A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Cathy Tyson

Although Cathy Tyson was born in Kingston-upon-Thames on the 12th of June 1965, she grew up in Liverpool having moved there when she was 2 years old. Her parents, Margaret and Charles Tyson, both came from working class backgrounds and her mother was amongst the first people to be a social worker. Her father, born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, trained in England at Lincolns Inn to be a barrister. Growing up in Liverpool she says she was surrounded by Irish culture and remembers trips to the Convent of the Good Shepherd in Woolton where her great aunt Bessie had been a nun. She was a pupil at St Winefrides school in Dingle but did not train in a drama school. Her training was on a year government training scheme, called a YOP scheme. (Youth Opportunity ) and she also attended The Everyman Youth Theatre in Liverpool’s Hope Street. From the Youth Theatre, she went on to perform in The Everyman Theatre where director Glen Walford, gave her her first break before agent Maureen Vincent saw her and took her on at Peters Fraser and Dunlop, one of London's leading literary and talent agencies. From the Everyman she went on to do a season at The Royal Shakespeare Company where at eighteen she was the second youngest actor in the company. In 1984 Cathy made her first TV appearance playing Joanna in Alan Bleasdale's 'Scully', who is fancied by Scully in the first series. However it was her next role that catapulted her to global fame. Whilst in the play 'Golden Girls' by Louise Paige, director Neil Jordan saw her and interviewed her for 'Mona Lisa' (1986). Cathy says Bob Hoskins was the person who she learned emotional acting from and she will be forever grateful to him for what he taught her. Aged just 21, Cathy garnered critical acclaim for her role as a prostitute and scooped Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. After filming 'Mona Lisa', she met Wes Craven and did a film in Haiti called 'The Serpant and The Rainbow' (1988). Her career was temporarily stalled by the birth of her son Jack in 1988 but by then her marriage to Craig Charles was crumbling and they divorced in 1989 after 5 years, when Jack was still a baby. The TV series, 'Rules of Engagement' (1989) was her next vehicle, playing Annie McPhee but probably her best-known television appearance was again as a prostitute, Carol Johnson, in the ITV series 'Band of Gold' (1995-97) and 'Gold' (1997).

L-R Geraldine James, Barbara Dickson, Samantha Morton and Cathy.

 

Cathy has said that she decided to turn down roles during the height of her fame because she didn't want to be typecast as an actress. In an interview with The Mirror, she said, 'In my early career I felt I should turn down roles. That’s what my activism involved, especially at the beginning. I had to turn down Kevin Spacey, when he pleaded with me to do 'The Iceman Cometh' as it was to play another prostitute.' Following the medical drama 'Always and Everyone' (2000) she was then in 42 episodes of the mystery soap opera 'Night & Day' (2002-03) as Reverend Stephanie MacKenzie; the new Reverend, who moves in to take over the 'Halfway House' for less advantaged teens. 

Playing Carly's mum in Boiling Point

 

Further TV appearances included 'The Bill' (2000-05), 'Grange Hill' ( 2005-07) with her work being a mixture of all areas from radio, audiobooks, theatre, film and TV. From doing a lot of gritty social drama, such as Priest (1994), and more recently the award winning Channel four drama, 'HELP,' (2021), written by Jack Thorne for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress, she had a recurring role as Gran Gran in Cbeebies 'Jo, Jo and Gran Gran' (2020-23) which allowed her to show off her lighter side and have some fun. More recently she has appeared in the TV series 'Boiling Point' (2023) and 'Criminal Record (2024).

Her theatre credits include leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, Talawa and Theatr Clwyd. In 1998 she played an exotic Cleopatra in an acclaimed production of "Antony and Cleopatra" at the English Shakespeare Company. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/08/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-liza.html