Jace Lacob I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

The flinty Lady Denham won’t fade away just yet.

CLIP

Clara We have kept constant vigil.

Lady Denham Well you can dry your eyes. I found dying highly disagreeable and I have no intention of repeating the experience.

Jace Despite being near death for weeks, Lady Denham has come to her senses and exiled her money grubbing relations, Clara and Edward, for their ongoing efforts to weasel their way into her good graces — and her vast fortune.

CLIP

Lady Denham You feeble parasites. Neither of you shall ever darken my doors again. And Edward Denham, from this moment forth you are disowned. And Clara Brereton, you shall be put on the next coach back to London. I suggest you start packing. Get out.

Jace The revived Lady Denham also demands her shaky business partner, Tom Parker, pay her back in full for all for all she’s invested in his Sanditon seaside resort pipedreams.

CLIP

Lady Denham I will see you in the debtor’s prison! I will see you in the poorhouse! Where are your promises now? Dust and ashes. You might as well have lost my money at the gaming tables! You despicable man.

Jace Sanditon star Anne Reid might be best known to American audiences for her iconic role in the beloved recent series, Last Tango in Halifax. And while she’s played period drama characters before, her role as Lady Denham might be the first so-called “upstairs” part she’s taken on.

Reid joined us to discuss Halifax, Sanditon, and the thrill of playing a rich old woman who everyone hates.

Jace And this week, we are joined by Sanditon star and acting legend Anne Reid. Welcome.

Anne Thank you.

Jace You’re certainly no stranger to period drama over the course of your illustrious career. This would be this would seem to be the first time, however, that you were actually an upstairs character, rather than a servant.

Anne I know. And isn’t it wonderful?

Jace What do you make of bucking this trend with Sandition and getting out of the servants quarters?

Anne Oh, I love it. I mean, I was so relieved. Adrian Scarborough, who plays Dr. Fuchs in it, you know, we were butler and cook in Upstairs, Downstairs. And he said to me, ‘I bet you’re glad to get upstairs. And I said, ‘Yes, I am. I thought I’d never, never make it.’ I loved it. I was very excited about that.

Jace I mean, was it strange being reunited with Adrian in a role where you control the power structure in the scene?

Anne Yes, it was very nice. No, it’s always fun working with somebody that you know, and particularly Adrian, who is who is a wonderful actor and great fun. So that was that was really nice. I just loved the whole character of Lady Denham. She’s described so clearly by Jane Austen. And that was a great plus and a great help. You know, if you if you look at and read Sanditon, her character is very clearly described. And that’s a great gift to an actor.

Jace Is it true you’d always wanted to be in a Jane Austen adaptation?

Anne Yes, I think everybody does. I mean, I wanted to play Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice but I’m a bit old for that now. I think that I would have loved to have done that when I was when I was young. I think every actress must want to, or actor must want to do that because she was such an amazing writer. And her understanding of characters is so extraordinary and her description of people is so clear that they’re a joy to do. I don’t know whether there are any other writers that describe characters quite as clearly as she does. You know, that then appear on the screen. I don’t know.

Jace This is a reunion for you and creator Andrew Davies. You played Mrs. Rouncewell in Bleak House. How would you define the ineffable qualities of an Andrew Davies script?

Anne Oh, heavens, I don’t know. I mean, he obviously does an incredible amount of research and they have great, great depth to them. I think with Bleak House, of course, I was below stairs again playing Rouncewell. And I actually did one of his very first television plays, which was called Inappropriate Behavior. I played a schoolteacher in that. But I’m not an expert on Andrew’s scripts, but, you know, they’re just great dialogue. Beautifully written and very, very great to learn and to play.

Jace Our Lady Denham is not to the manor born. She marries her way into wealth.

Anne Oh, yes.

Jace Does her more humble birth and then marital social climbing make her an ally to people like Charlotte, or an adversary?

Anne I think she understands Charlotte very well because she says you’ve got eleven. How many? How many brothers and sisters have you? She says eleven and Lady Denham says, ‘Well. You’re going to have to marry well,’ and she says, ‘There’s no shame in that, ‘cause that’s what I did.’ It’s not described where she came from, but a Lady Denham but it says she always had money. So in my head, I’m thinking that her father might have been a milliner or a businessman. She always had a certain amount of money, but she obviously didn’t have enough to marry the man that she wanted to marry. Because she talks about Rowleigh, doesn’t she? And I think the last episode and how she was in love with him. But she didn’t have enough money for him to marry her. I mean, there’s a lot in Jane Austen’s books about women having to marry for money. I mean, it’s appalling when you think about that and how well kept down her books. Her first book, there were maybe more came out and she didn’t even they weren’t attributed to her. It was just said written by a lady. Can you imagine how cross that would make you be if that came out? But they just couldn’t earn money. And I think her mother was supposed to inherit a lot of money and didn’t remember the details of that. And so the family were left pretty sort of destitute. The girls that kept moving from town to town. I think they moved about three or four times later on in their lives and they had no means of earning anything. So there’s a lot in Sanditon. When you think about that, it seems cruel to say, she says to Esther, ‘You have to marry for money.’ And it seems a cruel thing to do, but it’s a kind thing to do. She’s telling her, if you ‘Unless you want to starve, you know, you’ve got to find a man who will keep you.’ And of course, this was the way of life then, as it was with the Bennetts, you know, in the Pride and Prejudice, as they were always worried about money, weren’t they?

CLIP

Lady Denham It is infinitely better to be loved than to love. Especially in a marriage.

Esther Are you speaking from your experience or someone else’s?

Lady Denham Of my own. Not with my husband of course. It was long before that.

Jace She seems to be a pragmatist when it comes to matters of the heart. Is it just pragmatism or does she truly want to see Esther and Babington together? Or is it both?

Anne No.I think she quite likes him. But no, basically it is a business arrangement and she just wants to see her happy. Maybe she’s very shrewd and can see that that marriage would work. I think she’s a very shrewd lady and I think she probably can see that in the end, he loves Esther so much. And she says it’s much better to be loved than than to to love because you’re much safer if there if you have that, if you’re holding the power, if you’ve got the upper hand and you’re not, you know, dependent on the other person loving you back. You know, I mean, they’re just they’re just you are. You have strength because they love you so much. You have the power. And I think she realizes that that is going to work in the end.

Jace Rose Williams, Crystal Clarke and Charlotte Spencer all raved about their time on the set with you while shooting Sanditon.

Anne Really?

Jace And what a huge influence you’ve been on them. I mean, yes, quite a lot. What was it like taking these actors under your wing and a production like this, and what do you make of their adoration?

Anne I don’t do that.  I’m a working actress. I’ve just gone from job to job all my life. The great thing about getting old is that suddenly everybody listens to what you say, which is quite a novelty, I have to say, because 20 years, 30 years ago, nobody listened to a word I said. So that’s quite nice. And they treat me with enormous respect, which is quite a novelty. I think we just laughed a lot. They’re dear girls. And you see, I still think I’m 45. That’s my problem, is that I don’t think of myself as some old dowager who’s got the answers to everything because I absolutely haven’t got the answers to everything. And every job is new. And I was talking to them about it and I said, ‘I can still be very thrown by a director,’ you know, something like that, ‘Somebody on the set can still throw me.’ And they were quite surprised. They think that when you’ve got to my stage with my experience, that nothing will shake you. But of course, it does, because every job, every acting role is new. It’s all starting again. And that’s what’s the thrill of it. But, you know, you don’t come into it thinking, ‘Oh, I know how to do this.’ I wouldn’t go on if I felt like that. It would be boring. But everything is a challenge. I like challenges. And certainly Lady Denham was a challenge, if only to get into the corsets in the morning.

Jace Where do you see her as fulfilling the role of truth teller within Sandton?

Anne Yeah, I think she is. I think she absolutely is. Yes. Nobody’s said that before. But no, she doesn’t mince her words, does she? I think she’s got to the stage now where she’s very secure financially and she doesn’t see any point in pretending. Why would you? I’m a bit like that myself. I have to say, I do try not to hurt people, but it’s very difficult. Actors come to me, young actors sometimes come to me in and ask advice, and then I think they wish they hadn’t really, because. I can’t. You just shouldn’t lie. It’s too important to tell people they’re wonderful when you really don’t think they are. If I can’t do that. It’s absolutely sticks in my throat. I can’t do that. You see, I was told when I was very young that I had no talent and that I should give it up. The first teacher that I ever went to said, ‘No, no.,’ he said, ‘You have no talent. I really advise you to give it up.’ Now, that’s not a good idea. I proved him wrong, but eventually. But and he came and said, ‘I was wrong about you.’ But you shouldn’t do that. But I love to help people. But I can’t just say yes, ‘That’s fine. You know, leave it alone. The performance is great,’ If I don’t think it is, then I will try not to.

Jace But were you did you feel vindicated by that comment that your teacher came to you and did say that he was wrong?

Anne Kind of. Yes. I’m still cross with him. Yes.

Jace An earlier episode revolves around the central symbol of a pineapple, a rare exotic fruit which is given to lady Denham, but which is rotten at its core.

CLIP

Arthur May I cut you a slice of pineapple?

Lady Denham Mr Parker, Mr. Parker, the pineapple is not yours to cut! Mr. Parker! Mr. Parker would you please put that knife down! What’s the matter?

Arthur It’s rotten, Lady Denham. Rotten to the core!

Diana It’s alive!

Jace What did you make of Lady Denham devotion to this pineapple? And to the reveal that it was filled with maggots?

Anne I thought that was so interesting because pineapples were so rare in those days, weren’t they? I mean, they wouldn’t have. Well, Clara clearly doesn’t know what it is. She thinks it’s a bomb, doesn’t she? Because people had never seen anything like that before. And you know, the fact that it was the centerpiece of my dinner table and then Arthur cuts into it and it’s rotten inside is absolutely awful that I can’t think of an equivalent. But, you know, when I was a little girl in the Second World War, we’d never seen bananas. So the first I remember the first time I ever saw a banana. And it’s that sort of feeling, isn’t it? Strange fruit that you’ve never seen before.

Jace Georgiana and Lady Denham both clearly try to get under each other’s skin in the pineapple scene.

CLIP

Lady Denham Miss Lambe! What are your views on matrimony? An heiress with a hundred thousand must be in want of a husband, I think?

Miss Lambe I don’t care to be any man’s property, Lady Denham.

Lady Denham Oh! Hoity toity! I should have thought someone like you would be quite used to being a man’s property! Was not your mother a slave?

Miss Lambe She was. But being used to a thing and liking it are not the same, my lady.

Lady Denham I am beginning to think you are a very opinionated young lady, Miss Lambe!

Jace How would you describe the dance between these two women in the sequence and how do they reveal each other’s preconceptions?

Anne Now, that’s interesting. It’s not I don’t think it’s gone into in the book, but I feel that Lady Denham is clearly racist, isn’t she? She’s the way she reacts. There’s certainly a suggestion of that. But I’m not sure how many black women would have been seen in a small seaside town in the south of England, I don’t know. I’m not sure how I think she resents the fact that this this girl is so much richer than her. I think she is she probably finds it very, very strange that this girl should have so much money and really will have so much power as she gets older. Yeah, I think she probably doesn’t know how to deal with that at all. That was the way I felt about it.

Jace Before the next question, let’s take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors…

Jace It seems certain that Lady D would meet her maker. But she makes a most miraculous recovery here.What is her incapacitation and recovery reveal about both her stubbornness and mercurial nature? Well, she is too stubborn to die.

Anne Oh, absolutely. Would refuse to die. I love the humor in Andrew’s scripts. I love that I absolutely have no intention. I’ve tried and I’ve no intention of trying it again. Yeah, I think people are like that. Some people are like that. It just very, very strong. I don’t know how ill she was. Well, the doctor said she was ill, but was never quite revealed what she had. And she has great faith in these asses that she keeps. But she’s a tough old bird, isn’t she? She’s very, very tough. She reminds me of my grandmother, who just is determined. You know, life isn’t going to beat her and she’s not going to die. And that’s why I love the character so much. I’m quite like that. I’m just. I just get on with it, too, now.

Jace It’s Esther, of course, who sits beside Lady Denham in her death bed, yet who confides the truth about what Edward and Clara are up to behind the scenes. How would you categorize the complex dynamic between Lady Denham and Esther? What does this character truly think of her niece?

Anne She’s a strange character, isn’t she? Wasn’t she good, Charlotte Spencer? Yes. Yes, I think she has a sneaking admiration for her, maybe Lady Denham was difficult when she was young and recognizes. That charged issue is as difficult as I can’t see she was as difficult as Esther. But I think she probably admires somebody who is not a pushover. She doesn’t Lady Denham says to somebody. One of the guests at the dance don’t don’t butter me up. Don’t fawn over me. She doesn’t like that. And Esther doesn’t do that to anybody. And I think she put Lady Denham probably admires that. Well, she takes her under her wing, doesn’t she? In the end.

Jace But there is a sense that maybe they are sort of simpatico spirits.

Anne And yes, I think. So, yeah. Yeah.

Jace Lady Denham disowns Sir Edward and boots Clara out of Sanditon house. What’s behind her decision here? And is there a sense that this was finally a line that couldn’t be uncrossed?

Anne Well, I don’t know who she admires Edward at all, I have to say Jack Fox was adorable to work with. He’s one of the many Foxes, as you know, James’ son, James Fox. But he. As a character, she thinks he’s she. He’s so clearly waiting for her money and nothing else and isn’t gonna do anything to help himself in life. And I think she finds this despicable. I think she doesn’t admire him at all. She’s fed up. I love it when she tries to find him a wife. And he’s just making no effort to help himself. And I think that she’s she’s she just hates that she’s very bored with that. She has no respect for him at all. That’s where I feel.

Jace You mentioned Jack Fox. How different is Lady Denham and Edward’s relationship to the one you fostered with with Jack, who plays Edward?

Anne Oh, Jack is a great joker. He asked me to marry him several times during the shoot. The fact though, he’s 50 years younger than me, it was something didn’t seem to get it. He’s great fun. He’s adorable. He’s a very sweet, sweet man. Really sweet man. So that was that was great fun. They were all good fun on the set. You know, and Chris Marshall, who plays Tom Parker, I’ve always admired him. So that was I was thrilled when I heard I was going to be working with him because I’ve always liked his work there, although all very tall men. That’s very nice for your profile, dear, because looking up at people is much better at my age than looking down on the screen. Unless you’ve had a lot of cosmetic, a lot of work done, as you call it, in America. And I haven’t had any work done yet. So it’s always much better to work with tall people it’s more flattering. And they were all told Theo was tall. And Jack, of course, the role well, it was six feet and and Chris. And so that was very nice. They were lovely guys. Really, really nice guys. And I think they got on very well together as well. But Jack was a great tease and just a sweet person.

Jace We learn about Lady Denham’s own lost love and her broken heart.

CLIP

Lady Denham A man called Rowleigh. Some people called him the handsomest man in Somerset; but to me he was the handsomest in the world. And he knew it.

Esther What happened?

Lady Denham He kept me dangling for a while, trembling waiting for a look, for a smile, for a tender word — like one of his dogs. And then he upped and married a girl from Gloucestershire with fifty thousand. He had debts of course, couldn’t have afforded to marry me, should have been obvious to me at the time, but you know what girls are.

Jace How did Rowleigh’s betrayal with the girl from Gloucestershire with fifty thousand pounds to her name inform Lady Denham’s views about love and marriage?

Anne I think that was quite nice, wasn’t it? Well, I don’t know about you, I don’t know how old you are, but I think we all have something in our past that you think oh, ‘What if?’ And I think she probably doesn’t think about it. I don’t think she thinks about it a lot. But when she does think about it, it makes her very sad. And probably that was the only time she’s ever really been in love, and I wonder if she married Mr. Hollis with loads and loads and loads of money. And that’s how she got Sanditon house. He was obviously very, very rich, but aged and died quite quickly as she clearly, obviously married him. She nursed him, it says in the book. She nursed him, but I think by that time she’d given up on marrying for love and and then she married, wanted a title. She was quite ruthless. So she married Sir Harry and became Lady Denham. So you actually have to admire her for that time, she sorted out life out pretty cleverly, I think.

Jace And she’s full of advice for Esther. ‘Sit straight, smile, no, don’t smile, you’ll confuse him.’

Anne Well, she’s a difficult girl.

Jace A little charm goes a long way.

Anne Well, Esther’s charmless, isn’t she? She makes no effort whatsoever. I admire her, too, because she’s such a willful girl. She just won’t be told what to do. And that was why it was so interesting when she actually does fall in love in the end. Yeah. I think she just probably admires her.

Jace There is that moment that I love. She always has so much censure for Esther. But after Edward confronts her at the ball. Mrs. Griffths tells Lady Denham not to judge her too harshly. And Lady Denham says, ‘I don’t judge her at all.’

Anne Yes, I know. Yes. Because she understands. She would always be on a woman’s side. And she knows what it’s like to me, that moment was saying, I know what it’s like to love somebody and not to be able to have them. I don’t know what’s that meant to you, but that’s what it meant to me and the fact that Edward had sort of really taken advantage of her. That’s what it was to me. Don’t you think so?

Jace Oh, it absolutely connects to the Rowleigh reveal. Yeah. The fact that she couldn’t be with the man that she loved, that she. Her heart was broken over this. And she doesn’t judge Esther. She she actually in this moment understands her completely.

Anne And she knows Edward very well. And she knows that he’s very scheming. So I wouldn’t judge her because she’s a woman and she’s powerless, as we all were in those days.

Jace Lady Denham manages to be somehow both modern and blunt. She speaks her mind without worrying about what others think about it. She wields her words like she does her social and monetary power. Our words, a weapon for her, or is it that she’s just above the feelings of mere mortals?

Anne She’s above the feelings of mere mortals. No, I think it’s when you are very secure, when you are very rich. I don’t say this from experience. When you’re absolutely rolling in money and you don’t have to worry about anything you can say, well, you know, if you have that kind of person, you can say what you like without fear of the sky falling in, can’t you? And I think that’s what she’s got. You get to an age when you actually that’s another thing. And I’ve got that. Now I speak my mind in a way that I wouldn’t have done 20 years ago, because I think, well, what can anybody do to me now? And you do get to that stage in life where you actually you do you care what people think about you, but you just feel that lying is a waste of time. I feel that. There’s no point us shillyshallying around and, you know, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t want to hurt somebody, but I don’t see any point in not telling the truth. And actually, I have to tell you, as far as comedy goes, you get bigger laughs if you tell the truth. And if you lie. I loathe that and don’t know why that is. But before I was shocked, if you tell the truth that they still find it funny. I like that.

Jace I like that. The fire ruins Tom Parker.

CLIP

Lady Denham I will see you in the debtor’s prison! I will see you in the poorhouse! Where are your promises now? Dust and ashes. You might as well have lost my money at the gaming tables! You despicable man.

Mary Parker Lady Denham!

Lady Denham I’m very sorry for you Mrs. Parker, but some things can never be forgiven.

Jace What are her thoughts on this Sanditon enterprise, and how does this reversal shatter them?

Anne Well, I think he’s talked her into it. I like to think of Sanditon as somebody like, have you ever been to the south of France?

Jace Yes.

Anne Yes. You know, Saint Tropez, was a little harbor before. I think it was Brigitte Bardot who discovered it. And now it’s one of the trendiest places in the world. And I think that Tom Parker talked her into thinking Sanditon can become a place like that where the Prince will come. Once we get people coming down here, it’s going to be the most fashionable place on the South Coast. And I can imagine and she would love, of course, as the Lady of the Manor, to be entertaining very rich maybe artists and writers and, you know, and wealthy businessmen. And she sees this as an exciting life. And he talks her into it. And all she’s got to do is to provide the money. But of course, he’s useless. He’s not a businessman, clearly he’s hopeless. He’s full of passion and ideas, but he’s not very good with money. And he doesn’t insure them. He doesn’t insure everything. And so when the fire comes, they lose everything. And then she has no patients with it, because the one thing she would have been good at would have been the business. And I don’t know why. Maybe she should or should have taken more of a hand in it, but she doesn’t seem to have done. She just seemed to have provided the money. So I get that. I think I think he got what was coming to him. I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for his wife. Kate Ashfield, beautiful actress who plays Mrs. Parker. Mary Parker.

Jace I love that Lady Denham can’t quite let Esther and Babington’s wedding be an entirely cordial affair.

CLIP

Lady Denham I lent her that tiara, you know. Well, it did very well for both my weddings. Of course, I shall want it back after the ceremony.

Jace Is this just Lady D being Lady D?

Anne Yes. Yes. She just. She’s she’s very pleased that the Esther is getting married. And she looks very pretty in the tiara I think she’s one of those people who if she lent you ten dollars, you know, she would have to tell people that she’d lend you ten dollars. I didn’t think she would be a person who would, you know, keep it to herself that she’d given 50,000 to charity or something. I think everybody would have to know about it.  I know people like that.

Jace And know about it endlessly.

Anne Yes. Yes, of course. You know, I gave them my money. Yes. She’s not very she’s not very admirable person, really. And in many ways. But I. I loved playing it. And it describes her in the book as somebody who is with humor. And you know, these dames. When I got offered it, I thought, I’m not a likely person. I’m not Maggie Smith. I’m not. You know, one of these dames that you get, the duchess, is that you get in these in these period things. You know what I mean? It doesn’t sit well on me. And I said to the director, if you’ll forgive the analogy, I’m not playing an Afghan hound. I want to play a terrier because I’m not very good at Afghan hounds. I just think those grand dames is not me. I love the fact that she is described as the book is being unpredictable. And I love that fact that she’s somebody who you think, you know, you meet somebody that she’s terribly nice and somebody else will say, Oh, Michael, how do you know you should wait till you see the other side? And that’s was fascinating character to play. Yes. You didn’t know which way she was going to jump if she was if you said the wrong thing. Did you get that at all from the character? Because that’s the way I felt about it. Oh, absolutely. You know what I mean? When people play always dreadful, they just play somebody who is dreadful. But she does have, you do get a human side, but I think you get much more of Lady Denham’s human side through the book and through the series.

Jace Lady Denham has assumed from the start that Charlotte Haywood was in Sanditon to hunt for a husband. Their final conversation in this episode revolves around just that.

CLIP

Lady Denham Well, Miss Hewyood. You still proclaiming your independence? Or is it that none of our yong men have taken your fancy?I wager we’ll see you walk down that aisle very soon. What do you say Mr. Parker

Jace Is this intended to help Charlotte’s mood or hurt it?

Anne I do know, actually. I think she’s just I know. I think I just took it. Where is the wedding? She’s in a good mood and she’s trying to be sort of comforting, really. I’m sure you’ll find somebody eventually. You may be very plain and boring, but you I don’t mean that, but you’ll find a husband. I thought it was a wedding and she just you know, she’s in a good mood. And so says she says it. It’s about the nicest thing she says, really, isn’t it?

Jace I think it is. What do you make of people’s reactions to Celia and to Last Tango in Halifax in general, has the audience adoration for that series taking you by surprise?

Anne Well, the first one did. Yes, I understand that it was offered to ITV, and that’s what I’m told. And they said, what is it about? And is a two old people fall in love, you know? And is it oh, forget it. You know, it was a terrible idea, but I would have thought that, too. But the chemistry between Derek and I, it doesn’t seem likely. Well, he is a classical actor. And I come from a very, very different side of the business. And but it just seems to work and we get on tremendously well. And I think the thing that works about Tango is that Celia, my character is fairly terrible. I love the idea that Sally wrote this story of two people who met when they were 16 at school. And she he, he and Alan falls in love with this pretty girl, Celia, who he sees from afar and fantasizes about for the next 60 years that he meets, marries her and finds out what she’s really like. A dreadful she. It’s but he still is. He carries her own. He still loves her. But now he sees all the warts and all. And this last series we’ve just done. I think it’s quite interesting because I feel he’s got the upper hand now. Now, you know, he’s he’s still in love with her buy. I think she feels that he’s he’s the stronger part of the partnership now and that the thing is that Derek has this sweetness about him as a man. He’s a very gentle, nice. He’s terribly popular. And I think the camera I think it was Orson Welles who said the camera is an x-ray and it x-rays who you are. And I think there’s a lot of truth in that. Do you know somebody Not always, I suppose. But Derek is a really nice man. And I think that comes over. And the fact that you have a marriage where way he’s just much nicer than the wife is is very I said to Sally, please don’t make me nice. And she said, no, I’m not going to. I love it.

Jace Finally, is there any chance you might bring your cabaret show to the states?

Anne Oh. Oh, Jace. Yes, please. I did one night at 54 Below in New York. Oh, yes, I did, I’ve always wanted to do cabaret. I did a night of Comden and Greene with with a friend of mine, Stefan Bednarczyk, And Adolf Greene’s wife, Phyllis, who sadly died about two months ago, she came and she said it was the best tribute to her husband that she’d ever seen, and that was the most exciting night of my life. I was in New York singing in New York and and oh, it was great. I loved it. Barbara Cook, was in the audience. My friend, and my idol Barbara Cook was in the audience, and it was magical. Ernest Thompson, who wrote Golden Pond was there. And Nicola Walker from Tango, it was a wonderful audience. Wonderfu.l Billy Stritch the jazz pianist, he was there. It was the best night. If you say which night of your career would you like to live again? I’d like to live that again. Yes. So the answer to your question is a very big Yes, please. Somebody ask me!

Jace Anne Reid, thank you so very much.

Anne Thank you. Thank you.

Jace Coming up next on MASTERPIECE, a bold new series that brings the Europe of World War II to life like never before. World on Fire, featuring interconnected stories of ordinary people from England, France, Germany, and Poland just as the war rumbles into action.

Don’t miss this stunning new drama, beginning Sunday, April 5.

MASTERPIECE Studio is hosted by me, Jace Lacob, and produced by Nick Andersen. Elisheba Ittoop is our editor. Rebecca Eaton is the executive producer at large for MASTERPIECE. The executive producer for MASTERPIECE is Susanne Simpson.