Character Descriptions
Teddy (Robson Green), Bel (Polly Walker) Leanne (Kelly Harrison), Wesley (James Murray)
Published: 23 July 2018
Isabel Finch (Polly Walker)
Known as Bel, 47 years old. Married to Wes. Set up MirrorBel beauty business in her 20s but hung up her beautician apron for good when she had kids 18 years ago. Mother to Lexie and Tyler (twins). Bel is grounded, reliable with an excellent business head and the sensible one in her crazy family.
Wesley Finch (James Murray)
Forty eight years old. Married to Bel. Ruggedly handsome, always sees the best in people. Wesley has his own joinery business. Father to Lexie and Tyler.
Lexie Finch (Lucy Polgar)
Eighteen years old. Attends Leeds University. Boyish, plain, no-nonsense. Twin sister of Tyler.
Tyler Finch (Louis Threlfall)
Eighteen years old. Attends Leeds University. Ethereal, delicate, beautiful. Twin brother of Lexie.
Leanne Roxton (Kelly Harrison)
Forty years old. Married to Teddy. Leanne is Bel’s youngest sister. She is loud, loves being centre of attention and completely self-obsessed. She’s the bitch we love to love. She doesn’t have a business head on her shoulders so although she has good ideas for the business she has no idea how to execute them. She specializes in nails. Her main aim in life is to be better than Bel.
Teddy Roxton (Robson Green)
Forty eight years old. Teddy is charming, attractive and a successful businessman. He’s a schemer and always has a plan to get what he wants. Married to Leanne, he is tolerant of her insecurities with regards to Bel and supportive of his wife’s ambitions to become an anti-aging guru.
Tina Regan (Lisa Riley)
Forty five years old. Tina is a tattoo artist. Tina has a sensible head on her shoulders - she’s comfortable in her own skin. She pretends to be a lesbian so that her crazy family don’t quiz her on why she’s still single...
Heidi Regan (Vicki Myers)
Thirty five years old. Single. Mother to Disney. Cosmetic surgery addict. Heidi would have loved more than anything to be a WAG and is obsessed with footballers. She obsesses about entering her daughter Disney into beauty pageants. She’s the ultimate pushy mother who drills her daughter endlessly but is desperate for them to be BFFs.
Disney Regan (Isabella Gill)
Eight years old. Spoilt rotten - a sporty beauty pageant queen who wants to be a footballer.
Ivy-Rae Regan (Sue Johnston)
In her sixties. Fierce, lean, northern soul dancer. Married to Chizzler. They have an open relationship. Ivy-Rae has a ferocious sex drive and has various dalliances with different men but always returns home to Chizzler.
Chizzler Regan (Struan Rodger)
In his eighties. Small, wiry, wheelchair user. Runs a boxing gym. Married to Ivy-Rae. Since they have an open relationship he puts a brave face on Ivy-Rae’s numerous conquests. He and Bel share a particularly close relationship.
Lorelei Bailey (Madeleine Mantock)
Twenty eight years old. Personal trainer. Naturally beautiful, vibrant, winning. Wants to settle down and have a family.
Dante Shah (Amir El-Masry)
Twenty two years old. Mixed race, toned, handsome. Gorgeous metrosexual, living champagne lifestyle on orange juice budget. He’s up to his eyeballs in debt.
Pictured: Teddy (Robson Green), Bel (Polly Walker) Leanne (Kelly Harrison), Wesley (James Murray)
A Foreword by Debbie Horsfield
"In 2001 I worked with Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes on a series called Cutting It, which was set in the world of hairdressing. Fifteen years on, Laura, Sally and I were discussing what had changed in the world of makeovers and personal grooming, and we agreed that women - and increasingly, men - had become much more obsessed with looking youthful. The anti-ageing side of the beauty industry had exploded in those intervening years so we thought it would be interesting to explore the impact on three generations of one family by using it as the backdrop to our saga.
Age Before Beauty explores the expectations we have, and the 'rules' we create about what people are 'allowed' to do at any given age. It was inspired by a feature I read about what women were and weren’t 'allowed' to wear, according to their age and shape! [No bikinis after 35. No long hair over 40. No mini-skirts after 25. No leather trousers ever unless you’re 6ft tall and a size 8!] It made me wonder what other rules are there out there, which people feel they have to abide by? Especially in a world of selfies and social media where so many people are keen to pass judgement and so many people feel they have much to live up to.
So Age Before Beauty became less about specific anti-ageing beauty treatments and much more about characters deciding to confound age-related expectations - for better or worse - at whatever age they fancied! I say for better or worse because one of the things we explore is the midlife crisis. We ask the question: Is it automatically better to be young? Does age always envy youth? Is beauty always the thing to aim for? Or does youth and beauty ever have anything to learn from age and maturity?
We’re looking at three generations of one family and exploring how they deal with the demands of youth, age and everything in between. And how they confound expectations. So for instance, the worst-behaved generation is actually the oldest and the most sexualised and overdressed is actually a nine year-old!
Family has always played a large role in my work and I enjoy exploring the dynamics between siblings and different generations. In Age Before Beauty we have three generations, aged from nine to late 60s, and we’ve been fortunate enough to assemble an extraordinary cast. The drama is set in my home town of Manchester. Obviously I’m biased but I feel there are particular qualities about the city (its vibrant multiculturalism and ever-changing faces) and its inhabitants (their resilience, irreverence, inventiveness, humour) - which make for particularly entertaining drama.
It’s been fun to return to the world of contemporary Manchester after being immersed in 18th century Cornwall for the past few years, but in truth I’ve loved both worlds and would happily return to either and both!"
