If you watched the TV programme, Bread in the 1980s and early 90s, this hen ceramic egg holder may seem familiar.
Whilst it isn’t the exact same hen which graced the Boswell family’s kitchen table, into which the family put their financial contributions in the opening credits of each episode, this special hen was presented to local actress Katy Carmichael after filming the final episode of Bread in November 1991. Katy, who starred as Connie – Billy Boswell’s girlfriend in Season 7 – was given the hen as a memento and thank you by the Liverpool-born writer of Bread, Carla Lane.
Katy, who was born in 1971, was a student at Liverpool College whilst filming Bread and went on to become a successful film and TV actor. Today, she is co-artistic director of Theatre Damfino. Her television work includes Moving On, Spaced, Coronation Street, Waterloo Road, Casualty, Cutting It, Clocking Off, Liverpool One, And The Beat Goes On, One Foot In the Grave, Doctors and Dennis Potter’s Karaoke/Cold Lazarus Her film appearances include an adaptation of Martin Amis’s Dead Babies, In The Bleak Mid Winter, Bookcruncher and Origin.
Katy Carmichael
Although the show is fondly remembered and enjoyed by many, it is also considered by others to have contributed to the city’s negative and stereotypical portrayal at that time.
The hen has recently been very kindly donated to the Museum of Liverpool by the Carmichael family. You can find out more about Bread and Carla Lane in the Liverpool Writer’s exhibition in the Wondrous Place gallery.