Pop stars turned actors Patsy Kensit and Martin Kemp have told how they were so busy living life to the max in the 80s – they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
The pair, who guest star as versions of themselves in ITV’s returning Sunday night drama McDonald and Dodds, said they were thrilled to finally get the chance to work together after decades of near misses.
Kensit, 52, said: “So many things have happened to all of us. I’ve had such highs and real lows. The one thing I regret is I didn’t enjoy it enough.
“I learned lots from it but whilst it was happening I was too worried about what everyone thought. And nobody gives a monkey’s really what you’re up to – that’s something when I look back I think ‘I really should have been able to laugh that one off’.
“That’s my slight regret. Just enjoy the moment.”
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The model and actress said she was still at school when she first met Kemp in London’s WAG Club. “I was 15, I’d snuck out and I managed to get in with my best friend. I walked up the stairs in this tiny club and there were all of Spandau Ballet, Madness, Sade, Haircut 100, the top 10 in the charts were all there. Anything was possible – now it’s everything is so impossible. It’s lovely to have those memories.”
But hinting at the bad financial advice she received, the mum of two said she’d like to give her younger self better tips. “I would say set up a pension for yourself. I wanted to do it but was told only footballers did that.”
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Spandau Ballet star Kemp, 59, agreed that he would tell his younger self to appreciate those 80s experiences. “Stand back and breathe in the good times. There are moments, whether it’s Live Aid or making a Kray film or whatever I’ve done, sometimes I’ve been in too much of a rush to get to the next thing rather than standing back and breathing in the moment.”
In the lighthearted ITV murder mystery, which stars Jason Watkins as DS Dodds and Tala Gouveia as DCI McDonald, the pair play former “rising stars” Barbara and Mick. They are joined by actors Cathy Tyson and Rupert Graves as fellow 80s throwbacks, who are all caught up in a death which occurs during a hot air balloon ride.
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Kemp said he jumped at the role after enjoying his stint in a 2006 Miss Marple mystery alongside Sarah Parish, Paul McGann and Dawn French. H
e said he recognised lots of Mick’s traits from people he really knew in the 80s. “In the first part of the decade, everything was about excess and money and how much you could earn. It was all huge, from how much hairspray you used, to the size of your shoulder pads – all big and over the top. It was a great time to be involved in the music business.”
Kensit said she loved being cast in a drama about a murder because she is passionate about real crime. “I’m obsessed with the Crime + Investigation channel,” she said. “I love things like teenagers who kill their parents – it’s an unhealthy interest. Kill, kill kill. Kids that kill their mum, dogs who kill. My kids, before they moved out, were like ‘Mum, you’re really weird.’ I’m all over it.”
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She admitted that she was glad not to have to fly in the balloon for real during filming. “I got to go on a crane that lifted the balloon up and that was enough for me,” she laughed. “Going up in the sky – I think I would struggle. But it was nice going up six feet.”
Kemp said finally landing a role alongside Kensit was “just so great”. He explained: “Patsy and I have kind of grown up together and we spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. Many people, over the years, tried to put us together into a movie or into something they were making and it never quite came off- until now.”
*McDonald and Dodds returns for a three-part run later this month.
Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/patsy-kensit-martin-kemp-recall-23445377