and gentlemen. [laughs] [upbeat music] Sue, here we are. [laughs] Welcome to a night in at my house.
Sue Holderness· Guest1:16
Thank you for inviting me.
Sally Lindsay· Host1:18
You're so welcome, even though you've been here many times before. [laughs] Now, I absolutely love you. You know how much I love you. We met in 2000 and I think it was 9.
Sue Holderness· Guest1:28
Or 10.
Sally Lindsay· Host1:29
Was it 10?