The Catacombs Catacombs Credits Guide
Zienia Merton Interview Part 2
by Geoff Wright
scanned by Paulo Jorge Morgado

Just prior to his second interview with Zienia, she had been visited by Clifton Jones and Anton Phillips

Do you see the others from the first season very often now? Apart from Clifton and Anton?

Well, they are my friends... I don't see Prentis...

Unlike Tony, you seem to have struck up some friendships from the cast... he couldn't say, 'so & so became a good friend...'

Well, it's always difficult, we all have our own friends and making new ones... Anton and Julia (his wife) are good friends and she appeared in a couple of episodes, she's an actress, although she didn't have a very large part, just a nurse, I think.

Can you remember a particularly funny incident on any of the shows?

There was a scene with a chimp, when Maya transforms into a chimp in The LAMBDA FACTOR. Well I saw it coming and I'm not a very brave person and those chimps are quite strong, they're about six stone, not little monkeys. It was Charles Crichton, -- all the best things always happen with Charlie Crichton, he really is a lovely man, absolutely smashing... but so wicked -- and he said to me... 'Ok Zienia, we'll have Catherine leaning here...'. And I'm always very careful to position myself well away from special effects. This was a sequence where we all had to freeze and this chimp was wonderful, it sat on my console... and three cameras were shooting this scene to get as much footage as possible and the chimp suddenly thought we were all very funny, because we had all frozen, so he sat there looking at me and because I didn't move... he turned upside down and of course I was dying to giggle, but I had to suppress myself. All those offset were killing themselves laughing and we, in front of the cameras, had to remain frozen.

Then the chimp noticed a television screen, started twiddling the knobs and I was still trying to keep a straight face... and then he suddenly got down and got hold of my leg and gotvery affectionate and then finally he crossed the set, as he was supposed to do and that was awful.

Then another time -- again Charles Crichton -- when you do a disaster scene. They always use three cameras and then they shoot enough material in one go to use in the finished product. In this particular episode - War Games - when an Eagle landed on the top of Main Mission and the whole thing caved down... So what happened was, we had what they call a dry rehearsal and on the take all hell will let loose... and literally there were people up there with fullers earth, polystyrene bricks, wires and, everything is planned so we all know what is happening and where the sparks are going to be, etc..

Yes, 'cause I've noticed on a couple of, episodes sparks have gone everywhere and it looks quite dangerous...

It is dangerous, believe me... anyway Charles Crichton said... 'Do what you'd do if the roof' fell in'... so all the other actors were being terribly brave and just sitting around, so when he said... 1,2,3, action... I shoved myself underneath the desk with Barry (Morse) and we both giggled and sort. of said, we'll be OK under here and we were, because when it went for the take... the amount of fullers earth that came down... we under the table couldn't see for a few seconds... so you can imagine how the others felt... Prentis came up and didn't realise there was a thing just over him and he was completely white from head to foot and then I saw that on the rehearsal Clifton had noticed we had got down under the table so he said, 'what a good idea, I'll join you there'' and so there were three of us cowering under the desks... and so we were very lucky and got very little stuff over us. But the crew adored it... they were chucking the stuff down...

Barry Morse was good to work with on the first season was he?

Oh, he was smashing and I thought it was a pity he left, because he was a very good balance for us. Anton was another you see, he got fed up like me, they weren't writing for him, so he wanted to do other work.

Yes, Anton seems to pop up in General Hospital now a lot... Now, were you kept to a very tight schedule?

Very, very, tight... on Series One, they wanted us to do a show, every 10 days. It all took time, we all had to be lit, eight or so actors for example in a Main Mission scene and of course on series one, we never went out... except that one time on Full Circle... with muggins here... it was pouring with rain and they had to get a huge plastic/rubber bag for me to lie In, so I didn't get wet Whilst they were lighting me... this was in BLACK PARK and they're not kidding... and I lay there and I suddenly thought, 'God, my leg' and I was bitten by about 60 insects. They all homed in on my leg. I was shivering because it was so cold and the production manager was marvellous and kept saying, 'Here have a drink' and by lunch time I was absolutely sozzled. He was giving me neat brandy to keep me warm and it was just as well I had no dialogue, because I was completely blotto...

I was saying to Tony Anholt that I felt that it was bad that the second series seemed to loose it's magical quality...

Yes, the first series was surreal, for example, Another Time, Another Place. Keith, the designer did a most incredible thing of all those trees and then just painted a background onto them... but you'd never think so, it looked as though we were outside...

The set's for Missing Link were marvelous...

Brilliant. Actually you know what happened? You said one of the funniest Incidents I could remember. Well, they built a huge tent and they pumped it full of dry ice to get the misty effect and the camera men were given directions and they got lost! We couldn't see anybody in that mist. I think it was Ray Austin who directed... and I said, 'Listen Ray, how far is this mist coming up?' and he said 'To Martin's chin' and you know how little I am and so I said, ''well if it's coming up to Martin's chin, I can throw me lines in, I needn't appear... all Martin has to do is hold a black mop for the top of my head'... and he said, 'yes, I see what you mean' . We had marks to walk forward to, but there was no point, cause we couldn't see a thing. It was absolutely fogged up... poor Gladys the continuity lady, who always sits on a stool... we never saw poor Gladys the whole time we were doing that. It was a marvellous show, but you get very wet as well in the dry ice and it's an awful feeling. And of course I had those pyjamas on and I won't tell you what it felt like.

Between each take, of course, they'd pump in more dry ice as well... because it evaporates so quickly... it's a wonderful effect... and it was terribly funny as well. Because as you know, Peter (Cushing) brings me back... and the running gag was that because I was so small, every time I had to do a shot they'd stand me on something or else everybody else had to take their boots off. I remember turning around and there was this great trestle table suspended six feet off the ground and I said, 'Hey, I'm not that short...!'. But the effect they wanted was to make it look as if we were floating in the air and it was a marvellous effect.

Yes, I really like Missing Link very much,

Yes, it was good and it was nice, my knowing that something was wrong, because of course in the Eagle crash, both Martin and I, had head injuries, and that's why we could go to Zenno...

How did Peter Cushing and Joanna Dunham feel, getting soaked through?

Well you see, poor Joanna was in a costume that she couldn't even sit down in, so they gave her this thing that made her look like a Mummy... a sort of thing with armrests and that's where she rested. She couldn't sit down. (Peter could sit down.) And that gold paint as well, that wasn't pleasant and took hours to apply.

Yes, did you actually see them apply the paint? Because I always think of Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger... They could only coat one side of her body, for fear of clogging the pores.

Yes, well she actually died in Goldfinger because of this... but it is awful stuff... I remember I once did a TV special for Ken Russell and I had to be painted In gold... and I was freezing anyway, because we were on location and I had nothing on except this sort of body stocking and I was absolutely frozen, because I couldn't put a coat on because the gold paint. It just came off... so they had to keep reapplying it... and it does also get into your pores. Because I remember when I was In Regents Park doing Midsummer Nights Dream, at the end of the run, we all had to go and have saunas, because it got ingrained and made you look dirty.

If they decided to do a third series of Space: 1999, would you be Interested?

Well, one has to say, not if it were going to be a repeat of what series two was like, it's not worth my while...

Did you feel that series two failed to attract big name guest artists, because of series one's failings?...

Well, I don't think they ever had a problem getting the stars, but series one didn't take off over here, because it wasn't screened. We waited on Series One. We were going to be shown earlier, the whole point being that we'd get a network and we didn't...

Originally they put It on to clash with Dr. Who...

...and that was ridiculous, because Dr. Who has had a decade of followers... and of course Space was terribly well made and it could have gone out at seven o'clock. I mean if we can watch the Bionic Man being boring, I don't know why Space didn't get the airing. But they were so anxious to sell It in America and that's why they didn't bother about this country, which is silly, because It was a very competent series... as good as anything the Americans can do...

I felt that the second season had far more faults.

Well, for example they changed Command Centre. It then resembled a schoolroom to me.

Go to Part 3