When Vin Burnham
tells you she was "born in a skip" you could be forgiven
for thinking she is talking a load of rubbish.
But those
who tread the boards will know the phrase means she was born
into a theatrical family - surrounded by boxes of costumes and
props.
So it is no surprise the daughter
of two actors has become a costume designer.
It all started when the teenage
rebel, who was expelled from school at 14 for drinking home-made
wine at lunchtime, turned to art school because she didn't have
the qualifications to do anything else.
At 18 she went to join her sister
at the theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and worked in the props department
before moving with her to the Nottingham Play House.
Vin said "My
sister phoned me and asked if I wanted a job in wardrobe. I said
that I couldn't
sew and she said it didn't matter."
"In
those days you could do whatever you liked. So I went to Nottingham
and she taught me
enough to get by."
Using her experience of working
in the props department, she started to specialise in making animal
costumes and became a freelance - working in opera and ballet.
She then moved into film and television
and - her credits include producing more than 100 costumes for Batman
Returns, costume-effects design in The Fifth Element and
sealing stars into their costumes in Lost in Space.
But her model of Aslan the lion,
commissioned by the BBC for the Chronicles of Narnia in
1989, remains her favourite piece.
She said "It
had my stamp on it, probably because I liked doing it so much."
Her current project is the costumes
for Fungus the Bogeyman - a production starring Martin
Clunes and Fay Ripley, which will be shown around Christmas.
On Monday a new set of costume
characters created by her will be seen in new children's programme Boobah.
She has to keep many of the show's secrets under
wraps, but said "For me it was the most wonderful job to do
because I needed to use all the experience."
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"It needed a lot of imagination, which is
probably my strongest point."
"It
was a very intangible brief, which I like."
Ms. Burnham, who lives in Hammersmith
Road, Hammersmith, is also developing her own ideas and characters
in a children's pre-school character - Pogo, a dancing dog.
She said: "I
have so many ideas it drives me mad. Children's programmes is
what I would really
love to do."
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