CARRY ON AMANDA

AMANDA BARRIE IS STILL GRACING STAGES AS SHE TURNS 90. MARION McMULLEN CELEBRATES A MEMORABLE CAREER

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SHE'S been an Egyptian queen, a Coronation Street favourite and fortune teller Psychic Sue in ITV comedy Benidorm.

Amanda Barrie was born Shirley Anne Broadbent during a ferocious thunderstorm 90 years ago on September 14, 1935, above her grandfather's tailor’s shop in Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire.

She was named Shirley after 1930s American child star Shirley Temple, but found her own fame under her stage name Amanda Barrie.

Bathing in asses’ milk as Cleopatra in 1964 British comedy film Carry On Cleo proved one of her most memorable early screen roles. Amanda's scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios in eight days as she was appearing in the musical She Loves Me at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End at the same time.

She was reportedly paid £500 to play the famous Queen of the Nile and the costume worn by Sydney James as Mark Antony was the same one Richard Burton wore a year earlier in the film epic Cleopatra opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the title role.

However, it was not Amanda who rolled out of a carpet for her memorable first audience with Julius Caesar, played by Kenneth Williams, but stunt double Nikki Van der Zyl. Amanda once said: “I wouldn't be young again if you filled my bath with asses’ milk.”