Vicki (Episode 1281)

Vicki (real name, Doris) was one of the acts who performed at Terry Slade’s strip club. Terry asked Ernie Bishop to photograph his girls for some publicity pictures but he refused on moral grounds. Feeling pushed out of the business by Ernie and assistant Rita Littlewood, Emily Bishop took on the assignment behind Ernie’s back. Taking a break from the shots, she chatted to Vicki about her work. Vicki told her that she’d never thought of photography as a woman’s job and surprised Emily by telling her that men did stripping work nowadays as well. Emily questioned the girl as to whether she got embarrassed by her job and received an amused negative. In response to the question as to whether she had always been in showbusiness, Vicki replied that it was nothing of the sort – she simply took her clothes off, three times nightly and once on a Sunday dinnertime. She likened herself to appetiser to a meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and she had started in the business as she had a stage-struck mother who likened her to Shirley Temple but she realised that she didn’t have the looks for standard work. Emily thought her profession was sad and was shocked when Vicki said that her husband didn’t know about it. He thought she was a night nurse and the only way he would find out was if he frequented strip clubs himself, and if he did she would kill him!