MovieChat Forums > Survivors (1975) Discussion > Lucy Fleming - poor actress

Lucy Fleming - poor actress

posted 16 years ago by steverr63
20 replies | jump to latest

Much as I enjoy dipping into the DVD sets of Survivors, I think that Lucy Fleming (Jenny) is a terrible actress and is definitely the show's Achilles' heel in terms of the cast.

She delivers her lines with zero emotion or conviction - sounding most of the time like she's simply reading them off a cue sheet. Her "frightfully, frightfully" posh accent doesn't help matters either.

Carolyn Seymour also had a "frightfully, frightfully" posh accent - but she was a far better actress, and I can't help but wish that she'd stayed aboard after Series 1 and Fleming had jumped ship instead.

[–] anonreviewer 15 years ago

I agree, Abby and Greg and Charles were the best played characters.

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[–] Temac 15 years ago

I think that's slightly unfair, she's not a bad actress, just given some pretty poor lines to say, and some dodgy direction!

As Ian McCulloch said in a DVD interview, after Terry Nation stopped writing, the scripts got worse and worse. I've just finished watching the whole series and I wholeheartedly agree. The first series was excellent, the second (after Terry left) went quickly downhill, the third was just appalling! A terrible shame.

Also, Carolyn Seymour did not jump ship, she was dropped for being a 'troublemaker'. Women weren't allowed to have a point of view in the 1970's! Perhaps she'll be given a part in the remake :)

[–] pedromonkey 14 years ago

i've just finished the entire 3 series run and some of the acting is poor, ecpecially from Jenny, but this is just due to shockingly bad dialogue, i think the best actors were David Lill as Charles Vaughn and Ian McCulloch, even though the relationship between Greg and Jenny was a slightly big mistake. He was still better than most and the fact that he was cut for most of series three. why. I will say that i found series three to be the best of the series because it was more post apocalyptic, the best episode was mad dog for me.

[–] P_Cornelius 14 years ago

Bug-eyed Jenny was not that much of a problem. The child actors, IMO, were the weak spot. It's like they were taken right off the street.

[–] guyver_14606 14 years ago

I've just finished the first disc of the 3rd series and the way the wrote Jenny is TERRIBLE, she is selfish, hypocritical, frustrating, annoying, her motives are poorly written and unfortunately Lucy Fleming isn't a strong enough actress to pull this character out of the crap pile.

I am very glad the Jenny character in the new Survivors is a much more interesting character.

Series 3: the bottom falls out of Survivors

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[–] Devil-amon 14 years ago

I really do think it's rather funny and ironic that Jenny is the only one to last all 3 series. Ian McCulloch left after series 2, but only came back as he could write and direct 2 or 3 episodes. He just more and more fed up with the poor writing. Carolyn Seymour was fired for 'troublemaker' and the fact that she was a 'piss head' at the time too.

I'd say the children were the weakest, the lad was the son of someone in the production team, unsuprising he never acted again (infact I think he got pretty high up in the navy).

The end of series 2 and most of 3 was pretty weak. Though series 3 looks the best for the setting of the program.

[–] paengmanila 13 years ago

Very good actress, esp. in the first episode of the third series.

And the program appears to be more complex in each series, esp. in the second and third, as we move from survival to issues concerning religion and the youth.

[–] Eradan 14 years ago

"the relationship between Greg and Jenny was a slightly big mistake"

I just finished Series 2 tonight and my biggest issue with it was I simply didn't believe the relationship between Greg & Jenny. As written, Jenny is a neurotic, needy pain-in-the-ass. There's no reason why a man like Gregg Preston would fixate on her. He's ignored much more stable and attractive women in favor of her. It's inexplicable and it should have been explained. Of course I can imagine scenarios that would explain it; for instance, maybe Jenny has a resemblance to his mother or the first woman he slept with. I feel I shouldn't have to though; that's the writer's job.

Frankly, I don't think the writer's team grasped how ditzy the Jenny character was coming off, and not understanding that, they also didn't realize that the Jenny-Greg relationship was not credible. Guys may put up with an annoying woman if she's really attractive, and they may stay with a plain one if she has a great personality, but NO GUY is going to stay with a woman who has neither quality, especially when he has other options available.

[–] pedromonkey 14 years ago

the relationship between Greg and the Dutch girl was more credible, and when he left, jenny became and even bigger pain in the ass and didn't give a *beep* about her only child when she decided to go off and search for him. Bad parenting if you ask me, thank god Charles was on hand to hold the final series up.

[–] Eradan 14 years ago

"the relationship between Greg and the Dutch girl was more credible"

Actually she was Norwegian but yeah, I agree totally. Agnes Carlsson was a brilliant, visionary woman who would have been a soulmate to Gregg in a way dull, little Jenny never could. As portrayed by Anna Pitt, Agnes was also a beautiful woman, which I somehow doubt Gregg failed to notice...

For her part, Agnes clearly identified Gregg with her father and transferred a lot of her devotion for her father to him. Which makes sense because from what we're told of the late Carlsson Sr, it sounds like he and Gregg had a lot in common.

"jenny became and even bigger pain in the ass and didn't give a *beep* about her only child when she decided to go off and search for him. Bad parenting if you ask me"

I noticed that too. One of the few things that ennobles the lives of totally ordinary people like her is their devotion to their children yet she abandoned hers. I think the writers thought they were creating a romantic heroine but it just didn't come off that way. In the last season, Jenny seemed like an obsessed stalker. Gregg Preston was so far out of her league under normal conditions, that getting him, then losing him, unhinged her.

[–] Dcamplisson 9 years ago

If an individual is fired it is about that indvudual not proof of some type or conspiracy against women. If you have evidence if a general moven3nt in the UK to diss women in 1975 please list evidence of how that caused her firing

[–] tubetha 14 years ago

Wow I feel like some of us are watching 2 different shows completely. Yes the writing was crap sometimes but I think everyone including the kids did a fair job with it. As a Yank maybe I just don't always get the class stuff, I did not know Jenny was posh. However I really like how Jenny's character developed, but then I prefer flawed, complicated, realistic characters. I think Jenny was one and acted quite well by the very pretty Lucy Fleming.

[–] pedromonkey 14 years ago

The problem with Jenny is that the only development of the character was, that she got more annoying as the show went along. She became selfish and im surprised Charles didn't just put a bullet in her head.

[–] joedogboy68 13 years ago

While the character was not well written - especially after the pregnancy, I had no problem with the quality of her acting.
When the character was supposed to be selfish and whiny, she did a good job of portraying her as selfish and whiny.

[–] hugh1971 12 years ago

Jenny's not 'posh' in the sense that Abi is. In fact Jenny is very much prim middle class. I don't know if we were told her occupation before the death, but I would guess it would be something prim and mumsy like a teacher in a state primary school or a library assistant.

I disagree also that she's not physically attractive - I think she has a nice face and figure and her voice tone/pitch is nice too. The trouble is she's just a very dull, tiresome, whiny woman whose only apparent virtue is domesticity, but then she blows that by leaving her kid alone all the time!

In short, I don't blame Gregg for going off with the Norwegian bird...

[–] Neuronhead 11 years ago

She could ride a horse though.

I watched this recently so I calibrated my expectations to the time it was produced. Having done that I overlooked many, many things that wouldn't be acceptable in today's TV scape. One of them was almost everyone's acting and often inconsistent characters.

Having made the adjustment I enjoyed the whole series and found that I liked many of the concepts better than a lot of the current apocalyptic tv and movies. I particularly liked the larger scale view of the mission to form a federation.

I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Dcamplisson 9 years ago

It doesnt matter because she is cute

[–] Dcamplisson 9 years ago

It doesnt matter because she is cute