Actress Paula Wilcox is best known for her roles in the Seventies sitcom Man About The House, and more recently playing Elaine Jones in Coronation Street and Sandra Ross in the hit Apple TV+ comedy series Trying, writes York Membery.
The 76-year-old has also appeared in a string of hit TV sitcoms and dramas, including the Only Fools And Horses prequel Rock & Chips as well as starring as Shirley Valentine on stage. She appears in the upcoming psychological drama The Fortune on Channel 5, and lives in London with her businessman husband, Nelson.
What did your parents teach you about money?
Not a lot, really. I was one of three children and grew up in a semi-detached house in New Moston, Manchester, and had a comfortable if modest upbringing.
At times there wasn’t a great deal of money to go around but my siblings and I never went without. So, for instance, when I was 12 and asked my parents for a pair of stylish shoes I had fallen in love with, I got them.
We had rationing until I was six, and I remember my mum invariably getting something savoury, if she bought something sweet, with the coupons. Us kids were always happy when she got jelly cubes, but less so when she got Bisto gravy mix.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
Yes, when I married my first husband Derek [who died from a brain haemorrhage, aged 35], we were always looking for coins that had slipped down the back of the sofa because money was so tight. If we found a 50p silver coin, we were over the moon because, if my memory serves me correctly, that could buy a few drinks or a bite to eat.
Star act: Paula Wilcox, who has had a long and varied career as an actress, at an awards ceremony in London
Have you ever been paid silly money?
Yes, I was paid what I then considered silly money – around £70 an episode – for the first TV sitcom I appeared in, The Lovers [1970-71], opposite Richard Beckinsale.
We played a courting couple with very different attitudes towards sex and marriage.
I couldn’t believe anyone could make that sort of money from doing four days’ work a week – it seemed an astronomical amount.
Am I being paid a fortune to appear in The Fortune? Sadly not.
What was the best year of your financial life?
The years 1973 to 1976, when I appeared in Man About The House, were pretty good – and I still receive small residual payments because it’s regularly repeated on several channels.
The years 2020 to 2023, when I was in Corrie on and off, weren’t bad either. Sometimes theatre work is surprisingly financially rewarding. I have been lucky to have a steady income rather than one or two amazing years. The late Yootha Joyce, my Man About The House co-star, once told me that friends sometimes asked her, ‘Why are you doing TV, darling, when you could make so much more in movies?’
And she would reply with a smile: ‘You have no idea how much money I’m making in television.’
Yootha was very money savvy.
The most expensive thing you bought for fun?
A glamorous thigh-length, brown leather jacket that I bought for £250 – a fortune at the time – in a boutique in Chelsea’s King’s Road in 1981. But it was the best item of clothing I’ve ever owned, and I wore it pretty much every day for around 20 years, come rain or shine, so it was great value for money.
Three’s company: Paula with her Man About The House co-stars Richard O’Sullivan and Sally Thomsett
What has been your biggest money mistake?
I bought a nearly new electric vehicle for around £26,000 in 2020 when my dad, who lived to 98, moved into a care home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
I needed wheels to get there and also wanted to do my bit for the planet. It was great at first because I didn’t have to pay road tax or the London congestion charge, and I could charge it locally. But now I have to pay the road tax and the congestion charge, and they’ve just moved the charging points at the end of my street. I’m so fed up that I’m thinking of giving it up.
Best money decision you have made?
Acting has been good to me – becoming an actress was perhaps my best money decision. That said, I’ve never taken a role on stage or screen just for the fee. I’ve hardly ever been out of work since my earliest days.
Getting on to the property ladder in my 20s was also a good move.
Derek and I bought our first property – a tiny house in Middlesex – for a four-figure sum before I was cast in Man About The House. Getting a mortgage was difficult, though, as we were both actors.
Will you pass down your money or spend it all?
I’ll pass some on to family and friends. A financial adviser urged me to spend my savings while I’m alive. The trouble is I’ve no idea how long I’m going to be around for, and I don’t want to run out of cash. It’s a bit of a dilemma.
Do you have a pension?
I’m old enough to receive the state pension, and I joined Equity, the actors’ union’s pension scheme, many years ago. That has provided me with a nest egg.
I am still in demand as an actress so I don’t think about retiring.
Do you own any property?
Yes, a modern flat in central London where I have lived with my husband Nelson for the past 20 years.
I count myself lucky because I can walk into the West End to see a play or dine at a restaurant, and we have a park close by too. I am a city girl – I like the hustle and bustle of the metropolis.
If you were Chancellor what would you do?
I’d hate to be in Rachel Reeves’ shoes because everyone is asking for money, but no one wants to pay more taxes. But the Royal Navy could certainly do with a few more ships, couldn’t it?
What is your number one financial priority?
Not to spend it unless I have it. If I’m earning, I will happily splash the cash – but if I am between jobs then I am able to live quite frugally.
- Paula stars in new drama The Fortune, coming soon to Channel 5.