Making her name in the likes of The Avengers, Coronation Street and Z Cars, Julie Samuel’s warm and honest memoir of her life in TV, the movies, music and theatre tantalises with candid tales of back in the day.
Decades before the ubiquity of streaming channels, TV series the likes of The Avengers, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green and Coronation Street were transfixing millions of viewers, often over 15 million per episode, and actress Julie Samuel was a regular performer in all of them.
In her sizzling autobiography, What Are We Going To Do About Julie, the actress, music and theatre manager shares her life story from child starlet, TV regular to band manager – she managed her daughter, Sarah Cracknell’s band, St Etienne and successful musical and theatre producer
Detailing both the highs, celebrity shenanigans and darker aspects of the acting industry at the time, What Are We Going to Do About Julie delivers a standout trip down memory lane for those readers who remember Julie’s TV appearances. It also beautifully highlights show we all have the power to reinvent ourselves. Something Julie achieved several times over.
In this warm and candid autobiography, Julie Samuel tells the fascinating warts-and-all account of her life on stage and the big screen, beginning with her childhood in post-war England, giving rise to the genesis of her acting dreams as an aspiring child starlet and ultimately her career as an accomplished actor. Julie paints a vivid picture of the glitz and glamour of the showbiz life but also reveals the murkier side of the industry, interwoven with intriguing anecdotes about Julie’s experiences meeting many notable actors and celebrities. Spanning a career begun in the 1950s, Julie’s life story draws the arc of cultural awakening which has swept Britain in the last few decades and illustrates her innate adaptability to the challenges of being an actor and a woman in a changing world.
Julie attended the Italia Conti Stage School, making her professional acting debut at the age of twelve, when she appeared on stage at the Victoria Palace Theatre in Noddy in Toyland. From the age of seventeen, she appeared in countless films, television series and other plays,
After marrying the renowned First Assistant Film Director, Derek Cracknell, and later bringing up their daughter (pop singer Sarah Cracknell), Julie decided to resume her acting career. She went on to appear in over one hundred television shows playing many leading roles.
Among the television plays in which Julie starred were ATV’s ‘Love Story‘ opposite Malcolm McDowell, ATV’s ‘The Four Ages Of Women’ with Ray Brooks, ATV’s ‘With the Cherry Blossom the Dawn‘ with John Carson and three Armchair Theatre productions for ABC/Thames TV.
Other television roles also included the part of Dawn in the ATV series ‘Honey Lane‘. Other notable performances were in BBC’s ‘The Rag Trade‘, BBC’s ‘Dixon of Dock Green‘, BBC’s ‘Z-Cars’ and Granada Television’s ‘Coronation Street’. Her film career included roles in ‘The Long Ships’, ‘Dentist on the Job’, ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’, ‘The Day the Earth Caught Fire’, ‘Jigsaw’, ‘Deadline’ and the leading role opposite Gerry Marsden in the feature film, ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’.
Julie crossed over into Music Management in 1985, managing her daughter Sarah, lead singer with the band St. Etienne, teenage pop duo Crush, (one half which was TV presenter Donna Air) and Cola Boy (featuring Radio 2 presenter Janey Lee Grace) and Mexico 70 rock band.
She joined Wild Thyme Productions in 1999 as Associate Producer on the following productions: ‘Moses!’ (A new musical), ‘A Midsummer Nights’ Dream’ (tour to Germany), ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (UK and German tour) and the all-female adaptations of ‘Hamlet,’ ‘The Comedy of Errors’, and ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ and other Shakespeare Plays. London and Germany, and soon to be revived for Ellsinore. Wild Thyme Productions also produced the parade for the Queen Mother’s 100 birthday procession at Horse Guards parade. Co-producing with RPTA the musical of Great Expectations.
In 2012 Julie produced a new musical “A Bowl Of Cherries” at the Charing Cross Theatre in London and was nominated for an off West End award for ensemble. In addition, Julie has produced a number of shows and concerts for the Thames Hospice care Charity, including Opera Concerts at Windsor Castle and Eton College and a Midsummer Jazz Night at the Savile Court Hotel. Rock with Laughter at the Theatre Royal Windsor.
Published by Novum Publishing, What Are We Going To Do About Julie is available in paperback (£16.90) and Kindle format (£13.99 or free via app) on Amazon.
