Politicians love it when they become celebrities. Rarely do celebrities aspire to be politicians. Glenda Jackson was the exception in British public life. Far more acclaimed as an actor than other notable actors turned politicians, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and having won the kind of awards (two Oscars, three Emmy awards, and a Tony) of which they could only dream, she never traded, as they did, on stage and film success for political advantage. Yes, you knew her theatrical skills when you heard her singing her way through the corridors of power after her election in 1992. And yes, she would happily sign DVD copies of her films for Alison McGovern, and other MPs local to her hometown, Birkenhead, who were asked to get autographs for her old school friends back home in Wirral. But her parliamentary and political speeches never contained the many anecdotes about Hollywood and the film star community, which she could have used to her benefit. For Glenda never forgot where she came from, how tough her upbringing had been, and how, for her, the purpose of being in public life was not to be a someone but to do something, in particular to alleviate the hardships of others.
I knew Glenda the MP after she had given up stage and screen for parliament but it was clear to me that there were not two Glenda Jacksons. The Glenda Jackson who brilliantly portrayed Elizabeth I, was a masterful King Lear, and won Academy Awards for Women in Love and A Touch of Class approached her work as an MP with the same seriousness, the same professionalism, and the same values she had applied to her stage and film career, never forgetting she had been brought up in a northern, industrial town and knew what it was like to be hard up and to have to work every hour to keep the wolf from the door. Other MPs may have dressed for show and to be noticed. If anything, Glenda wanted to demonstrate parliament was not showbusiness but like any other ordinary, working environment. She eschewed glamour and was businesslike in everything she did – qualities inherited by her son, Dan [Hodges], who, having worked as her adviser, is now a well-read writer and commentator on British political life.
