Pamela Stephenson

Pamela Stephenson, Lady Connolly (born 4 December 1949) is a New Zealand-born psychologist, writer, actress and comedian. She moved with her family to Australia in 1953 and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). After playing several stage and television roles, she emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1976.
Parts in television shows including Space: 1999, New Avengers, The Professionals and Tales of the Unexpected preceded her breakthrough role in the satirical sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982) alongside Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. She was shortlisted in both the Actress and Light Entertainment performance categories at the 1981 BAFTAs for her part in the programme. She acted in the films History of the World, Part I (1981) and SupermanIII (1983). In 1984–85, she was in the cast of American comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live for season 10. Her performances have attracted mixed reviews.
She co-founded the Parents for Safe Food group, which successfully campaigned for a ban on Alar, which was believed to be carcinogenic, being sprayed on apples and pears for human consumption in the UK. Since a career change to clinical psychology, and obtaining her doctorate, she has written several books, which include two about her husband Sir Billy Connolly. She presented a psychologically themed interview show called Shrink Rap (2007) and is the author of Head Case: Treat Yourself to Better Mental Health (2009) and Sex Life: How Our Sexual Encounters and Experiences Define Who We Are (2011). She was a finalist in the eighth series of the BBC1 television show Strictly Come Dancing in 2010. Her autobiography, The Varnished Untruth, was published in 2012.
Early life
Pamela Stephenson was born on 4 December 1949 in Takapuna, Auckland. In 1953, she moved to Australia with her scientist parents and two sisters. She attended Boronia Park Primary School in Sydney and then Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School, Darlinghurst. According to her autobiography, Stephenson was raped at age 16 by a 35-year-old heroin addict, and contracted an STD as a consequence. She concealed the fact but was expelled from her home by her parents once her medical condition was known, later saying, "I remember the feeling well, because I still experience it every time someone rejects me, even in some relatively small way."
Stephenson studied at the University of New South Wales but soon switched to the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney. After graduating from NIDA in 1970, she was engaged by Edgar Metcalfe on a six-month contract for the National Theatre Company, and performed in six plays at The Playhouse Theatre, Perth in 1971. Meanwhile, she appeared in the short film Willy Willy (1970 or 1971) with Chips Rafferty. Subsequent theatre roles included a part in Peer Gynt, and as June in the musical Gypsy. On television, she had roles in Division4, Homicide and Matlock Police. She then starred in the film Private Collection released in 1973.
Performing career
Early career
Stephenson starred as Elsie in the ABC-TV production of the opera The Yeomen of the Guard (1972). From 1972 to 1973 she played Julie King, assistant to the title character in the Australian TV series Ryan, and in 1974 she was Josephine in the ABC production of Malcolm Williamson's opera The Violins of Saint-Jacques.
She moved to the UK in 1976, and made numerous television and film appearances, including as Michelle Osgood in the Space: 1999 episode "Catacombs of the Moon" (1976); Wendy in the 1977 New Avengers episode "Angels of Death"; and a supporting role in "Man from the South", the inaugural episode of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected in 1979. She played three different roles in British crime-action television drama series The Professionals in 1978.
Media scholar Leon Hunt suggested that one scene, where she played a nurse who has a live hand grenade retrieved from inside her blouse by one of the leads, epitomises the programme. She also played a nurse in Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977).
Among her first appearances in the UK, she joined the live on-stage team at The Comic Strip led by Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson and Alexei Sayle at the Raymond Revuebar in Soho. This was not a happy experience, according to an interview she gave in 2014: "Doing stand-up was like a war with everyone playing this game of 'I can be funnier than you'."
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Stephenson gained prominence from her part in the 1980s UK comedy television sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982), alongside Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was a satirical sketch show, influenced by the surreal humour of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Guinness Book of Classic British TV authors Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping wrote that Stephenson "took up the punk ethic of outraging the audience with directness", and that "most critics were united in their praise of Atkinson and Stephenson". She caricatured various newsreaders such as Angela Rippon and Jan Leeming in the show. In one sketch she parodied musician Kate Bush with a song called "Oh England, My Leotard"; the title referenced "Oh England My Lionheart" and it was musically similar to "Them Heavy People". Bush's biographer Graeme Thomson thought the spoof had "clever and very funny" elements.
In one Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch that became famous, Stephenson played a car rental receptionist. When asked by a customer if he can use an American Express card, she replied with, "That will do nicely, sir, and would you like to rub my tits, too?" and unbuttons her blouse, revealing a white bra. It satirised the "That'll do nicely, sir" slogan used by the American Express company in their advertising. A 2007 editorial in Art Monthly argued that "this sketch perfectly captured the 'greed is good' spirit of the 80s, the legacy of which is still being felt." The Guardian columnist Simon Hoggart, felt, conversely, that the skit was "[not] exactly subversive". Addressing the reader in her autobiography, Stephenson wrote "I would be quite afraid to discover which particular aspect of me you had already gleaned. Was it 'the woman in the American Express sketch'? Or 'Billy Connolly's missus? Or simply 'wacky, zany Pam?" She argues that having a short description such as one of these associated with her by the reader would elicit a superficial but persistent picture of her, and lists what she considers as some of her other facets such as wife, mother, psychologist, comedian and dancer before inviting the reader to "decide exactly what I am".
Not the Nine O'Clock News was awarded the Silver Rose for innovation at the 1980 Montreux Festival. It won the BAFTA for best Light Entertainment Programme in 1981; Stephenson was shortlisted in both the Actress and Light Entertainment performance categories. Spin-offs from the show included several books, record albums, and a stage show, Not in Front of the Audience. Stephenson made a TV comedy sketch show pilot, Stephenson's Rocket, which was not taken up.
1980s and 1990s
Stephenson acted in the Mel Brooks comedy film History of the World, Part I (1981) but later recounted that she found it a dull experience due the lack of influence she had over the production. In 1982, she starred in the West End production of Joseph Papp's version of The Pirates of Penzance; The Times critic Irving Wardle wrote that Stephenson "reveals unsuspected coloratura powers as Mabel, but the part wastes her comic gift".
She appeared in Landscape's music video for their single "Norman Bates" (1981). The video was a pastiche of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho (1960), with Stephenson taking the Janet Leigh role. Clive James's 2,000-line poem "Charles Charming's Challenges On The Pathway To The Throne", written in expectation of Prince Charles announcing his engagement, was performed for a two-week run in London starting in June, with the author accompanied by Stephenson and Russell Davies and was also released as a record album. The following year, Stephenson released her own double-single, containing four tracks written by Richard James Burgess, one of which featured Gary Kemp on guitar. It was poorly reviewed in several regional newspapers. She was the subject of an episode of Behind the Scenes with.., a 1981 BBC1 series about the creative process; David Williams of the Daily Post felt that the programme "tarnished her image a little". In 1982 she guested on BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.
Director Richard Lester called Stephenson for a part in SupermanIII (1983) on the basis of her performances in Not The Nine O'Clock News. Her character was Lorelei Ambroisa, the Kant-reading girlfriend of the film's antagonist Ross Webster. In the opening sequence, Ambroisa is the foil for a series of sight gags that reference Lester's The Knack (1965); the character also has a love scene with Superman at the top of the Statue of Liberty. Joe Baltake of the Philadelphia Daily News rated her as "excellent" in the film, and Steve Jensen highlighted praised her performance in The Berkeley Gazette, but Colin Greenland of Imagine thought that she was "completely wasted in a part which would have been too dumb for Goldie Hawn". Stephenson starred alongside John Gielgud and Robert Hays in Scandalous (1984), directed by Rob Cohen. Critic Ben McCann dismissed the film as "notable only for wasting the talents of all concerned". Barry Forshaw's negative review of comedy horror Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984) in Starburst lamented "the shameful waste of talented performers like Pamela Stephenson". Finders Keepers (1984) received very mixed reviews, with Stephenson also receiving contrasting appraisals: Andrew Yule, in his biography of the director, Lester, praised "a deft appearance by the wonderfully funny, ridiculously underrated Pamela Stephenson", but Jon Casimir wrote in 1989 that "As sure an indicator of imminent mediocrity as any, Pamela Stephenson is cast as a supporting actress."
She was in the cast of American comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL) for season 10 in 1984–85, making her the first female SNL cast member born outside North America, the second overall at the time, joining Tony Rosato; and, as of 2019, the show's only New Zealander cast member. Her characters on the show included Billy Idol and Cyndi Lauper. In a retrospective article about the show in Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield described Stephenson as "a bright spot in a weak season". Back in the UK, she hosted an episode of the UK show Saturday Live in 1986. The 1986 drama Lost Empires saw her in a serious role, and The Daily Telegraph critic Charles Clover felt that Stephenson was one of the positives in a dull series. Prince Edward's charity television special The Grand Knockout Tournament (1987) included Stephenson amongst the many celebrities participating. She had a leading part in the critically-panned and commercially unsuccessful film Les Patterson Saves the World (1987). She toured in the one-woman theatre shows Naughty Night Nurses Without Panties Down Under (1985) and Scandalous Behaviour (1987).
Authors Mike Lepine and Mark Leigh, who had worked with Adrian Edmondson on the 1986 comedy book How to Be a Complete Bastard approached Stephenson to collaborate on a companion volume, How to Be a Complete Bitch, which was published in 1987. How to Be a Complete Bitch became a top-ten bestseller in the UK, and sold over 300,000 copies by October that year. She told Candida Baker of The Age that she was pleased with the book being described as "sexist, violent and crude". The book spawned a board game of the same name. The Spectre of Ernie Pike (1989) on BBC Radio 4 saw Stephenson make her radio acting debut. She presented Move Over Darling (1990), a series of five programmes about the role of women at work and at home. The editorial team were all women, with Street-Porter as Executive Producer. In 1993, she hosted the Australian lifestyle program Sex, which was criticised by The Sydney Morning Heralds critic for being "prurient".
2010s and 2020s
In December 2010, Stephenson competed in the eighth series of the BBC1 television show Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by James Jordan. They reached the final, and finished third. she returned for the 2016 Christmas Special edition. Stephenson was a featured guest on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions in 2010, with a choice of music including Bellini, Satie and Debussy.
Stephenson formed a dance company in collaboration with Brazilian lambazouk dancer Braz Dos Santos, and wrote and produced a dance-drama stage production called Brazouka. Harley Medcalf was lead producer and Arlene Phillips directed. The biographical show told the story of Dos Santos, who performed in the show, and his dancing. It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2014 and toured South Africa and Australia through January 2015. During a COVID-19 lockdown, she wrote Bum Farto – The Musical, about 1970s Florida fire chief Joseph "Bum" Farto.
Psychology
According to her autobiography, Stephenson decided to switch to a career in psychology after some years of consideration, and having met all of her goals in comedy. She qualified as a clinical psychologist in the early 1990s, after studying at Antioch University in the United States. In 1996, she obtained a doctorate in clinical psychology from the California Graduate Institute and set up her own private practice. Her doctoral thesis topic was the "intra-psychic experience of fame". With a particular interest in sex therapy, she was a founder of the Los Angeles Sexuality Centre and an adjunct professor at the California Graduate Institute. Stephenson's research has included investigating the lives of transgender people in Samoa, Tonga, and India.
She presented the TV show Shrink Rap, in which she conducted psychology based interviews with well-known people, including Salman Rushdie, Carrie Fisher and Robin Williams. The programme premièred on More4 in 2007. Since 2007, she has written a weekly advice column in The Guardian, called "Sexual Healing", responding to reader submitted sexual issues and scenarios. At a time when various celebrities were being engaged to write advice columns, Stephenson was unusual in having a relevant qualification. She also had a relationships advice column, "Love Matters", in Australian Women's Weekly from 2009. She received an honorary degree from Robert Gordon University in 2009. The university announced that the award was in recognition of "her achievement in the field of human sexuality where she has made a marked, sustained and international contribution".
In 2007, she published Head Case: Treat Yourself to Better Mental Health, which was followed by Sex Life: How Our Sexual Encounters and Experiences Define Who We Are in 2011.
Politics and activism
At the 1987 United Kingdom general election, Stephenson was a candidate in the Windsor and Maidenhead constituency on behalf of the Blancmange Throwers Party; her platform included "free blancmanges for pensioners and the unemployed". She finished last placed of the six candidates, with 328 votes.
She co-founded the Parents for Safe Food group after being concerned that alar, which was believed to be carcinogenic, was being sprayed on apples and pears for human consumption. In 1989, she led a group of celebrity mothers who went to 10 Downing Street to hand in a petition addressed to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher calling for a ban on the use of alar. Use of the chemical to spray fruit was banned in the UK later that year, which news sources attributed to Stephenson's group's pressure. In 2010, Stephenson travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo with the international medical aid charity Merlin to meet the survivors of sexual and gender-based violence against women.
Personal life
After filming an episode of Hazell with its star Nicholas Ball, Stephenson went on to marry him in 1978. Stephenson converted to Buddhism in 1979, shortly before she joined Not the Nine O'Clock News. She left Ball to start a relationship with Billy Connolly, Ball and Stephenson eventually divorced in 1984. Connolly and Stephenson first met in 1979, when they filmed a sketch for Not the Nine O'Clock News in which she played Janet Street-Porter and he acted as himself, with the two characters failing to grasp what the other was saying. After filming, they had lunch together. They next met the following year, backstage at one of Connolly's shows. The pair lived together for ten years before they married in Fiji on 20 December 1989; Stephenson was "given away" by Barry Humphries. The couple have three daughters together.
In 2002, Stephenson published Billy, a biography of her husband, which Kirkus Reviews considered "balances wifely affection with professional analysis". It was a best-seller lists in Britain. Two years later, she released Bravemouth, a diary-style book focusing on Connolly in the year following his sixtieth birthday. Robbie Hudson of The Sunday Times wrote that it was "insubstantial" and "syrupy", while Kirkus Reviews felt that, like the earlier book, it contained "incisive revelations".
The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1991, and later alternated between homes in New York and Scotland. In 2002, on the BBC Radio 4 programme Devout Sceptics, she told Bel Mooney that through Buddhism, "I could at last feel I had begun life as a wonderful piece of creation, that a person doesn't have to struggle every day to overcome darkness and sin." Stephenson took a year-long sailing voyage in 2004 and 2005, following a route travelled by Robert Louis Stevenson; she wrote about the experience in Treasure Islands: Sailing the South Seas in the Wake of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson (2005). Kirkus Reviews described the book as "earnest and endearing", adding that the illustrations "help make this a dreamy, empowering retirement fantasy".
The following year, she travelled on her family's sailboat to follow the South Pacific route taken by her great-great-grandfather Samuel "Salty Sam" Stephenson. The journey was documented in a four-part series shown on Sky Television and in her book Murder or Mutiny: Mystery, piracy and adventure in the Spice Islands (2006). Her autobiography The Varnished Untruth: My Story was published in 2012. Lee Randall of The Scotsman described it as "compelling and emotion-churning", and Jane Wheatley of The Sydney Morning Herald found that while there was plenty of "humour and vivid anecdote", "the real heft of this book and its leitmotif is Stephenson's childhood experience of being rejected by her parents; a legacy that dogs her life to this day." Connolly was knighted in 2017, meaning that Stephenson-Connolly can formally style herself as "Lady Connolly". As of September 2022, the couple lived in Key West, Florida.
Bibliography
Books
Book chapter
Notes
References
External links
1949 births
20th-century New Zealand actresses
Living people
New Zealand Buddhists
New Zealand expatriates in England
New Zealand expatriates in Australia
National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni
New Zealand television actresses
21st-century New Zealand psychologists
University of New South Wales alumni
New Zealand women comedians
People from Takapuna
New Zealand expatriates in the United States
American sketch comedians
American expatriates in England
New Zealand women psychologists
People educated at Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School
Wives of knights
20th-century New Zealand psychologists