Rula Lenska
Encyclopedia
Rula Lenska is an English
actress. Best known for her work in the United Kingdom
, she is remembered in the United States
for a television advert
that presented her as a celebrity
, even though she was not widely known in the US at the time the advert was produced.
She has appeared extensively on television in the UK and is notable for her red hair and "40 a day"
voice. She is divorced from actor Dennis Waterman
.
, Cambridgeshire
, England
her father, Major Count Ludwik Maria Lubienski, had led Radio Free Europe
in Poland
and was the chief of the Polish military mission in Gibraltar during World War II. Her mother was the former Countess Elzbieta Tyszkiewicz. She has two sisters, Gabriela and Anna, an actress who appeared in a few films in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She was educated at the Ursuline College
in Westgate-on-Sea
.
TV series Rock Follies
(1976) and its sequel Rock Follies of '77 the following year. By this time, she had renounced her title as a Polish countess; she has said of the decision, "In England it doesn't count, if you'll excuse the pun."
Rock Follies was not widely seen in North America, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lenska became famous in the United States
and Canada for her Alberto VO5 hair products commercials. The commercial began with a closeup of her stating, "I'm Rula Lenska." People assumed this was a product endorsement
by a celebrity
whose name the advertisers expected them to know—although, in North America, Lenska was virtually unknown prior to the VO5 ad campaign.
In a Tonight Show monologue that aired after the commercials started running, Johnny Carson
asked "Who the hell is Rula Lenska?" and began using Lenska's name as a running joke on his show. Around the same time, Jane Curtin
played Lenska in a sketch on Saturday Night Live
. Soon (at least to US audiences) Lenska became famous because of the mere assumption that she was famous. Most people in the US were unaware that she had an acting career in the United Kingdom
, and believed she was a model.
At any rate, the discovery that she was not that prominent in the United States led to Alberto-Culver
's eventual decision not to renew its contract with her, bringing an end to her commercial "starring roles."
,
Minder
, Boon
, The Detectives
, Footballers' Wives
, To the Manor Born
, One Foot in the Grave
, Casualty,
Space: 1999
, Return of the Saint
, Robin Of Sherwood
, the Doctor Who
serial Resurrection of the Daleks
- (in late 1970, she got down to the final 5 actresses short-listed for the part of companion Jo Grant
),
Doctors
and EastEnders
, in which she played Frank Butcher
's girlfriend, Krystal, in a Costa del Sol special (2002). She played Mrs Peacock in series 2 of Cluedo
.
She starred with the late John Inman
in the short-lived (six episodes were screened) 1981 series Take a Letter, Mr. Jones
, with Lenska as an executive and Inman as her secretary. In 2003, she starred in the black comedy Paradise Grove
alongside Ron Moody
. She played the Lintilla clones in the original Radio
series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
and can also be heard in the third, fourth and fifth radio series which debuted on BBC Radio 4
in May 2005. She has presented travel programmes for the BBC
and has recorded many audiobooks.
In the 2005 film Gypo, which was the first UK feature film to be made under Dogme rules, she plays a Roma refugee from the Czech Republic
living on a caravan site in Margate
.
Lenska also starred in "Garvey" in the independent
British
film
Jack Says
. opposite her one-time EastEnders co-star Mike Reid
, which was released on dvd on 22 September 2008. She lent her voice to the upcoming animation film Agent Crush
.
In 2009, Lenska joined the cast of Coronation Street
as new character Claudia Colby, an old friend of Audrey Roberts
. In May 2011, Lenska quit the role in order to join the 'Calender Girls' tour in August 2011.
and 84 Charing Cross Road
) and in many pantomimes and is a regular performer (and part of the original cast) of the touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners
.
In December 2005, she appeared on stage with the London Gay Men's Chorus
for their Christmas Show, Make the Yuletide Gay. She sang and danced while also hosting the show at Symphony Hall
in Birmingham
, the (http://www.brighton-dome.org.uk/venues/Concert_Hall.asp) Dome Concert Hall in Brighton and the Barbican Centre in London
.
At the equivalent show in December 2006, comedienne Sandi Toksvig
corrupted the lyrics of a song to suggest Lenska had a Christmas job in Debenhams
. In 2007 she was to tour alongside Marti Webb
and Sheila Ferguson
in a new musical about menopause
called Hot Flush.
version of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2006. Her reason for accepting the invitation to go on the show was "I'm a crazy Polish countess who likes a challenge".
During the show, she declared that she had been a “Tibetan Buddhist” for many years but had been practising “Buddhism for the common man”, which has no hierarchical structure (Nichiren Daishonin), for two years.
On 13 January 2006, with fellow housemate, renegade British MP
George Galloway
, she attracted the attention of the media by indulging in a role-play task set by Big Brother, in which Galloway, as a cat, pretended to lick milk from her cupped hands, and Lenska stroked his ears and moustache. This incident has actually benefited Rula. After her departure from the Big Brother house she was offered a five figure deal to promote a famous cat food brand. The commercials are yet to be broadcast. On another occasion during her time in the BB house, when accidentally locked in the toilet, singer Pete Burns
quipped, "Oh dear, what can the matter be, clapped out actress stuck in the lavatory." Lenska was voted out of the show on 20 January 2006, the third housemate of the series to be evicted, after Jodie Marsh
and Faria Alam
.
On 23 January, three days after eviction, she gave an interview to UK radio station BBC Radio 5 Live
berating Burns for his attitude and unfriendliness towards her. She also expressed disgust at Burns's wearing of a monkey fur coat. The "cat" incident with Galloway was highlighted, but Lenska insisted that there was nothing "untoward" about it, and laughed off any suggestion that she was romantically interested in the controversial MP.
Her chosen charities were Wildlife Line and Children in Crisis.
(4 June 1977–1987), with whom she had one daughter, Lara Parker, and secondly, to actor Dennis Waterman
, from 3 January 1987 until 31 March 1998. Both marriages ended in divorce.
She and Waterman met on the set of Minder
in 1982. Waterman's daughter Hannah Waterman
, was starring in EastEnders
at the same time Lenska made her guest appearances, although they did not share any scenes together.
In 2009 she sought compensation from the Polish government for the communist seizure of her family's Polish estate.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress. Best known for her work in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, she is remembered in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for a television advert
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
that presented her as a celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, even though she was not widely known in the US at the time the advert was produced.
She has appeared extensively on television in the UK and is notable for her red hair and "40 a day"
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
voice. She is divorced from actor Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.-Early life:...
.
Early life
Born in St NeotsSt Neots
St Neots is a town and civil parish with a population of 26,356 people. It lies on the River Great Ouse in Huntingdonshire District, approximately north of central London, and is the largest town in Cambridgeshire . The town is named after the Cornish monk St...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
her father, Major Count Ludwik Maria Lubienski, had led Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and was the chief of the Polish military mission in Gibraltar during World War II. Her mother was the former Countess Elzbieta Tyszkiewicz. She has two sisters, Gabriela and Anna, an actress who appeared in a few films in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She was educated at the Ursuline College
Ursuline College (Westgate-on-Sea)
Ursuline College is a Catholic Sports College located in Westgate-on-Sea, in North-East Kent. Aimed at pupils aged 11 – 19, the College is based within the Ursuline and Catholic ethos, aiding and teaching its pupils within this regime.- History :...
in Westgate-on-Sea
Westgate-on-Sea
Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,600. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate...
.
Early career
Her big break was as Little Ladies band member, "Q," in the BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
TV series Rock Follies
Rock Follies
Rock Follies, and its sequel, Rock Follies of '77, was a comedy musical drama shown on British television in the mid 1970s. The storyline, over 12 episodes and two series, followed the ups and downs of a fictional female rock band called the "Little Ladies" as they struggled for recognition and...
(1976) and its sequel Rock Follies of '77 the following year. By this time, she had renounced her title as a Polish countess; she has said of the decision, "In England it doesn't count, if you'll excuse the pun."
Rock Follies was not widely seen in North America, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lenska became famous in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada for her Alberto VO5 hair products commercials. The commercial began with a closeup of her stating, "I'm Rula Lenska." People assumed this was a product endorsement
Testimonial
In promotion and of advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a written or spoken statement, sometimes from a person figure, sometimes from a private citizen, extolling the virtue of some product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary...
by a celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
whose name the advertisers expected them to know—although, in North America, Lenska was virtually unknown prior to the VO5 ad campaign.
In a Tonight Show monologue that aired after the commercials started running, Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
asked "Who the hell is Rula Lenska?" and began using Lenska's name as a running joke on his show. Around the same time, Jane Curtin
Jane Curtin
Jane Therese Curtin is an American actress and comedienne. She is commonly referred to as Queen of the Deadpan.First coming to prominence as an original cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s...
played Lenska in a sketch on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. Soon (at least to US audiences) Lenska became famous because of the mere assumption that she was famous. Most people in the US were unaware that she had an acting career in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and believed she was a model.
At any rate, the discovery that she was not that prominent in the United States led to Alberto-Culver
Alberto-Culver
Alberto-Culver is an American corporation with international sales whose principal business is manufacturing hair and skin beauty care products under such brands as Alberto VO5, Andrew Collinge, St. Ives , TRESemmé, FDS, Consort, and Nexxus. It is a manufacturer in the multicultural beauty care...
's eventual decision not to renew its contract with her, bringing an end to her commercial "starring roles."
Film, TV and radio
She has appeared in television series such as Special BranchSpecial Branch (TV series)
Special Branch is a British television series made by Thames Television for ITV and shown between 1969 and 1974. A police drama series, the action was centred on members of the Special Branch anti-espionage and anti-terrorist department of the London Metropolitan Police.The first two series were...
,
Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
, Boon
Boon (TV series)
Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...
, The Detectives
The Detectives
The Detectives is a British comedy television series, starring Jasper Carrott, Robert Powell, and George Sewell. It was a spoof of police dramas, which were numerous in the 1990s, and it was aired on BBC One...
, Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives is a British television drama surrounding the fictional Premier League Association football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives. It was broadcast on the ITV network from 8 January 2002 to 14 April 2006...
, To the Manor Born
To the Manor Born
To the Manor Born is a British sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. A special edition appeared in 2007. Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the first 20 episodes and the 2007 special were written by Peter Spence, the creator, while the 1981 finale was written by Christopher...
, One Foot in the Grave
One Foot in the Grave
One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...
, Casualty,
Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
, Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint was a British action-adventure television series that aired for one season in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States...
, Robin Of Sherwood
Robin of Sherwood
Robin of Sherwood , was a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 1984 to 1986 on the ITV network. In America it was retitled Robin Hood and shown on the premium cable TV channel...
, the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
serial Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts between 8 February and 15 February 1984...
- (in late 1970, she got down to the final 5 actresses short-listed for the part of companion Jo Grant
Jo Grant
Josephine "Jo" Grant is a fictional character played by Katy Manning in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
),
Doctors
Doctors (BBC Soap Opera)
Doctors is a British daytime television soap opera, set in the fictional Midland town of Letherbridge, defined as being close to the City of Birmingham. It was created by Chris Murray; Mal Young drove its development, and Carson Black was the original producer. The first episode was broadcast on...
and EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, in which she played Frank Butcher
Frank Butcher
Francis Aloysius "Frank" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Mike Reid. Frank made his first appearance on-screen as a guest character in 1987 but, due to a positive viewer reception, he was reintroduced in 1988 as a regular. Reid took a long...
's girlfriend, Krystal, in a Costa del Sol special (2002). She played Mrs Peacock in series 2 of Cluedo
Cluedo
Cluedo is a popular murder/mystery-themed deduction board game originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, England in 1949. It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England. It is now published by the United States game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired its U.S...
.
She starred with the late John Inman
John Inman
Frederick John Inman was an English actor best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served?, a British sitcom in the 1970s and 1980s. Inman was also well known in the United Kingdom as a pantomime dame....
in the short-lived (six episodes were screened) 1981 series Take a Letter, Mr. Jones
Take a Letter, Mr. Jones
Take a Letter, Mr. Jones was a short-lived British sitcom from Southern Television starring John Inman and Rula Lenska which aired in 1981.-Plot:...
, with Lenska as an executive and Inman as her secretary. In 2003, she starred in the black comedy Paradise Grove
Paradise Grove
Paradise Grove is an independent 2003 black comedy filmed in London. Much of the film is based in a fictional Jewish retirement home. It stars Ron Moody and Rula Lenska. It was directed by Charles Harris and was his first feature film.-Synopsis:...
alongside Ron Moody
Ron Moody
Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
. She played the Lintilla clones in the original Radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
and can also be heard in the third, fourth and fifth radio series which debuted on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
in May 2005. She has presented travel programmes for 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...
and has recorded many audiobooks.
In the 2005 film Gypo, which was the first UK feature film to be made under Dogme rules, she plays a Roma refugee from the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
living on a caravan site in Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
.
Lenska also starred in "Garvey" in the independent
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Jack Says
Jack Says
Jack Says is a 2008 British thriller film known particularly for being the last professional engagement of Mike Reid, who died shortly after filming in 2007. The film is a contemporary film noir, with comic book undertones that reflect its precursor graphic novel Jack Said, and is comparable in...
. opposite her one-time EastEnders co-star Mike Reid
Mike Reid (entertainer)
Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter from Hackney in east London, who is best remembered for playing the role of Frank Butcher in EastEnders and hosting the popular children's TV show Runaround...
, which was released on dvd on 22 September 2008. She lent her voice to the upcoming animation film Agent Crush
Agent Crush
Agent Crush is a 2008 animated movie starring Ioan Gruffudd, Brian Cox, Neve Campbell, Roger Moore, Brian Blessed, Rula Lenska and Ruby Wax...
.
In 2009, Lenska joined the cast of Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
as new character Claudia Colby, an old friend of Audrey Roberts
Audrey Roberts
Audrey Roberts is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Sue Nicholls, the character first appeared during the episode aired on 16 April 1979....
. In May 2011, Lenska quit the role in order to join the 'Calender Girls' tour in August 2011.
Stage roles
She has toured extensively both in the UK and abroad and appeared in several West End shows (most recently in The Vagina MonologuesThe Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the Off Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at AFRICA in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production which was produced by David Stone, Nina Essman, Dan Markley, The Araca Group, Willa Shalit, Mike Skipper...
and 84 Charing Cross Road
84 Charing Cross Road
84, Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between her and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers located at the eponymous address in London, England.Hanff, in search of...
) and in many pantomimes and is a regular performer (and part of the original cast) of the touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners
Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners
Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners is an anthology-style play compiled and written by Carry On... writer Norman Hudis and producer Marc Sinden, who is also the director...
.
In December 2005, she appeared on stage with the London Gay Men's Chorus
London Gay Men's Chorus
Founded in 1991 by a group of six gay men, the London Gay Men’s Chorus is now, with around 190 singing members and over 230 members in total, Europe’s largest and best known gay choir.-Introduction:...
for their Christmas Show, Make the Yuletide Gay. She sang and danced while also hosting the show at Symphony Hall
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Symphony Hall is a 2,262 seat concert venue located inside the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, England. It was officially opened by the Queen in June 1991, although had been opened on April 15, 1991. It is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and hosts around 270 events...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, the (http://www.brighton-dome.org.uk/venues/Concert_Hall.asp) Dome Concert Hall in Brighton and the Barbican Centre in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
At the equivalent show in December 2006, comedienne Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Brigitte “Sandi” Toksvig is a Danish comedian, author and presenter on British radio and television.-Career:...
corrupted the lyrics of a song to suggest Lenska had a Christmas job in Debenhams
Debenhams
Debenhams plc is a British retailer operating under a department store format in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, and franchise stores in other countries. The Company was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to around 160 shops...
. In 2007 she was to tour alongside Marti Webb
Marti Webb
Marti Webb is a musical actress from England, who appeared on stage in Evita, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one woman show Tell Me on a Sunday in 1980...
and Sheila Ferguson
Sheila Ferguson
Sheila Ferguson is an American singer, and was one of the longest serving singers of 1970s American female soul music group The Three Degrees.Ferguson settled in the UK after marrying an Englishman...
in a new musical about menopause
Menopause
Menopause is a term used to describe the permanent cessation of the primary functions of the human ovaries: the ripening and release of ova and the release of hormones that cause both the creation of the uterine lining and the subsequent shedding of the uterine lining...
called Hot Flush.
Celebrity Big Brother
Her work on tour with the London Gay Men's Chorus is assumed to have prompted her participation in the UKUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
version of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2006. Her reason for accepting the invitation to go on the show was "I'm a crazy Polish countess who likes a challenge".
During the show, she declared that she had been a “Tibetan Buddhist” for many years but had been practising “Buddhism for the common man”, which has no hierarchical structure (Nichiren Daishonin), for two years.
On 13 January 2006, with fellow housemate, renegade British MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
, she attracted the attention of the media by indulging in a role-play task set by Big Brother, in which Galloway, as a cat, pretended to lick milk from her cupped hands, and Lenska stroked his ears and moustache. This incident has actually benefited Rula. After her departure from the Big Brother house she was offered a five figure deal to promote a famous cat food brand. The commercials are yet to be broadcast. On another occasion during her time in the BB house, when accidentally locked in the toilet, singer Pete Burns
Pete Burns
Pete Burns is an English singer-songwriter, author and television personality who founded the band Dead or Alive in 1980, for which he acted as the vocalist and songwriter, and which rose to mainstream success with their 1985 single "You Spin Me Round "...
quipped, "Oh dear, what can the matter be, clapped out actress stuck in the lavatory." Lenska was voted out of the show on 20 January 2006, the third housemate of the series to be evicted, after Jodie Marsh
Jodie Marsh
Jodie Marsh is an English media personality, former glamour model and bodybuilder. She has appeared topless in many tabloid newspapers and has appeared in her own reality show, Totally Jodie Marsh.-Early life:...
and Faria Alam
Faria Alam
Faria Alam is a former Football Association secretary.-Background:Alam was born on 13 February 1966 in Dhaka, Bangladesh to a moderate and educated Muslim family. Her father was a Pakistani bank employee and her Bangladeshi mother, with two brothers and one sister...
.
On 23 January, three days after eviction, she gave an interview to UK radio station BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
berating Burns for his attitude and unfriendliness towards her. She also expressed disgust at Burns's wearing of a monkey fur coat. The "cat" incident with Galloway was highlighted, but Lenska insisted that there was nothing "untoward" about it, and laughed off any suggestion that she was romantically interested in the controversial MP.
Her chosen charities were Wildlife Line and Children in Crisis.
Personal life
She has been married twice, first to actor Brian DeaconBrian Deacon
Brian Deacon is a British actor. Born in Oxford, he trained at the Oxford Youth Theatre. He appeared with his brother Eric Deacon in the Peter Greenaway film, A Zed & Two Noughts , as Heumac in The Feathered Serpent and as Frank Miles in the TV series Lillie in 1978.He has been married twice:...
(4 June 1977–1987), with whom she had one daughter, Lara Parker, and secondly, to actor Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.-Early life:...
, from 3 January 1987 until 31 March 1998. Both marriages ended in divorce.
She and Waterman met on the set of Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
in 1982. Waterman's daughter Hannah Waterman
Hannah Waterman
Hannah Waterman-Groves is an English actress, daughter of Minder star Dennis Waterman and his second wife, actress Patricia Maynard.-Career:...
, was starring in EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
at the same time Lenska made her guest appearances, although they did not share any scenes together.
In 2009 she sought compensation from the Polish government for the communist seizure of her family's Polish estate.
Miscellanea
- She is a blood donorBlood donationA blood donation occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions or made into medications by a process called fractionation....
and also an ardent conservationistConservationistConservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
, and has travelled widely raising awareness about the world's dwindling wildlife.
- She has presented two documentaries about wildlife pencil artist, Gary Hodges ('Drawn to Wildlife' and 'Wild at Art'), which were produced in aid of wildlife. 'Drawn to Wildlife' was broadcast on 'Animal Planet' and an out-take from 'Wild at Art' was shown on ‘Alright on the Night's All Star Special.’ Both documentaries were produced and directed by David Felber.
- In an interview with The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, she described herself as "passionate, romantic and slightly eccentric". - She can pilot a Hot Air BalloonHot air balloonThe hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...
. She first went ballooning as part of a charity publicity stunt.
External links
- Rockfollies interview
- E-Motion Magazine - Interview with Lenska
- Celebrity Big Brother — transcript of "cat" incident with Galloway
- Rula Lenska out-takes from 'Wild at Art' documentary