Free The Two of Us by Sheila Hancock Page B

Christmas-time I was put on the card counter. When I was handed a fistful
     of cards priced tuppence halfpenny, a penny farthing, threepence, three farthings, etc., I crouched behind the counter adding
     up on my fingers while the customers bayed for attention. The avenging supervisor demoted me to the toilet roll counter where
     one day I heard a perfectly projected, ‘Sheila Hancock, what are you doing?’ to which I elocuted back: ‘Earning a crust, Mr Clifford Turner.’
    I waited on tramps and derelicts in the British Restaurant in Oxford Street, including one regular who claimed he was Jesus
     and had holes in his hands and feet to prove it. I waited on the waiters at the Savoy in the staff kitchens, who vented their
     hatred of the clientele on us. The performers and staff of Bertram Mills’ Circus were much more congenial. I was a showgirl
     and usherette and had to prod the lions with a stick as they ran through a tunnel into the ring, to make them roar, otherwise
     they would yawn all through the act after the hearty meal they were given before they went on.
    One night we were told the Prime Minister was coming. The show had started when I noticed a lone man hiding in the shadows
     at my entrance. Mr Attlee refused to go in during an act and disturb everyone, saying he was happy to wait and have a little
     chat with me. Hard to imagine that happening with later prime ministers.
    I grew very fond of the circus folk, admiring their camaraderie and vagabond life, and was tempted to stay, particularly when
     I became friendly with a man who did a motorcycle wall of death act in a contraption up in the roof of Olympia. One night
     his clown trousers caught in the wheel of his bike and I watched in horror as it spluttered to a halt. He floated down and
     died at my feet on the edge of the ring. I left soon after.
    20 June
    Bloody hell. The press office say a journalist is sniffing round about John. Advised to give a statement to get them off our backs. I resent this. It’s like when I was ill. I don’t want him to have to undergo this ordeal under the public spotlight but I drew up a short announcement. The press are usually pretty good if you are straight with them and they know I, and particularly John, have never sought publicity in a way that makes a plea for privacy hypocritical.
    The nomadic circus life would have suited me. Having moved around all my childhood, I have never regarded one particular place
     as home. During my RADA holidays and early career I often took off and travelled. Ahead of the times again, I was a hippy
     before it was fashionable. In the late forties and early fifties, at every opportunity, I put a Union Jack on my knapsack,
     which in those days so soon after the liberation of Europe opened all doors, and hitchhiked, finding work where I could. I
     dug ditches in Holland to convert what had been a concentration camp into a holiday home for children. I washed up and waited
     on tables in Paris. Young wanderers congregated on the steps of the Sacré Coeur and sang songs to a guitar. People willingly
     gave us money and it didn’t feel like begging. I slept rough in haystacks and barns or stayed in primitive hostels. In Paris
     I was delighted to discover a proper lavatory – I never enjoyed the holes in the ground – in the Mona Lisa gallery of the Louvre. As a result of my daily visits, I could write a paper on the beauty of La Gioconda. I stayed in Ibiza
     when there were only a few artists and dreamers there and sat at the feet of Robert Graves in Deya in Mallorca.
    Despite these trips in the holidays, I worked hard at RADA. The biggest advantage of drama school training is the exposure
     to future employers and agents. But you need the right part to display your talents. In my final show I was allocated some
     old lady in a costume drama that has slipped from my memory. In those days there were dozens of prizes apart from the top
     Kendal and Vanbrugh awards. You could get one for