Kathy Burke talks about cold hard cash!

She’s a national treasure, one of the nation’s most talented actors, writers and directors – and she’s returning to a small screen near you.

Next year Kathy Burke celebrates her 40th anniversary in showbusiness, having made her big screen debut in the 1982 movie Scrubbers alongside Pam St Clement, Miriam Margolyes and Robbie Coltrane.

It was a success, but it wasn’t until she began popping up in such roles as Waynetta Slob and Perry the teenager in Harry Enfield’s sketch shows that she became a household name. Since then she’s won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her role as a battered wife in Gary Oldman’s harrowing movie Nil by Mouth, played the ill-fated Queen Mary alongside Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth and portrayed the unforgettable Linda in sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme.

But in 2001, she stepped out of the limelight to concentrate on directing, something she considers to be a true passion. She has, however, made brief appearances, including in her semi-autobiographical comedy series Walking and Talking, the film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (which reunited her with Oldman) and, in 2019, the three-part Channel 4 documentary All Woman.

The last in that list went down a treat with audiences, so she’s returning to the broadcaster for another factual project, this time looking at the world of money.

“As someone who came from living in poverty in Islington to now owning a house there, I feel I’m a perfect person to look into one of the world’s most divisive subjects,” says the multi-talented star. We are delighted to welcome Kathy Burke back to Channel 4 to give us her unique and unrivalled take on something we Brits can find quite embarrassing to talk about – money,” adds Gilly Greenslade, the station’s Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment.

“Kathy is perfectly placed to infiltrate a range of worlds, and most importantly, she’s willing to ask the questions others wouldn’t get away with.”

Burke reveals she knows what it’s like to have little cash, but is perfectly happy with what she’s now got and doesn’t understand those who worship the stuff or feel they have to spend their lives in pursuit of more of it.

She wants to understand why, as a society, we’re obsessed with wealth and yet are known to demonise those who don’t have it and sneer at others who do, while some simply refuse to discuss what they may or may not have got.

During her deep dive into the world of cold, hard cash, Burke aims to figure out why it makes the world go round, meets those from both sides of the wealth divide and tries to find out if our attitudes have changed following our involvement in the biggest crisis to hit the globe in decades.

“Kathy Burke brings her insightful and unique perspective to the world of money as she puts yet another issue to right,” claims executive producer Colleen Flynn.

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