Doon Mackichan is an actress and writer who partly grew up in Fife. She has been a regular in iconic comedy shows on TV, including The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Brass Eye and Toast of London. co-created and starred with Fiona Allen and Sally Phillips in all-woman sketch show, Smack the Pony (1999-2003). On stage she has appeared at the Royal Court, the Royal National Theatre and on the West End, and brought her adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She starred in the first five series’ of Two Doors Down, and has just filmed the seventh. My Lady Parts is her first book.
Hi Doon, congratulations on My Lady Parts. You’ve just filmed the new series of Two Doors Down as well. How are you feeling about both?
I am extremely excited. I took a year off Two Doors Down last year, and it was wonderful to be back and to realise how much I've been missed. They say pride before a fall, but I'm very proud of this book, which I never expected to get this far. It's been carried around in my bag for three years (I write longhand).
My Lady Parts tells an at times painful story, yet you stay true to your anger throughout. What made you want to get that story out there?
My mother said to me in my twenties, “I'm so sorry, you're so angry”. I'm not sorry. Anger changes things and makes you decide enough is enough. Even if it's a can of spray paint on a sexist billboard, it can alter people's perceptions in an incredible way. Living with inequality has made me want to seek radical change. I needed to share some of my story, and I hope it's useful and can ignite change.
Your book lays bare your experiences of misogyny as a woman in comedy and theatre. How likely do you think this will ever change?
If we are unashamedly telling our stories, then change can occur. Sadly, many women do not want to share their stories, particularly in the entertainment industry, in case they are seen as difficult, and that will jeopardise future work.
Men in the business also know some of these stories, but they keep quiet. They, especially the ones in power, need to speak up. Also, those in power need to look at what they see as ‘entertainment’ and the damage that can do.
The stories we tell are crucial to our culture, and we are in something of a quagmire regarding empowering women's stories. More female directors are needed, technicians are needed, equal pay, childcare costs taken into account, more women in writers rooms, more female DOPs, sound engineers, and obviously, more creative casting.
We also need to address the tyranny women feel around their bodies and ageing. It is obscene that girls in their twenties are having surgery to their faces and bodies. We need to dismantle the self-hatred, and that means educating the young as well as the older, giving women the hero stories, and seeing more older faces on screen.
How much do you think things have changed for women performers and artists since Smack the Pony?
There are simply not enough female led shows. When I saw Bridesmaids, I thought, yes, at last. But did it spark a raft of similar shows? No. I'm continuously asked about doing more Smack the Pony, because people are hungry for this. But it is mostly men who get the commissions, while many female stories are just not picked up. It's a crime!
You funded your Edinburgh Fringe production of Jane Austen’s Emma by swimming the Channel. How do you top that?
Hahaha, yes, that was a feat never to be repeated. But during training, I realised the joy of cold water, so I went off to swim in the Arctic in the World Ice Swimming Championships after that. So I suppose that topped it!
My Lady Parts opens quoting Jane Austen, Alice Walker and Rebecca Solnit. How much are these your maxims to live by?
Those quotes make me want to be louder and messier and braver and fail more and keep creating and keep pushing. Believing passionately in something takes everyday work, and every encounter becomes important. A chance comment leads you to a book that can change your outlook forever. A piece of music, a poem, the randomness of what life throws at you and the paths you can go down if you take a leap of faith and are curious enough, are just mind blowing; resilience, mischief and rule breaking, and of course dancing.
I could hear your voice in the book throughout. How much is it a one-woman show in waiting?
I performed a one-woman show based on a heartbreaking time when my son had cancer aged nine. He's now 27 and in full remission. It was something I needed to do, but it was a lonely if liberating time. I prefer the interaction of a cast, but never say never.
To ask you the question you asked at the end of My Lady Parts, what WILL you do now?
I have just finished series seven of Two Doors Down, and I'm like a broken doll drunk with exhaustion, and from drinking fake wine for seven weeks. I will have a lovely holiday with my daughter India, who lives in Thailand. Then I’m performing in the West End in a fantastic new play by Penelope Skinner called Lyonesse, which has a #MeToo story at its heart.ONWARDS! And always take a sharpie with you for those particularly annoying sexist adverts.
My Lady Parts is published by Canongate, 21stSeptember. Doon Mackichan will read from the book at Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, 21stSeptember. Tickets from Lighthouse Books.
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