Carol Drinkwater is an author and actress best known for playing Helen Herriot in the original BBC dramatisation of All Creatures Great And Small.
After three series on the hit TV show, based on the James Herriot novels, the 77-year-old carved out a successful career as an author.
Her Olive Farm quartet of books have sold more than a million copies. Her later Mediterranean travel books inspired a series of TV documentary films.
She has lived in France with her French filmmaker husband, Michel Noll, since their marriage in 1988, and has two step-daughters from his first marriage.
What did your parents teach you about money?
My actress sister Linda (who was married to the late Man About The House star Brian Murphy) and I grew up in a Kent village near Bromley.
My father Peter, the son of a Brixton cab driver, was very much a self-made man. After working as a band leader, he became a theatrical agent and made quite a lot of money – enough to have me educated privately.
Hit show: Carol with Christopher Timothy in All Creatures Great And Small
My mother Phyllis, an Irish farm girl, came to England to train as a nurse but stopped working after marrying Daddy and starting a family – ever afterwards she was dependent on him financially, but it was a tempestuous marriage and sometimes, if he was away working, there was no money to buy the essentials.
I therefore grew up determined to be financially independent. Both my parents encouraged me to dream big – Mummy used to say, ‘Think champagne and you’ll drink champagne’. And from the age of ten, Daddy got me typing up contracts for his agency, earning sixpence a contract. By Friday, I’d have sometimes made ten shillings, so I learnt the value of money at an early age.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
Yes, as a young actress when I was doing a bit of telly here and there. I rarely went on the dole because I felt there was a kind of shame to doing so, but worked as a waitress in the evening, or did temping work so I could pay the electricity bills in my rented flat. I’m still terrified of getting into debt all these years on.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
I was paid £250 an episode when I first joined All Creatures in the late 1970s, but by the time I left the show three series later I was the highest-paid actress at the BBC.
I got £5,000 to appear in a couple of one-off episodes – although it was ‘peanuts’ compared to what an actor in a hit TV drama can earn today. The wonderful thing about All Creatures is that even now I get royalties as the show is still being aired. Three or four times a year I’ll get a cheque for a few thousand pounds. It’s like magic money!
What was the best year of your financial life?
I signed a six-figure book contract in the Nineties but Michel and I needed the money to bail out his film company, which nearly went bust after a partner on a movie project let him down badly.
A series of Amazon Kindle novellas I wrote from 2010-2015, such as Hotel Paradise, also did very well, topping the charts in both the US and Germany. That was seriously good money.
The most expensive thing you bought for fun?
A nearly new, top-of-the-range navy blue Mercedes convertible, costing £45,000 in the late 1980s. I loved driving it along the French Riviera in a silky top and sunglasses –- in the days before I became more environmentally aware. It gave me a decade-plus of fun, though it wasn’t cheap to run.
What is your biggest money mistake?
Our ten-acre olive farm in the south of France has proved cripplingly expensive and a money pit, and frankly it’s getting a little beyond us now. I’m considering whether it’s time to move on, though it would break my heart to do so.
Leaving All Creatures was also a mistake financially. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ my father asked at the time. ‘You’re giving away the best card in your hand!’ But I don’t go in for regrets – it’s a waste of energy.
I’d love to have played Mrs Pumphrey in the All Creatures reboot but they wouldn’t give it to me.
Life in the Med: Carol in her A Year In Provence show
Best money decision you have made?
Buying our olive farm might have been a mistake financially, but it’s also given me a huge amount of pleasure and the land is now worth a few million. Landing my All Creatures role was like winning the lottery, not just for the job but for the doors it opened, such as working in Australia.
Will you pass your money down or spend it all?
If I go first, I’d like to make sure Michel is financially secure. I also want to ensure that my step-daughters and grandchildren are OK moneywise when I’m gone.
Do you own any property?
Yes, a six-bedroom olive farm with a large pool, overlooking the Bay of Cannes, which Michel and I bought for £220,000 in 1985. We also own a 16th century former priest’s house near the Champagne area, which I bought for around £180,000 about ten years ago. My father was a great believer in investing in property, and I am too.
Do you have a pension?
I don’t have ISAs or stocks and shares, just a very basic British state pension.
If you were Chancellor what would you do?
If I’d bumped into Rachel Reeves after the PMQs where she was so tearful, I’d have dabbed her eyes with a hanky and given her a hug. If I was doing the job in France, I’d stop everyone moaning about the age of retirement and trying to get it back to 60.
What is your number one financial priority?
To ensure Michel and I are secure in the years ahead. I’ve no plans to retire – I’d like to keep writing until my words are too doddery for anyone to understand.
- One Summer In Provence (Corvus), by Carol Drinkwater, is out now in paperback, £9.99.
