Jean Boht became a familiar face in the Eighties as the no-nonsense Nellie Boswell in the sitcom Bread. But she’s now a guest star in Casualty, playing Doris, a patient with Alzheimer’s. She tells TVChoice more about her episode, and remembers her time in Carla Lane’s classic comedy…

In your Casualty storyline, Doris becomes violent towards her daughter, Sandra (Sophie Ward). Is that a common trait for people suffering from Alzheimer’s?
Yes, I think they have no control. It’s such a mix of terrible things that happens in the brain. And I hope with all the current research going on, they can calm it. It’s like having a jangle of wires in your head. There are a lot of scenes where she does lose it. She’s out of control mentally and physically. That’s not difficult to do as an actor, but you have to be sure it’s tempered to the correct physicality. You don’t want to overact, because that’s quite easy to do, when you’re screaming your head off.

Obviously, Alzheimer’s is likely to be a big problem for our aging society. Do you have any strong feelings about how we should cope?
We’ve got to find a cure for it. There must be a cure. I was so thrilled to watch a programme last night about Parkinson’s and how the English National Ballet have got them out of their wheel chairs and dancing to stop the shaking of Parkinson’s. But with Alzheimer’s and dementia, you’ve got to start working as soon as you find you’re forgetting things.

You’ve been in Casualty before. How does this time compare to the last?
Oh, completely different. I’ve been very lucky with the producers, who know I can be physically different. I’m sure they think, ‘Here’s a funny part, get Jeanie in to do that.’ They know I’ll be able to think about it.

You’ve also played a sufferer of Alzheimer’s before, alongside your daughter, Hannah Davis, in the 2004 film Mothers And Daughters. Was it odd working with her?
Well, she was quite wonderful to work with, and her husband, David. They’re a partnership in directing, producing and writing, and acting in films as well. They’re out in LA at the moment, and they’ve got a new film on release, The Understudy, which my husband [the composer Carl Davis] and I are in. I had a tiny part. Carl has a bigger part than me! He murders me with his saxophone!

Is your other daughter, Jessie, also an actress?
No, she was in TV, as a coordinator, but now she runs the record company we have.

How do you feel when you look back on your most famous role, Nellie in Bread?
I thought it was amazing to do, but it was exhausting to record that. We were fortunate that it was one of the best comedies ever written. I never watched it at the time it went out, but there were some wonderful storylines.

I was always surprised the BBC didn’t carry it on. We had around 22 million viewers per show, more than any other show in the history of television comedy, but they didn’t want to know. They were a bit embarrassed by the theme of it, about what you could rip off from the DHSS. But that wasn’t true, the characters didn’t rip-off anything. That was the point of it.

Your husband Carl Davis is a conductor and composer, so is the house full of music all the time?
No, with composers it’s all written down. They don’t play it on the piano or anything. So you don’t hear anything at all.

Do you play an instrument yourself?
Only the piano, but not very well. But my mother taught herself on the piano. She picked it up by ear, but I wouldn’t practise. It’s funny being married to a composer, because it’s all in their head. And until it’s rehearsed, you don’t hear it. Although, we do have singers coming to the house if he’s doing a musical.

He’s also done 60 compositions for silent films, including one for Napoleon (1927). We’re doing four performances of that in San Francisco in March, and it’ll be coming back to the Festival Hall next year. Now The Artist has taken off there’s great interest in silent films. We’re doing Ben Hur (1907) at the Festival Hall quite soon, with the Philharmonia. It’s really an exciting entertainment.

David Collins