An interview with BBC Wales in 2019 led to a Cwmbran woman becoming a TV extra with a dream of being given a speaking part one day.
Cheryl Bristow’s late father took 1000s of photos of Cwmbran while it was growing as a new town. Many of his photos were published in a book to mark the town’s 70th anniversary and this is how Cheryl found herself in front of a TV camera for the first time.
The journalist met her in the CoStar office in Greenmeadow.
She said: “It was like a light switched on when he was interviewing me. I loved being interviewed. It was just what I wanted to do.”
The next day she went to work and told colleagues she wanted to be in Casualty, the BBC1 drama set in a hospital.
“I said ‘I don’t think I’ll get in there, will I? No chance’.”
Creative Casting
But after registering with an agency, Creative Casting, she was invited to the set in Cardiff Bay for her first appearance.
The 64-year-old said: “The next thing I knew was I had a text saying ‘you’re booked to go down and play a patient in a bed.’ I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“So I went into work and said ‘I’m going down Casualty tomorrow’ and they were going ‘get lost’ and I said ‘honestly.’
“I walked on the set and it was like ‘wow’. This is what I want to do forever now.
“It’s a long day mind. It’s 12 hours on the set. I was just a patient on a bed but I loved it.”
She met Derek Thompson, who played Charlie for 38 years, on set and had a photo with him three days before he retired.
Extras on Casualty have a ten-week break between appearances so she looked around for more parts.
She said: “The agency put you forward, but then you’ve got to be chosen from production so it’s not easy. And it’s not all glamour.
“I went on Pobl y Cwm, that’s next door [to the Casualty set]. I was a shopper. Then I thought I’ll try something else. I wanted to do live theatre.”
She auditioned at the Dolman Theatre in Newport and played Lilly Smalls in Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood.
Her real love is TV soaps
Her real love is TV soaps and her ambition is to be given a line to say in an episode.
“But what I want in Casualty is one line. I’m not giving up on that and I want to be in Corrie and I want to be in Emmerdale and Eastenders as an extra.
“I’m hoping I will get one line. If I do the whole world will know about it.”
She said the agencies in Manchester have “closed their books” to new extras but she won’t give up on her dream.
Other roles have included a part in a film in Newport and a police drama called The One That Got Away with Richard Harrington.
Cheryl said: “He’s a fab Welsh actor and was playing a police detective. I was a patient in a bed on that again.
“I’ve been doing extras for so long now, I want to further it a bit more. I only want one line and I’ll be happy. I’m determined.”