![]() ![]() Maggie Forbes returned the following year working undercover in the spin-off series C.A.T.S Eyes (Covert Activities Thames Section). The Gentle Touch made Gascoine a household name and ran for five series until 1984. ![]() One episode shown in January 1982 had more than 18 million viewers and was the fifth most watched TV programme in The Gentle Touch was made by London Weekend Television and was the first crime series centred around a female lead character, predating Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect by 11 years. In 1980 she hit the jackpot with the ground-breaking role of Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes. Sean, then four, had to sleep in his mother’s bed while baby Adam slept in a drawer. She earned £28 a week and lived with her two boys Sean and Adam in a tiny flat. She had also struggled through the Sixties to bring up her two sons alone after her first marriage to Dundee hotelier Bill Keith broke down. Gascoine was the big name then with a long list of TV roles on her CV going back to the Fifties. “It was lust at first sight,” says Gascoine of her first impressions of the bear-like Molina. The couple met in 1982 when they appeared in the West End musical Destry Rides Again. “Fred has turned down roles to be near her. Those same friends are now adamant that there is no couple more able to meet the challenge of coping with the disease than Jill and Fred. However close friends have known for a year. The actress, who is best known for starring in the cop series The Gentle Touch, has revealed she has dementia.įittingly enough she made the announcement as she accepted an award at a Beverly Hills fundraising gala for research into Alzheimer’s disease. ![]() Luckily it was caught early and she recovered but now she and her husband face their biggest trial. Then, nine years into her marriage to Molina, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Throughout much of her life Gascoine has suffered bouts of clinical depression which she claims is the legacy of the miserable years she spent at boarding school when cruel teachers humiliated her because she was frightened and wet the bed. That shift alone would have broken many couples in their self-obsessed profession but there was more. As Molina’s star rose Gascoine’s acting career faded away to nothing after a few appearances in American TV series. Yet 27 years on Gascoine and Molina, now 76 and 60, have defied all the doubters who said it would never, could never last. Third, they were both actors, a profession that tends to nurture big egos but not marital fidelity or security. Second, she was a famous, higher-earning TV star and he was not – a state of affairs which men generally find unnerving. And anyway what would a 49-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man have to talk about once the passion had worn off? For starters she was 16 years older than him and when they got together in the Eighties there was still a whiff of the unsavoury about an older woman teaming up with a younger man. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |