Stephanie Beacham

Stephanie Beacham interview

"I looked up Dragons' Den's Hilary Devey on the internet... she was part of the inspiration for Lorraine, because she's a great northern character".

Leighton's new-found drive to save the planet puts him in the mire when he switches off the freezers at the supermarket (he thinks he's just turning off the lights) and defrosts all the frozen goods. Julie (Jane Horrocks) wants to give him another chance, Lorraine (Stephanie Beacham) wants to give him the sack. "Never let your emotions get the better of you," she tells her deputy. The only time Lorraine ever welled up was when her dog got put down. And that was only because she had to do it herself. With a mallet.

As for poor Leighton, you might just start crying yourself when he's given the bad news. Surely, this can't be the end of his story? Valco just wouldn't be the same without him.

Having soldiered on through bronchitis, hepatitis and two bouts of scarlet fever, Lorraine (Stephanie Beacham) isn't exactly sympathetic when workers ring in sick. So when a flu epidemic strikes Valco, she rages against her colleagues before plugging gaps in the rota. Butcher Andy is put on the deli counter, while Leighton gets his big chance on the tills. Before you know it, he's jeopardising the store's alcohol licence by selling 2-for-1 bottles of cider to kids in school uniform.

Stephanie Beacham has been such a cracking addition to the cast in this second series. As store manager Lorraine we love her pillarbox-red talons and lipstick, that hair scraped into a Bet Lynch beehive and - most of all - her growling putdowns: "Friendships are overrated," she tells the simpering Julie (Jane Horrocks). "I had one once at school. Never again."

However, not everyone is impressed by the new regime - Andy, for one, despairs at the introduction of a ticket machine for customers. Could this be the start of a slippery slope towards a fully automated meat counter and eventual unemployment for all human beings? "It's just like Terminator," he frets.

There's something delightfully natural about the observant supermarket-set comedy, which continues its second season tonight. As Gavin (Jason Watkins) returns for his first scheduled visit as area manager, he's somewhat annoyed that no one seems to have missed him. Julie (Jane Horrocks), meanwhile, is treading lightly around the store's new manager, Lorraine (Stephanie Beacham).

Trollied - which personally I think is really funny, but which other people seem to think is ropey (is it me? Is it them? It's them, isn't it? Sour-faced gits. Good, I'm glad we're agreed on that...) - is back tonight for a second series (9pm, 9.30pm).

Joining the cast is Stephanie Beacham, from hit US drama Die Nasty, playing the scary new store manager.

There's one feeble gag where someone confuses Iceland the store with Iceland the country, but other than that I still reckon this is an above average show.

The makers can lift that quote and use it in their publicity if they like. I bet they don't.

The supermarket comedy returns with a formidable new cast member: Dynasty and more recently Corrie star Stephanie Beacham.

As no-nonsense new manager Lorraine, she flounces around the store, eyes flashing, while her staff tremble. Most nervy of all is deputy manager Julie (a wonderfully twitchy Jane Horrocks), who is heartbroken that her beloved Gavin is leaving to be area manager, still blissfully unaware of her ardour.

Meanwhile, the cantankerous head butcher (Mark Addy) splashes on some cheap perfume, sashays into the new boss's office and turns on the charm. Alas, not all goes to plan...

If you were a bit disappointed with the first series of this supermarket comedy, hope may be on the horizon as it returns. Valco has a new boss in the shape of Stephanie Beacham - and she is promising some changes as bold as her hair.

Fans of middling supermarket-based sitcoms, fear not. Once again you can get your fill of shelf stacking-based mishaps as this northern comedy from the production company behind The IT Crowd and The Office returns. Gasp! - at the exquisite tension over the long-term future of the shop's ability to provide cut-to-order chunks of meat... Weep! - over the poignant human struggle to open a jammed pair of sliding doors... Yawn! - as a cheap visual gag is shoe-horned in which involves a leaving video for the store manager and a porn vid... Still, what the show lacks in plotting and script, it more than makes up for in terms of performances. A cast led by Jane Horrocks and Stephanie Beacham does such sterling work that it somehow renders this average, rather than tedious.

There are changes in store as Sky's supermarket sitcom returns for a new series. Enter new manager Lorraine (Stephanie Beacham), a bossy bombshell who seductively munches olives as she scares the Valco staff. Andy the butcher wastes no time in draping himself over her desk, while there are further rumblings of sauce in the stockroom. Neurotic management wannabe Julie (Jane Horrocks) gives Gavin a surprise send-off with disastrous consequences. The plot's predictable, but there are enough giggles and one-liners to keep it alive.