Zoë Wanamaker: 'I hate communicating virtually. Honestly, the palaver'

Zoë Wanamaker, daughter of American director and actor Sam Wanamaker, is as much at home on stage as on TV. She has performed in the classics (from Chekhov to Shakespeare to Sophocles) and has been nominated repeatedly for Oliviers (winning twice) and Tony awards. She stars with Robert Lindsay in the hugely popular TV series My Family, which began 20 years ago and now returns to BBC One.

You made 11 seasons of My Family – that must have been like committing to a marriage…
It was in a way – only the BBC never knew in advance whether it was going to go ahead again with another season, so I was able to do theatre in between, which was great. It was a joy to make the series but I’ve never seen it, you know. Then recently I watched the first episode and was amazed – mainly at how young I looked. The reason I did My Family was I’d never been in a sitcom before. Robert [Lindsay], who always makes me laugh, suggested I do it.

That first episode is hilarious, especially when you are in mid-embrace with Lindsay as your dentist spouse and he suddenly notices you’ve had a new filling put in by a rival dentist and freaks out…
The show was written by Fred Barron, and his father was a dentist, so that’s where that came from. I’m not sure why dentists are such a good subject for comedy – my dentist told me that they actually have the highest rate of heart attacks… Anyway, the script is so clean, sharp and witty. And the American humour was – is – my kind of humour because I grew up with it.

How early did you realise you could make people laugh?
I made my mother laugh. I have a photo taken years ago of Mum, Dad, me and my big sister trying to play Monopoly, and they’re all laughing at me… [At this point our conversation is overtaken by loud noises.] Oh God, I’m sorry, I’m in the middle of a farm. That noise is a tanker delivering oil. I’m in Wiltshire. I live in a hamlet in which there are only 12 houses. We have fields in front of us and behind.

What were you working on when lockdown started?
We’d just started filming Britannia 3 – Jez Butterworth’s take on the second invasion of the Romans in 43AD. I’ve received an email saying we might be able start again, but with single cameras and so on.

Have you ever felt frightened during lockdown?
I’m not frightened but Gawn [Grainger], my husband, is 82, so he is much more concerned, naturally.

What’s been the best thing about this period for you?
At the start, the trees didn’t have any leaves on them, and to watch the seasons gently explode has been heaven. And there is a WhatsApp for the hamlet and people go shopping for you… so there is a togetherness.

Are you able to walk each day?
Absolutely, this is the glory of being here. Every day we say this. We feel so grateful. I’ve had two hip replacements, but have been busy with the garden watching things grow. This time in the country makes me think back to my childhood when Dad was doing Othello with Paul Robeson and rented somewhere just outside Stratford-upon-Avon. I’d have been nine or 10, and the countryside was a haven. I remember a man who rented me a tree house – the rent was that I should write a poem a month for him. I was in arrears a lot… but wasn’t it wonderful?

What do you feel about our new Zoom age and about the virtual stage?
I hate communicating virtually. That Zoom thing is shit. Honestly. The palaver. I have dyslexia. I’m slightly dyspraxic… Trying to do a play on Zoom does not mean anything to me. It’s anathema. I did an NT Live of The Cherry Orchard [she played Ranyevskaya] and it was awful. You don’t know who to play to – the audience or the camera. When theatre is filmed, it becomes intangible, you can’t feel it, you can’t smell it, you can’t breathe it – it does not have the same effect on your body.

You will be aghast at the threat lockdown poses to theatre. You must have a particular familial concern for the Globe’s future?
Of course – this was Dad’s project for 27 years, and he never saw the end of it. It was never my passion, though. I didn’t understand it. But the tenacity of the man… I’m an honorary president of the Globe, but can’t deal with the bureaucracy of theatre. I just lose my temper. Dad’s passion was always that the Globe should be rock’n’roll: elect an artistic director, then let them run… if it failed, it failed.

You never acted at the Globe?
I never wanted to… the responsibility was too much. I’d have felt embarrassed.

What will you most look forward to once lockdown is over?
Getting back to the theatre. I fell in love with the business as a child. My parents being immigrants, they took us to everything. I miss sitting in an audience and hearing that silence when something powerful is going on.

How would your dad have reacted to the challenges of this time had he been around to see it?
This is what I keep thinking about. He’d have found a way, put up a good fight. But what exactly he would have done, I don’t know.

My Family continues on Fridays at 8pm on BBC One, and all series are on BBC iPlayer