Alethea Steven is among the cast of The Good Life, which is based on the classic British sitcom of the same name, and which will be staged at the Arts Centre this week. She spoke to TOM OGG about playing Barbara Good and how she herself maintains a self-sufficient, eco-friendly lifestyle in her St Saviour home
MARIGOLDS at the ready! An adaptation of the classic BBC sitcom The Good Life will be showing at the Jersey Arts Centre this week.
Staged by TC Productions, The Good Life tells the story of Tom and Barbara Good, who make the leap into self-sufficiency in their suburban home with pigs, goats and other assorted animals – much to the horror of their hoity neighbours, Margo and Jerry Leadbetter.
As with the TV series, the comedy derives from the contrast between the lifestyles of the Goods and the Leadbetters, and the friendship which eventually grows between the neighbours, resulting in a tender scene in which they join forces to save the runt of a piglet litter.
The production stars Andrew Goodyear and Alethea Steven as Tom and Barbara, and Guy Browning and Tessa Coleman as Jerry and Margo, and is being directed by Andrea Thomas, who has returned to Jersey from her home in Scotland in order to oversee the production.
The casting of Alethea Steven – nickname “Leafy” – is very pertinent as she herself maintains a self-sufficient lifestyle not dissimilar to that of her character, or as Tessa Coleman puts it: “Initially, I knew very little about Alethea other than that she was a very good actor. I found out much more when I put out a casting call for a likely location shoot and she said: ‘My place’. Like Barbara Good, Alethea has her own small-holding of goats and chickens and, in her case, bees, whose honey she sells locally.”
Born in Jersey and raised in St Saviour, Alethea is a self-employed freelance gardener and garden designer, and founder of Leaf & Bee Gardens.
“I have fluff babies, two pygmy goats, two chinchillas, one fish, one cat, three hens – and I try and keep bees,” says Alethea, who attended St Michael’s School and then Marlborough College and Exeter University.
“My nickname Leaf – or Leafy – started at secondary school and came about because I’m a bit of an eco warrior and I have too many plants. It’s a perfect nickname. And it’s useful having a nickname because lots of people are scared by the pronunciation of the name ‘Alethea’, which is a Greek word, and which was given to me by my Greek mother. I can’t book a table at a restaurant with it.”
Here, Alethea discusses The Good Life, working with Keeley Hawes and how her late father, Ian Steven, helped to inspire her eco-conscious lifestyle…
What can Islanders expect from The Good Life at the Arts Centre next week?
“A warm and, hopefully, joyfully fun tribute to a wonderful sitcom. We have some big shoes to fill so let’s hope we pull it off.”
How did you come to be involved in the production?
“I first heard a rumour that Tessa Coleman – of TC Productions – was interested in doing the show two years ago but, back then, the timing didn’t work for me. It was Guy Browning – who is my friend from Grainville Tennis Club – who persuaded me. And who kept persuading me. I don’t really act any more, but I love The Good Life sitcom, and I love the fact that the show is being held in support of Healing Waves, which offers ocean therapy for the disabled.”
What has been the most enjoyable part of rehearsals thus far?
“Oh, the cast and team have been so lovely to work with, and Andrea is a fantastic director. We started rehearsing in January and the winter weather was awful, not good for a gardener, so it was a good way to spend the evenings with creative folk instead.”
In a case of life imitating art, you enjoy something of a Good Life-style life yourself in terms of gardening and animals. Could you tell us a little about this?
“Sometimes life gives you a knock in a different direction and it started for me when, sadly, my brother Peter died in 2016. I was working in London in finance at the time and I thought, I don’t want to do this any more – life is short and all that – and so I started a part-time diploma in garden design and part of the RHS [Royal Horticultural Society] Level 2 in Practical Horticulture. I moved back to Jersey at the end of 2019 and gradually set up Leaf & Bee Gardens.”
In terms of Leaf & Bee Gardens, what does a typical day involve?
“I don’t have a typical day as the weather and season dictates what I do. I have a select group of private gardens I go to. My clients are very understanding as I try and encourage pollinator-friendly planting and gardening methods, and when the bee-keeping season kicks off it can be very busy.
“I currently tend to 15 bee hives. The goats I keep don’t need to be milked, unlike the ones my dad used to keep. I refer to my goats as ‘the ornamental time wasters’, but they are very cute – until Hades tries to eat my reading book.”
When and how did you first develop your interest in acting?
“It was a childhood dream, as with many children. But once I finally got in to drama school, the reality of it all started to kick in – and I decided that I preferred plants.”
The Good Life aside, what have been some of the most memorable productions and projects with which you have been involved over the years?
“Under The Greenwood Tree, a Thomas Hardy novel, which was filmed in Jersey in 2005. It starred Keeley Hawes. I was lucky enough to get a speaking part – as the jilted love interest – and I loved filming it.
“It was shot at Hamptonne and around the Island. I had failed to get into drama school the first time so getting a part in this was a dream. Afterwards, I got into three drama schools – so having the credit clearly helped.”
Which actors or actresses do you most admire, be they stars of TV and film, local actors, or both?
“I most admire all those actors who are so very talented and still struggling to make it, but who still dream. It is a brutal profession.”
Your father, Ian Steven, was well known in the Island, having once been the head of Ann Street Brewery. He appeared in an article in the JEP promoting “self-sufficiency”. Did he inspire your lifestyle in any way?
“As a child, my father spent his weekdays in meetings but, at weekends, he was active in the garden, breeding butterflies, bee keeping and building an orchid house. He talked about self-sufficiency, caring for the environment, biodiversity and climate change, and all before it was fashionable. Those beliefs and views were passed on to all his children.
“When that article was published in the JEP in 1978 [pictured right], I wasn’t even born. I was by the time of another JEP article in May 1990, which ends with dad’s words: ‘I had a lot of time to think, too, about our future and how we treat our resources. There is a doubling of the world’s population estimated in 40 years time. What sort of world shall we be living in then?’ Perhaps we should all be returning to the ‘Good Life’.”
Finally, what do you most enjoy about life in Jersey?
“Oh, I love the landscape of La Rocque and spending time walking there, collecting cockles. It’s just so peaceful.”
*The Good Life by TC Productions will be performed at the Jersey Arts Centre from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 April. with all profits going to Healing Waves. For more details, or to book, visit artscentre.je
