Catacombs Credits Guide
Catherine Schell

1990 interview with Catherine Schell by Stephen Nelmes

Stephen Nelmes: Space: 1999 when released had numerous problems stacked up against it, for example no network wanting to take up it and the bad press that it received, but despite these it was a success with the public at least. In your opinion what do you believe caused this?

Catherine Schell: Why did I believe 1999 was successful? I have no way of knowing whether it was successful or not, other than the feedback from fans and from it's repeat fees. The contract that I signed eliminated any repeat fees from the rest of the world, and allowed me only a third of my original fee should the program be repeated for the third time in Great Britain. I realised that it was being shown all over the world because of fan mail. and I did eventually receive a payment on it's third showing here in England. There were two series in all comprising of 48 episodes.

To have three showings of 48 episodes must mean that it had a certain popularity, even though the series went out on a Saturday morning at 11 a.m. As to why it should be popular, that is entirely up to audience to decide.

SN: I have heard that your role as Maya brought you into the limelight so to speak, in fact enough to gain you an award the Bronze Otto [Bravo Bronze Otto for female TV star, 1978. Barbara Bain won the Bronze Otto in 1977.]. What did you think of all this attention that the world was suddenly paying to you?

CS: You say that, "Maya' bought me into the Limelight. Actually it didn't. I had been blessed with a bit of that light much before I played Maya and it was because of that I got the part.

SN: What was it like to be in a Bond movie?

CS: The Bond film I remember mostly for it's exploitation of us, "Starlets", by using us as press fodder.

If anything Space: 1999 had a detrimental effect on my career as is often the case when one becomes closely associated with a particular part. I was very grateful for the Bronze Otto awarded to me by a German magazine for my portrayal of Maya, but, believe me, it ain't no Oscar. And I never received any work from Germany on the strength of the Otto.

I still find space a beautifully photographed show that deserved to be paid attention to. I still like my part as Maya, but I do not like to be identified with Maya all the time after 13 years, because that has not been my only role. I've done lots of successful TV shows and films since then.

I had great colleagues in Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and all the others. I also received quite a lot of fanmail, but hardly had the time to answer it. Sometimes my chauffeur only showed me the photographs to sign, I did that and he did the rest.

SN: I have seen a couple of out-takes from Space: 1999 where certain comical things/ occurrences happen unintentionally, the main one being from Bringers of Wonder where an actor playing one of the aliens trips up over a stunned security guard. Can you think of any other such instances?

CS: I actually saw this on TV and couldn't remember it taking place. You must remember it's 14 years ago. I can hardly remember a single title of any episodes much less any particular incidents. I do remember laughing a lot but not necessarily why.

SN: Gerry Anderson was to do another season of Space: 1999, but while it was within the planning stages the money needed was cut to provide promotional capital for a couple of ITC films. If you had been asked would you of taken the opportunity? And how would you of like to see Maya develop?

CS: It's absolutely true what you say about there were plans to do another series. There was even talk of doing a spin off series based on Maya's character. ITC did use the money to publicize three films they feared would flop at the box office. The series wasn't made and the films flopped. I would of course have gone on to make another series. Greed almost always wins over common sense and I had been promised an American type contract giving me residuals on all the foreign sales and repeats. It would have been an ideal form of a pension plan. As for Maya's character developing; that is entirely in the hands of the writers. But I'm sure I would have thoughF of something and made some suggestions but this now is merely rhetorical.

SN: Now onto more recent works of yours. In Wish Me Luck you play a hardened character, a British agent who is in France to help the resistance movement. From the actual program and photographs that I have seen Virginia looks a hardened character, did you have to do any research? Or is it a character that you can pick up straight away?

CS: Virginia (Dominique) is only hard because of her job. In later episodes of Wish Me Luck, due to circumstances, she softens quite considerably. But I am saying no more as the series is still on the air and I'm not going to give the game away. If I had been playing a character which had actually lived I would of course done some research, but as she is completely fictional I merely researched the era, and the circumstances, and allowed my imagination to do the rest. The people in France loved us and were grateful to us for telling this particular story as they themselves hand never been allowed to. I won't go into any further detail but if you're interested read the book, Tears of Glory from which the background of the series is loosely based.

SN: Do you keep any mementoes of the fi1ms and shows that you have appeared in?

CS: I have foolishly thrown all my ex-scripts away. My biggest regret was throwing my original script of The Return Of The Pink Panther away. It was so much funnier than anything shown later on the screen. Alas!