Lorraine Chase
Encyclopedia
Lorraine Chase is an English
actress and model
. She became well known for her strong cockney
accent and frequent use of cockney slang, and found fame through a series of television commercials for Campari
before embarking on an acting career.
. The comical ads were filmed in exotic locations with Chase having drinks with an elegant, sophisticated gentleman suitor played by Jeremy Clyde
. Upon his romantic question "Were you truly wafted
here from paradise?", Chase would declare in her full cockney accent "Nah, Luton Airport!" The line became something of a catchphrase and inspired the 1979 hit record "Luton Airport" by Cats U.K.
Contrary to public belief, Chase was not involved with the record in any way, though she did make a novelty record of her own in 1979, entitled "It's Nice 'Ere, Init" (also based on a line from another one of her Campari ads). However, this was unsuccessful. In 2009, the Campari ad featuring Chase was placed 41st in Channel 4
's 100 Greatest TV Adverts
.
From 1979, Chase was a recurring guest on the BBC
quiz show Blankety Blank
, hosted by Terry Wogan
and later Les Dawson
.
In 1980, she appeared in the ITV children's television programme Worzel Gummidge
, as the character Dolly Clothes-Peg. Dolly tried to woo the hapless scarecrow Worzel, played by Jon Pertwee
, but he spurned her in favour of his unrequited love affair with Aunt Sally
, played by Una Stubbs
.
The same year, Chase began her most prominent role in the ITV sitcom The Other 'Arf
, in which she co-starred with John Standing
. The Other 'Arf ran for four series until 1984, after which Chase appeared in the less successful 1984 TV sitcom Lame Ducks
.
Following this, Chase made sporadic appearances on television as herself on light entertainment series such as The Bob Monkhouse Show
and Surprise, Surprise, though she did not continue her television acting career until the late 1990s when she appeared in episodes of Casualty
and The Bill
. In 2000, she had a recurring role in the TV series Lock, Stock...
(based on the 1998 feature film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
).
In 2002, Chase joined the cast of the long-running ITV
soap opera Emmerdale
, playing Steph Forsythe
. Executive producer Steve Frost chose her to play the mother of Sheree Murphy
's character Tricia Stokes due their physical resemblance. She played an ex-convict and featured in some of the shows most prominent controversial storylines to date including family bereavement, mental illness, murder, fraud and incest sexual abuse until November 2006 when her character was sent to jail for a life sentence.
Since leaving Emmerdale, Chase has appeared in episodes of My Family (2007) and Doctors (2009). In 2010, she took part in the "Soap Star Special" edition of the Channel 4
series Come Dine With Me
. She is part of the final celebrity line-up for the ITV show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! which will air on Sunday 13th November 2011 for a month.
, comedy and drama. Her first acting role following her infamous Campari ads in the 1970s was in a play starring Kenneth Williams
. Since then she has appeared in stage productions of Pygmalion
, Little Shop of Horrors
, Me and My Girl
, Tea For Two
, and Run For Your Wife
. In 2007, she toured the UK in a production of the thriller Dead Guilty.
She also appeared as a guest in an episode of the BBC radio show Just A Minute
, alongside regulars Clement Freud
, Kenneth Williams
and Peter Jones
.
Chase is a Patron of The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America
.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actress and model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
. She became well known for her strong cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
accent and frequent use of cockney slang, and found fame through a series of television commercials for Campari
Campari
Campari is an alcoholic apéritif obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit in alcohol and water. It is a bitters characterized by its dark red color....
before embarking on an acting career.
Television
After initially working as a model, Chase came to public attention in the mid 1970s when she began appearing in television commercials for CampariCampari
Campari is an alcoholic apéritif obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit in alcohol and water. It is a bitters characterized by its dark red color....
. The comical ads were filmed in exotic locations with Chase having drinks with an elegant, sophisticated gentleman suitor played by Jeremy Clyde
Jeremy Clyde
Michael Thomas Jeremy Clyde is an English actor and musician. The son of Lady Elizabeth Wellesley, he made his first public appearance as a pageboy at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1953...
. Upon his romantic question "Were you truly wafted
Waft
Waft is a term meaning to carry along gently as through the air. The term is commonly used to describe scents that have diffused in to other parts of a room, or to describe smoke as being seen moving through the air...
here from paradise?", Chase would declare in her full cockney accent "Nah, Luton Airport!" The line became something of a catchphrase and inspired the 1979 hit record "Luton Airport" by Cats U.K.
Cats U.K.
Cats U.K. were a British four-piece all-girl band who had a hit with the single "Luton Airport" in October 1979.The record, which reached No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart, was inspired by the 1977 Campari television commercial in which cockney model and actress Lorraine Chase responds to Jeremy...
Contrary to public belief, Chase was not involved with the record in any way, though she did make a novelty record of her own in 1979, entitled "It's Nice 'Ere, Init" (also based on a line from another one of her Campari ads). However, this was unsuccessful. In 2009, the Campari ad featuring Chase was placed 41st in Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's 100 Greatest TV Adverts
100 Greatest/100 Worst
100 Greatest is a long-running TV strand on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom that has been broadcasting since 1999. The "list show" programmes are generally public polls, and reflect the votes of visitors to the Channel 4 website. However, the results of some of the polls are determined by experts...
.
From 1979, Chase was a recurring guest on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
quiz show Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1978 Australian game show Blankety Blanks ....
, hosted by Terry Wogan
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...
and later Les Dawson
Les Dawson
Leslie "Les" Dawson was a popular English comedian remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.-Life and career:...
.
In 1980, she appeared in the ITV children's television programme Worzel Gummidge
Worzel Gummidge
Worzel Gummidge is a British children's fictional character who originally appeared in a series of books by the novelist Barbara Euphan Todd. A walking, talking scarecrow, Gummidge has a set of interchangeable turnip, mangel worzel and swede heads, each of which suit a particular occasion or endow...
, as the character Dolly Clothes-Peg. Dolly tried to woo the hapless scarecrow Worzel, played by Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
, but he spurned her in favour of his unrequited love affair with Aunt Sally
Aunt Sally
thumb|right|312px|A drawing from the 1911 edition of Whiteley's General Catalogue.Aunt Sally is a traditional throwing game. The term is often used metaphorically to mean something that is a target for criticism...
, played by Una Stubbs
Una Stubbs
Una Stubbs is an English actress and former dancer who has appeared extensively on British television and in the theatre, and less frequently in films. She is particularly known for her roles in the sitcom Till Death Us Do Part and Aunt Sally in the children's series Worzel Gummidge.-Film and...
.
The same year, Chase began her most prominent role in the ITV sitcom The Other 'Arf
The Other 'Arf
The Other 'Arf is a British television ITV sitcom series broadcast from 1980 to 1984. It stars John Standing as upper class Conservative politician Charles Latimer, MP, who begins a relationship with working class cockney Lorraine Watts .The series was produced by ATV , and was screened...
, in which she co-starred with John Standing
John Standing
Sir John Ronald Leon Standing, 4th Baronet is an English actor.-Early life:Standing was born John Ronald Leon in London, the son of Kay Hammond , an actress, and Sir Ronald George Leon, a stockbroker...
. The Other 'Arf ran for four series until 1984, after which Chase appeared in the less successful 1984 TV sitcom Lame Ducks
Lame Ducks (TV series)
Lame Ducks is a British television sitcom made by the BBC in 1984 and written by Peter J. Hammond.One of the more dark and surreal plotlines, it starred John Duttine as Brian Drake, a man who, when suffering a serious injury after being hit by a truck, can no longer work and decides to head off to...
.
Following this, Chase made sporadic appearances on television as herself on light entertainment series such as The Bob Monkhouse Show
The Bob Monkhouse Show
The Bob Monkhouse Show was an entertainment show presented by Bob Monkhouse.The show celebrated the art of comedy and comedian guests were invited to perform a stand-up. The programme began in 1983 and ran for three series until 1986...
and Surprise, Surprise, though she did not continue her television acting career until the late 1990s when she appeared in episodes of Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
and The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
. In 2000, she had a recurring role in the TV series Lock, Stock...
Lock, Stock...
Lock, Stock... was a 2000 television series off-shoot from the 1998 film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The series was shown on Channel 4 and starred Ralph Brown, Daniel Caltagirone, Del Synnott, Scott Maslen and Shaun Parkes. Lock, Stock... was Ginger Productions' first commission...
(based on the 1998 feature film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag...
).
In 2002, Chase joined the cast of the long-running ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
soap opera Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
, playing Steph Forsythe
Steph Forsythe
Mary Stephanie "Steph" Forsythe was a fictional character on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. She was played by Lorraine Chase.-2002–04:...
. Executive producer Steve Frost chose her to play the mother of Sheree Murphy
Sheree Murphy
Sheree Murphy is an English actress and television presenter. A former student of the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Murphy placed second on the fifth series of the Reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!...
's character Tricia Stokes due their physical resemblance. She played an ex-convict and featured in some of the shows most prominent controversial storylines to date including family bereavement, mental illness, murder, fraud and incest sexual abuse until November 2006 when her character was sent to jail for a life sentence.
Since leaving Emmerdale, Chase has appeared in episodes of My Family (2007) and Doctors (2009). In 2010, she took part in the "Soap Star Special" edition of the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
series Come Dine With Me
Come Dine With Me
Come Dine With Me is a popular Channel 4 television programme shown in the United Kingdom, produced by Granada Television and first broadcast in January 2005. The show has either four or five amateur chefs competing against each other hosting a dinner party for the other contestants...
. She is part of the final celebrity line-up for the ITV show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! which will air on Sunday 13th November 2011 for a month.
Other work
As well as her various television credits, Chase has also appeared in a variety of stage productions, including pantomimePantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
, comedy and drama. Her first acting role following her infamous Campari ads in the 1970s was in a play starring Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...
. Since then she has appeared in stage productions of Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
, Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors may refer to:* The Little Shop of Horrors, a 1960 film directed by Roger Corman* Little Shop of Horrors , a 1982 musical based on the 1960 film...
, Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....
, Tea For Two
Tea for Two
Tea for Two can refer to:*Tea for Two , a 1925 popular song by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar, introduced in the musical, No, No, Nanette*Tea for Two , a movie starring Doris Day which reintroduced the song...
, and Run For Your Wife
Run For Your Wife
Run For Your Wife is an adult comedy play by Ray Cooney.-Plot:The story of London cab driver John Smith, with two wives, two lives and a very precise schedule for juggling them both...
. In 2007, she toured the UK in a production of the thriller Dead Guilty.
She also appeared as a guest in an episode of the BBC radio show Just A Minute
Just a Minute
Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003....
, alongside regulars Clement Freud
Clement Freud
Sir Clement Raphael Freud was an English broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.-Early life:Freud was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish parents Ernst Ludwig Freud and Lucie née Brasch. He was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud...
, Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...
and Peter Jones
Peter Jones
Peter Jones or Pete Jones may refer to:*Peter Jones , English actor*Peter Jones , Australian rules footballer for Carlton...
.
Chase is a Patron of The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America
The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America
The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America is a registered theatre charity and non-profit making theatre organisation based in London and was founded by Adrian Barry in 1992...
.