Julie Stevens

Frankymole · Post by **Frankymole** » Wed Aug 06, 2014 1:36 am

Although I think the Venus Smith character was a huge misfire for the show, being totally against the grain of interesting and dynamic (nay, groundbreaking) female regular characters - even the surgery receptionists of Drs Keel and King were more enterprising - I do in fact love Julie Stevens and her enthusiasm for the show and her part in it.

I'm tempted to watch her episodes (and hers alone) in sequence and in production order to see how they progressed, or regressed. IIRC, she started as a mature woman and ended as a Beatles groupie. Though I will be putting ear plugs in for the songs.

Post by **dissolute** » Wed Aug 06, 2014 2:22 am

I'd recommend that Franky but I like Venus. You will too by the time you reach "Man in the Mirror".

To my mind, she progressed from being a dull Fifties cabaret performer to a groovy beat chick. Why they ever put her in that terrible wig for the early episodes is beyond me.

mousemeat · Post by **mousemeat** » Wed Aug 06, 2014 6:08 pm

dissolute wrote:I'd recommend that Franky but I like Venus. You will too by the time you reach "Man in the Mirror".
To my mind, she progressed from being a dull Fifties cabaret performer to a groovy beat chick. Why they ever put her in that terrible wig for the early episodes is beyond me.

amen...always felt that Venus, wasn't the mishap, that many felt she was...and the hair?

chalk it up to budget concerns

Rhonda · Post by **Rhonda** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 5:01 pm

A Happy Birthday (20th Dec) to Julie Stevens. Venus Smith is very entertaining!

MRotten · Post by **MRotten** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 10:17 pm

I always fast forward past the musical numbers. They just seem like padding. But I love all of her episodes, especially A Chorus of Frogs and School for traitors.

MikeR · Post by **MikeR** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 11:20 am

Rhonda wrote:A Happy Birthday (20th Dec) to Julie Stevens. Venus Smith is very entertaining!

Having spoken to her on the 'phone and exchanged various emails with her, Julie Stevens is very entertaining!

Frankymole · Post by **Frankymole** » Fri Feb 15, 2019 3:59 am

Oh she was fantastic on Play School, and all her interviews. Great charisma. The writers just didn't seem to be excited by her character. They really cottoned on to Cathy Gale, which is probably why Venus suffered.

mrspeel01 · Post by **mrspeel01** » Fri Feb 15, 2019 8:59 pm

I actually can't blame the writers to be honest. Cathy Gale was something completely new, which eveyone could see. Venus, however was not. A nightclub singer was more the '50s than the new exciting '60s era. Perhaps this is why new producer John Bryce decided to change her into a younger character with the short Vidal Sisoon haircut. Not that this was any better, in my opinion.

The fact the plot always had to stop for one of her "musical" numbers did not help at all. Nor the fact that she wasn't a good singer. If she had been a real jazz singer a la Cleo Laine, for example, it might have worked. No disrespect to Julie Stevens, who was warm and likeable and deserved her later success. But Cathy, was, of course, the future and we will/should always be grateful for her.

Post by **Allard** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:48 pm

Don't forget that a charterer like Cathy Gale played by a somewhat older actress was a big gamble for the makers of the show.

Venus Smith was the safe normal route. I can imagine it was comforting to have something to fall back on if the Cathy Gale thing didn't work out.

mrspeel01 · Post by **mrspeel01** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 2:24 am

I don't think Honor Blackman was seen in TV land as an "older actress" at that time,in her 30s, as leading actors/actresses in TV were generally around that age or older upto this point -1962. The "youth audience" of TV was not yet as strongly considered as it would soon become in the '60s. Then the age of leading characters became younger.

However, Cathy Gale, as a character, was new and exciting and was certainly a gamble. But that was the rationale behind the series from the start-to create something new and fresh from a somewhat tried and tested formula. But yes, i can understand that Venus may have initailly been seen as a "safety net", and when Cathy was so quickly accepted by audiences, she was no longer deemed necessary.