Early and personal life

Polly Perkins was born Gillian Arnold to theatrical parents Dickie and Mitzi, who both had a successful career performing a cabaret/vaudeville act. Her step mother Dottie Arnold was also a successful variety performer. Perkins has two children, singer songwriter Tim Arnold

Tim Arnold (musician)

Tim Arnold is an English singer-songwriter, composer, producer and musician from Soho, London. He is currently a solo artist, but first achieved success as the singer and songwriter of Britpop band Jocasta in the mid-1990s. He runs the record label TA Music and has released thirteen albums, one...

 and film producer/director Toby Tobias. In 1985, Perkins moved to Spain.

Career

Perkins started her career performing at the Windmill Theatre

Windmill Theatre

The Windmill Theatre, later The Windmill International, was a variety and revue theatre in Great Windmill Street, London. The theatre was famous for its nude tableaux vivants...

 in Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

, when still in her teens, she first appeared nude aged 15.

During the 60's, Perkins was a teen pop star, a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 thespian and the first compere of the cult TV show Ready Steady Go!

Ready Steady Go!

Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV programmes. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the producer. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966...

. She starred in stage musicals as diverse as Salad Days and Let My People Come

Let My People Come

Let My People Come is the title of a pornographic musical which ran from January 8, 1974 to July 5, 1976 in New York City, at The Village Gate in Greenwich Village. Its run was continued in Los Angeles, in Philadelphia, at the Grendel's Lair Cabaret Theatre, and, in the 1980s, at the Basin Street...

, and appeared in episodes of Minder

Minder (TV series)

Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...

, The Sweeney

The Sweeney

The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...

, Rules of Justice and Nanny. Perkins was the leading lady in many West End cabaret clubs including The Gaslight, The Directors Lodge, The Gargoyle, The Piano Bar and Madam Jo-Jo's. She became a much-loved figure in Soho clubs for her smoky rendition of Edith Piaf

Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...

's Je Ne Regrette Rien.

Perkins was cast as Trish Valentine, a washed-up nightclub singer, in the BBC soap opera Eldorado in the mid-90s. In 2011, she returned to the stage in the debut performance of songs from her son's new musical Secrets of Soho

Secrets of Soho

Secrets of Soho is a solo album by British singer songwriter Tim Arnold that was released in 2006. Arnold went on to write an original story derived from the themes and characters on the album, resulting in the new stage musical Secrets of Soho...

at The Phoenix Artist Club.

In May 2011, it was announced by that Perkins would be joining the cast of BBC soap opera EastEnders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

as Rose, the estranged sister of Dot Branning

Dot Branning

Dorothy "Dot" Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by June Brown since 1985. In a special episode entitled EastEnders: Dot's Story a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in flashbacks. Dot first appeared in EastEnders in July 1985 as the mother of...

. Speaking of her casting, Perkins said "I am thrilled to be joining the cast of EastEnders, the show is a real British institution with an extraordinary creative team. I'm really looking forward to working with June again, who I have been friends with for over 30 years."

Television

• BBC Sunday Night Play-She's A Free Country
• The Colony
• Menace
• The Sweeney
  The Sweeney
  The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
  
  
• Flickers
• Rules of Justice
• Nanny
  Nanny
  A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
  
  
• Play For Today-Wayne And Albert
• Eldorado
  Eldorado (TV series)
  Eldorado was a British soap opera that ran for only one year, from 6 July 1992 to 9 July 1993. Set in Coín on the Costa Del Sol and based around the lives of British and European expats, the BBC hoped it would be as successful as EastEnders and replicate some of the sunshine and glamour of imported...
  
  
• EastEnders
  EastEnders
  EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
  
  

Stage

• Salad Days
• Let My People Come
  Let My People Come
  Let My People Come is the title of a pornographic musical which ran from January 8, 1974 to July 5, 1976 in New York City, at The Village Gate in Greenwich Village. Its run was continued in Los Angeles, in Philadelphia, at the Grendel's Lair Cabaret Theatre, and, in the 1980s, at the Basin Street...
  
  
• Blood Brothers (Salon Varietes Production)

Albums

• Pop Lore According To The Academy (1969)
• Liberated Woman (1973)
• Polly (1977)

Singles

• I Reckon You (1963)
• Sweet As Honey (1963)
• Young Lover (1964)
• I Went By Your House Today (1964)
• Munching The Candy (1969)
• Coochie Coo (1973)

External links