NC : Welcome Toyah, we're talking about accents today, which accents do you find particularly attractive? 

Toyah : I find all accents attractive, except for posh, posh makes me feel violent. I suppose Scottish, Glasgow. 

NC : Oh! West Scotland. 

Toyah : Yeah. 

NC : What do you mean by posh? The Queen? 

Toyah : No, I don't actually mean the Royal Family. Sloanes, rude, drunk Sloanes. I remember being onstage in Cabaret and my doctor sent his children along. My doctor was in Sloane Street and his children were disgusting. They came into my dressing room and they said (adopts squeaky posh voice) 'right, where's the party?, where's the champagne?', and the 'f' word was used very quickly and my left foot kicked them right out the dressing room. 

NC : Where's your accent from? 

Toyah : I'm Brummy 

NC : You don't sound it. Take it out for us. 

Toyah : I went to public school, I can't actually remember how to speak in a Birmingham accent. I came out of school talking really plummy and I used to get my face whacked everytime I tried to buy a ticket on the bus. 

NC : So you used to be posh? Is it a rebellion against your youth? 

Toyah : I'm ex posh! 

NC : You worked with Olivier? 

Toyah : He was absolutely superb. I used to sit on the bed with him in the morning and help him learn his lines, he'd actually do nothing but talk about Vivien Leigh, Joan, his wife, and Marilyn Monroe. By the time they came to get us to go and shoot the scenes he didn't know his lines. 

NC : Didn't he have trouble learning his lines? He was elderly by the time you worked with him. 

Toyah : This was 1983, he was about 73. He wasn't very well, I think he was bored of learning lines. I'm doing a one woman show where I have to speak for an hour on my own, and learning lines is like slitting my wrists because you've got nothing to relate to other than yourself. 

NC : What a career you've had. Worked with Katherine Hepburn, 
 Adam Ant, Derek Jarman, and 
Olivier. 

Toyah : You. 

NC : Me 

Toyah : I've done a radio play with you. 

NC : We've acted together haven't we? Yes, darling you were just a joy to work with. Let's have a listen to this. 

Plays a clip of 'It's A Mystery'

Toyah : Please, don't waste time. 

NC : My own private collection 

Toyah : And it's not scratched. 

Plays a clip of 'I Want To Be Free'

Toyah : Oh, you're really wielding them out. 

NC : I didn't want to go to school, I didn't want to be nobody's fool. See, I identified with that. 

Toyah sings along to 'I Want To Be Free'

Plays a clip of 'Thunder In The Mountains'

Toyah : Oh please, could we just stop this? 

NC : Great stuff. Great memories, pop classics. They are aren't they? 
 

NC : And my generation too, late thirty something's. How old are you? 

Toyah : I'm 42. 

NC : I'm 39. I was probably having unseemly fantasies about you when you were on Top of the Pops. I still am now you're sitting over this table. 

Toyah : I have unseemly fantasies about you when I do radio shows with you. 

NC : This book. There's so much to write about, such a diverse career; Derek Jarman's Jubilee, The Tempest, Quadrophenia, Trafford Tanzi. And it all started off very badly in your childhood, you were unhappy weren't you? You didn't want to go to school! 

Toyah : I didn't want to be nobody's fool, and even though I dyed my hair I still had a brain up there. I wanted to be free! 

NC : What was it like? tell me about your childhood. 

Toyah : I'll tell you about my childhood. I just loathed anything to do with convention. I was brought up in Birmingham, I wasn't intellectual,  I wasn't academic so everyone thought I'd get married and have babies.  There's nothing wrong with getting married and having babies, I just didn't want to do it. So I just wasn't very happy in the situation I was born into. 

NC : A true rebel. 

Toyah : Well, yeah. 

NC : You were bullied weren't you? 

Toyah : I was bullied until I smashed a chair over the head of the main bully and then the role reversal happened very quickly. I was psychologically bullied because, as you know, I have a lisp and I also had a very bad limp then because I was born with a spine defect. I used to just have the mickey taken out of me relentlessly, and I used to lie awake at night virtually for years on end worrying about what to do about this. So I was quite psychologically disturbed by it and then one day the last straw on the camel's back happened. I was being ignored as I walked into school and I got into class, picked up a chair and threw it at the main bully. She burst into tears and said how could I do something like that to her, completely unaware of how she'd destroyed most of my childhood. Then onwards I was perceived as the hard nut of the school and I kind of played that role to the full until I left. 

NC : A real turning point then? 

Toyah : It was a huge turning point. I don't recommend everyone does it but it is amazing if you stand up to a bully. They really are the cowards. 

NC : (Changing the subject abruptly) This unconventional marriage you have. There's something in the paper about it today. 

Toyah : I know. They've (The Express) printed this story as if there's a problem and there isn't a problem. The majority of it is true but it's written in the wrong context. I was doing an interview and I said that I had seen my husband for one week this year, and I've demanded that he stays home for July, which is true 'cos I'm missing the guy. It's been  printed as if I'm having a terrible time, I'm not I'm having the time of  my life. How many wives out there would like not to see their husbands for six months? I have a great social life, I have fantastic friends. 

NC : Does it keep the freshness in your relationship, so it's almost like you're dating each other? 

Toyah : It does, when we got married we had a rule that we'd see each other wherever we were once every three weeks. That rule has been broken so I gave an ultimatum. I said 'you are home for July, and hopefully August - he's broken that already 'cos he flies to Seattle on Monday - and we're going to have fun together'. We have, and ironically we were in Paris. 

NC : I hope the editor will be apologising. 

Toyah : It's not a story is it? If it says Toyah's really happy, her husband's away for six months.

Toyah : No, no, course not. 

A listener rings in and asks Toyah if she will be going on tour again.

Toyah : Rumour has it yes, but I can't tell you when. All I'm going to say is keep an eye on the website. 

NC : Are you going to do the old songs? 

Toyah : Well I believe in doing old songs because people have memories. I've got the kind of audience that bring their children along. So children are discovering stuff and the parents are getting a bit of nostalgia. 

NC : You've seen it all, you've done it all, you've careered from career to career but you're still here. You've been up here, you've been down there, you've been back again. You must be pretty reflective and philosophical about it all now! 

Toyah : (Laughing) Is that a question? 

NC : No, it was a speech. Just say yes. 

Toyah : Yeah! 

NC : You must look at it wryly, the whole showbiz thing. Having done so many things. 

Toyah : I hit 40 and thought, nothing can hurt me now. I bounce like a rubber ball. I'll be back. 

NC : All sorts of TV stuff you do at the moment? 

Toyah :Yeah I've got tons of stuff going on. I still do Holiday, and I've got Barmy Aunt Boomerang. 

NC : You've done Songs Of Praise. 

Toyah : Course I've done Songs Of Praise! 

NC : Are you of a religious bent? 

Toyah : No, I'm very spiritual. I'm not religious, I'm a heathen. 

NC : And they let you do Songs Of Praise? 

Toyah : Well quite, it makes it more interesting. You don't want a saint doing Songs Of Praise, do you? 

NC : Thank you very much Toyah, and good luck with your book when it comes out. Which will be called? 

Toyah : Living Out Loud. 

NC : That's a good title.