Anne Robinson presents the quick-fire general knowledge quiz. This edition features 1980s celebrities, including Linda Lusardi, Nick Owen, Toyah Willcox and Su Pollard.

Weakest Link : BBC1 : Saturday 2nd August : 5.40pm

There appeared to be quite a few changes, the most notable being that the number 'Men' has been dropped and 'Windy City' extended to double its original length and is now probably the best part of the show, with excellent choreography, dance sequence and Toyah and cast giving their all.

Calamity Jane is still such a "feel-good" show it's virtually impossible not to leave the theatre with a smile on your face, so do go see while you have the chance. The musical closes on 20th September 2003!

Thanks to Alec, Richard and everyone else for a brilliant night.

Singer and actress Toyah Willcox would like to take all her retirement savings and put them into property, writes John Marx

TOYAH WILLCOX is perhaps best known for her chart success in the late 1970s and early 1980s with singles such as It’s a Mystery. More recently, she appeared in the second series of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. 

The youngest of three children, Toyah decided she wanted to act at the age of seven. Her first big film role came in Derek Jarman’s 1977 punk movie, Jubilee. Later that year she put together her own punk band. Her pop career brought her chart success and the accolade of the Best Female Singer at the 1982 British Rock and Pop Awards. 

She has worked on a variety of TV programmes such as Holiday, Heaven and Earth and Fasten Your Seatbelts. She has spent much of the past year performing in a touring production of Calamity Jane, which is currently in the West End. 

Toyah is 45 and lives mainly in Chiswick. She is married to Robert Fripp, a guitarist who lives in Nashville. The couple chose not to have children, preferring to lead “affectionately independent lives” in order to pursue their separate career interests. 

How much money do you have in your purse? 
About £300. I always have a lot of cash. I think it’s so that I have enough if the opportunity arises to take people out for a meal or drink. But that doesn’t happen very often so when I draw cash from the bank it tends to sit there forever. 

Do you have any credit cards?
I have cards from American Express, Barclaycard and Marks & Spencer. I always pay them off straight away — I don’t borrow money from anyone. I don’t even like having mortgages. I really resent giving banks interest when they are making plenty of money out of my wealth in the first place. 

Are you a spender or a saver?
I think I’m a saver, but when I spend I do it big time. But I’m careful about what I spend it on. I don’t own any expensive cars, for example. I don’t buy anything that devalues. 

How much did you earn last year?
Oh, I’m not telling you that. But my earnings this year are already three times as much as last year because I’m in a West End musical and because of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. 

Have you ever been really hard up? 
Yes, many times. My parents struggled financially throughout my teens. When I was at drama school I was very poor and it was only the generosity of friends that kept me fed. 

Derek Jarman would say: “Toyah, come round, we’re going to give you a meal,” and all I could afford was the 27p bus fare to his home. So I do know what poverty is like and I think it’s the most frightening, powerless position to be in. 

What is the most lucrative work you have done? Did you use the fee for something special?
I remember some years ago making a documentary of the Pirelli Calendar shoot. It was five days’ work for a huge sum — tens of thousands of pounds. I was flown first class to Florida where there were people catering for us, getting our clothes, driving us round in limos and generally making sure we were happy. 

With the money I bought a property to add to my portfolio of investments. 

How many homes do you own? 
Several. My main financial philosophy is to buy property. I don’t rent it out because I will never be a landlord — and I feel really strongly about that. I either let friends live in a property, as long as they maintain it and pay the expenses, or I allow a family to stay there rent-free. 

I use some of my homes for work. I have a place where I paint, for example. I have also bought my parent’s home and I have looked after them financially for the past 15 years. The properties are all quite unusual and very rare, and I have no intention of selling any of them. They are my safety net so I never have to experience hardship again. 

I tend to have mortgages for two years and then I pay them off, which allows me to borrow another sum to buy the next property, and so on. I only have the mortgages for tax purposes; my accountant gets cross with me if I buy for cash all the time. 

Do you invest in shares? 
Yes, I’ve got a few Isas. I look after them myself because my advisers only give me opinions. I judge their performance based on the paperwork I receive. 

Do you have a pension, or other retirement plan? 
I have 20 pensions and they have all lost 40%. But I want to keep working so I shouldn’t need to use them at all. I’m hoping that when I pass away I will be able to leave a huge lump sum to some charity. I don’t need to take a pension financially, everything’s ticking over really well with the property portfolio. 

Do you believe pensions are a good thing?
I’ve been investing in pensions for 20 years and I am so angry about the way their value has diminished. 

My financial advisers say I should keep going because in two years they’ll be back on their feet. But that’s not good enough. I could be investing my annual lump sum in property. We have huge arguments about it. 

I think the whole problem with pensions and Isas is that financial advisers do better out of them than we do. 

What has been your worst investment? 
I bought an extraordinary studio apartment in Chelsea in 1986 for £156,000, which was quite expensive for the time. I needed to sell it in 1990 and it went for £142,000. 

That’s the only time that I have ever had negative equity on a property. 

And your best?
A penthouse in Wapping, which I bought for £199,000 in 1984 and sold for £300,000 in 1986. 

Do you manage your own financial affairs?
It took a long time for me to realise that one of my former accountants was not working in my interests — my money had been pilfered. The accountant went to jail over it; I had lost a total of £100,000. 

Now I’m my own financial manager and I have been for the past 10 years. I do absolutely everything — I balance my bank accounts, make all my own decisions and even prepare my own Vat. 

I have a wonderful bookkeeper whose quarterly bill is the least out of all my professional advisers, but I trust her implicitly. 

What aspect of our taxation system would you change? 
I get no tax relief for helping my parents. I bought their home and pay for its upkeep. I also take care of their council tax, water rates and medical costs. The more I help my parents, the more they suffer because their benefits are reduced, even though they have only a very small amount of savings. If I hadn’t kept them over the past 15 years they would have been able to claim more benefits. It makes me livid. 

What is your financial priority?
Always to have cash available. Even with people like me, cash availability can be quite scary because most of my money is in fixed assets. I make sure I have a bank account with a large amount in it at all times. 

Do you have a money weakness? 
I don’t fully understand how pensions work and I get very frustrated by it. I don’t know why my financial adviser says “don’t worry” when my pensions, which are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, have diminished in value. 

I want to draw the lot out and buy property, but I can’t win the argument because I don’t fully understand how these people think. That’s my biggest weakness. 

What is the most extravagant thing you have ever bought?
I like to commission jewellery and art. I even hired a watercolour artist at Reddich House, a home I had for 12 years. He was a resident artist there for 12 months to paint the seasons. I think that’s extravagant, but it was also an investment. 

Do you play the lottery? What if you won? 
I only play when my instincts tell me, but I have often thought about what I would do if I won. 

Near my home in the Midlands, there are a lot of people on lower incomes. I would go to every landlord in the community and give them money so they could let their tenants have the month of December free of rent. 

I’ve heard conversations in shops where people are debating which packet of biscuits to buy to get them through the week. It breaks my heart. 

The other thing I would do is invest in a project to improve the recycling facilities in the local community. 

What is the most important lesson you have learnt about money? 
I treat it as though it’s terminally ill. I just don’t think money is safe unless you realise it is like water.

Thanks to John Shepherd.

My lawyer sends me a fax every week saying: “Drive slower.” He knows I’ve had quite a few car crashes in my life. 

One of the worst ones was bizarre. I was doing a concert in Norwich and I came off stage at 11pm. I had to be in Birmingham for 7 o’clock the next morning so I set off about midnight for a four-hour drive in my VW Golf. 

I had just bought Kate Bush’s latest CD, The Red Shoes, and I was listening to a song on it called Moments of Pleasure — a very special song about Kate’s mother who had died before she made the album. It’s the most beautiful song in the world. 

Some of the roads I was driving while listening to this album were really bendy, but some of them were quite straight Roman roads. As Moments of Pleasure came on, and I was really howling at this song with the tears streaming down my cheeks, I thought I was on a straight road but suddenly this sharp bend came out of nowhere. 

I was doing about 75mph and I missed the bend entirely, shot over a ditch (which slowed me down a bit) and ended up in someone’s front garden. 

I must have slammed on the brakes when I realised I was leaving the road, but I pranged a tree or two before coming to a sudden stop. Then I just sat there for a minute listening to the song finish. 

The local people got up when they heard a crash and came to see if I was all right. The car didn’t come off too badly considering the speed — there was just a big dent down the passenger’s side and dirty great tyre marks in their front garden. I reversed out of the garden, somewhat embarrassed, and was able to drive it home with my tail between my legs. 

Thanks to John Shepherd.

Calamity Jane has a heroine who is in effect a butch (though feminine) cowgirl who is a brilliant sharpshooter but finds that 'You Can't Get a Man with A Gun'. Little Jo is about a young single mother who heads West from Boston in 1870, gets raped, and finds a gun is a girl's best friend when it comes to fighting off unwelcome advances. She then disguises herself as a man for the next fifteen years, living as 'Jo' rather than Josephine in a rough mining community, the members of whom turn on her as a scapegoat when work at the mines eventually run out.

Read the full article by clicking the picture.

LastMinute also have a special Calamity Jane ticket offer (£20 per ticket : Mon - Thurs evenings). They list the musical as a "staff choice" and say: "Corny and kitsch, this Wild West musical is full of thigh-slapping numbers and tongue-in-cheek fun. It doesn't pretend to take itself too seriously, but it's a cheeky yarn that packs a punch. Toyah's swapped the Aussie jungle and winging poms for stage coaches and whisky swigging, and to her credit, she does it very well."

Thanks to Michael Cooney.

Alupro has launched its trees-for-cans recycling campaign, in which a new tree will be planted for every tonne of aluminium recycled between July 2003 and the end of June 2004. 

Launching the scheme in Greenwich this week, TV personality Toyah Willcox said: "Aluminium is the perfect material to focus public attention on what can be achieved through getting the recycling habit, with its high value, and a 95% energy saving each and every time it is returned for recycling, the message has to be – don’t forget it. 

"Planting 35,000 trees across the UK will be a great legacy for all new recyclers we hope to persuade to get involved." 

Read the full article by clicking on the picture.

First there was a cameo TV appearance after his wife, Toyah Willcox, grinned and bore I’m a Celebrity . . . Then it was revealed that King Crimson’s debut album was a key musical influence on the undergraduate Tony Blair. 

Fripp cites economics for not bringing his band here, though a longstanding distrust of the UK pop press may have something to do with it. This is a shame because his riotously loud, quietly cerebral team are on dynamic form."

• Weirdest Toyah namecheck of the year so far... A golf programme on BBC 2 at the weekend, some golf player has red bits in his hair and the commentator says he is "the Toyah Willcox of professional golf"!! - Thanks to Alastair.

• Toyah on TV: Celebrity Ready Steady Cook : UK Food : Sunday 20th July : 1.00pm - TV stars take up the challenge to cook a meal in 20 minutes. In this edition, singer-songwriter Midge Ure and broadcaster Toyah Willcox team up with chefs Antony Worrall Thompson and Lesley Waters. Presented by Ainsley Harriott.

This picture here deserves a mention, as an interesting little piece of information about it has surfaced.

Toyah and Robert are posing with a triptych painting. This painting was actually commissioned by Toyah specially for Robert, and features his late mother as the main subject.

The painting is a biographical piece and also features images of Robert and his sister, Patricia, when they were children.

What a wonderful gift to give someone!

This is taken from the 'Sunday Times' (6th July 2003): "A hyperactive Toyah Willcox plays Jane, spending most of her time climbing on things in order to gain height. Kellie Ryan is ample as the singing maid, Michael Cormick is a truly virile Wild Bill Hickok, but even he gets to dress up as a squaw."

Thanks to John Shepherd for this.

Click on the picture to read reviews from the 'Hollywood Reporter', 'Curtain Up' and 'IC Surrey/IC Croydon', at Dreamscape's West End reviews page in the Calamity Jane section!

A West End show, an album, 'Velvet Lined Shell', selling extremely well and receiving great reviews (see the 'Q' review below), comparisons to the likes of Alison Goldfrapp, being cited as an influence/inspiration by bands such as Evanescence. How much better could things be for Toyah at the moment?

We also have the 25th Anniversary Gig to look forward to in October and Toyah's appearance on Stars In Their Eyes in August (whiich should be interesting). It's all extremely welcome and I don't want to sound like someone who is never happy (who, me?) but hopefully all this will lead to even more new music, more reissues of classic albums, more gigs and more theatre and television for Toyah.

Once again, apologies for the disappearance of the Forum. A silly slip of the finger and the entire database was gone!! Not sure if it will be back but, for now, I've reactivated the Guestbook for anyone who feels like being nice and posting a message. Click the picture to take a look!

My first boss - Toyah, actor and singer 
I was at stage school in Birmingham Rep when I was called down to London for an audition in the National Theatre. Maximilian Schell, the film actor, was casting Tales from the Vienna Woods. He was looking at me for a small, but significant, role. 
I was 18 with bright pink hair so when I walked in he was horrified and turned to Gillian Diamond, the casting director, and said: "What have you brung me?" However Gillian assured him I was worth seeing and I was chosen for the role. 

Max was more famous in the 70s than he is today, although he was recently in Deep Impact, if you saw it. He was a suave, charismatic, sexually attractive man. I ended up getting on with him really well - he was a fabulous director and friend. 

During that play I lived with the leading lady, Kate Nelligan. She took me under her wing and let me use the flat in the basement of her house. One night Kate went out for dinner with Max and accidentally locked me out. I didn't know London at all well so I just sat on the doorstep waiting. Three hours later Max turned up in his MG sports car and invited me back to his flat in Sloane Square where his housekeeper cooked me a lovely meal. He was kind like that. 

He spoke with an incredibly deep German accent. In his old-fashioned way he was completely baffled by this pink punk rocker. "Why do you make yourself look so ugly?" he used to ask me. And yet he was a great boss: considerate and wonderfully kind. 

He never threw a showbiz fit even when the revolving stage kept jamming. He would walk on and ask the audience to go and have a drink. There were many occasions when he could have lynched me. I turned up at rehearsal once smashed out of my head from having drunk a bottle of whisky the night before. But he had an extraordinary dignity and was respected by the crew as well as any audience. 

In my industry who you know is very important. You should never undermine friendship and loyalty. Remember all those you work with. You never know when you will meet again. 

Toyah's new album, Velvet Lined Shell, is out now
Interview by Mark Anstead
Saturday 28th June, 2003

'The Stage' and 'Theatre Guide London' both give very favourable reviews of the musical, and Toyah is featured at the 'London Theatre Guide' website, in their Big Interview.

Plus another picture of, a very happy looking, Toyah arriving at last Thursday's Calamity Jane After-Show Party, at the Denim Bar in London.

The Stage: "Not exactly a feminist text, then, but entertaining all the same and boasting an almost staggeringly energetic performance from Toyah Willcox, whose non-stop activity in a variety of fields has hitherto prevented her from demonstrating very considerable stage talents."

Theatre Guide London: "The big attraction and dynamic engine of the show is star Toyah Willcox. The pop singer, actress and occasional Teletubbies voice is onstage almost continuously, drawing on reserves of perkiness that could light up a medium-sized city. She sings while driving a stagecoach, she sings while lying on the floor, she sings while cracking a whip, she sings while hanging from the rafters, and if she ever actually stops smiling, I missed the moment. While so much sparkling could become annoying in a less personable and good-natured a performer, you can't help but give in and just enjoy the show with her."

London Theatre Guide: Toyah says of Calamity Jane: "We have added a bit more bollocks to it!"

Read both these great reviews and the interview at Dreamscape's Calamity Jane section, by clicking the picture.

Q Review
TOYAH: VELVET LINED SHELL
***
Mrs Robert Fripp returns. What's she on? It's a mystery.
Last seen meditating in an over-populated Australian rainforest and about to star on the London stage as Calamity Jane, Toyah Willcox is attacking on all fronts. Her first new recording in eight years, this six-track mini-album finds the lisping one in unexpectedly robust form. With collaborator Tim Elsenburg providing an array of vigorous arrangements, she comes on like Alison Goldfrapp's feisty big sister on the Bond theme-like title track and Patti Smith wrestling with a Lloyd Webber show tune on the unsettlingly camp Mother. Only the closing Troublesome Thing reprises the witchy shriekery of yesteryear, the result is curiously stylish. David Sheppard

She guested primarily to review the morning's newspapers but was there for the entire 60 minutes and also commented on the varied topics of; foxhunting, brawn vs scrawn, and long distance love.

The paper review covered a number of stories, including; Wimbledon: Toyah on Tim Henman: "It's great that he did win but I just want Ready Steady Cook back on BBC2. I can't get into this atall!", and on the horrible story that dead babies are being used in IVF treatment; Toyah said: "What about the rights of these children, their mothers? In our culture we are slowly losing the dignity of death. This robs even the unborn of dignity and uuurgh, I feel passionate about it."

After the papers was a short debate on fox hunting. Toyah had this to say: "I don't like fox hunting, but you're talking about the employment of an awful lot of people. The people who look after the hounds, they still deserve jobs." Hmmmmm!

Thankfully the show then moved onto a lighter topic, Brawn vs Scrawn! Toyah said: "I always associate muscles with insecurity. Having said that I've got my own. I always associate muscle builders with loners, in their bedrooms, who are very friendly with their right hand! I'm actually quite prejudiced about muscles, but my leading man in the West End is muscley, and he's one of the most fantastic human beings I've ever met, and he's turning my opinion."

Toyah went on to enquire whether the myth about a muscular guy's manhood was true, and did look quite pleased when a bodybuilder in the audience took off his shirt: "That's nice, that's really, really nice. That's yummy! 20 out of 20!," she said.

Finally there was a piece on long distance love, with Toyah talking about her marriage, a topic covered many times by her in previous interviews. She said: "I go home to an empty house, which I don't like. I'm almost phobic about the thought of spending 24 hours, seven days, with someone.

"I miss the physicality. Now we're 17 years in he's part of me. We're one soul now.

"If I married someone else, we would not be married now. I'm not the easiest person to live with!

"I never wanted to be on the arm of a millionaire. I want my own millions. I want my own career. I'm just too proud to live in a man's shadow, so perhaps we're perfect for each other."

No info on when this will be broadcast yet, but it should make interesting viewing when it does eventually hit our TV screens- The "Queen of Mean" vs. the "Queen of Punk"! 

Many thanks to Alec Kelly.

Toyah, of course, acted with Katharine in The Corn Is Green in 1979, and has often spoken fondly about her in various interviews and also in her autobiography, 'Living Out Loud', in 2000. 

Speaking on BBC Radio Four in 2000, Toyah said: "I had a brilliant agent who managed to persuade the casting agent that I had to be seen for this film, and Katharine said she fell in love with me as soon as I walked into the room, she loved my eyes, she said they were full of fire. 

"She explained to me while we were filming that she was ridiculed so badly for being different at the beginning of her career. People said she looked and sounded like a man, she was masculine, she had no grace. And yet, ironically, that is what we remember and love her for. She had a terrible time with the critics. 

"Someone asked me, 'What's the best thing Katharine could be remembered for?', I'd say because she proved her critics wrong. Stunning woman. A true feminist in every way." 

"You have to admire Toyah Willcox's phenomenal energy. All through Calamity Jane, she leaps, spins, runs, falls, swoops, flails, jumps on to tables and hangs off rafters with barely a moment to catch her breath."

Thanks to Michael Cooney for this.

• Last Thursday was the "work's night-out" for Toyah and the Calamity Jane cast. The after-show party was held at the Denim Bar in London.

Toyah was pictured arriving with Michael Cormick, also known, on the Shaftesbury Theatre stage, as Wild Bill Hickok.