First Encounters: ‘My whole family depended on her family’

June Rodgers is a comic who has performed on stage, TV and in movies. She appears regularly in pantomime and has had her own show in the Red Cow Moran Hotel for 13 years. 'The Hilarious June Rodgers', her new show, has just started a nationwide tour. She lives in Tallaght with her husband Peter Lane

I met Brenda in Clontarf Castle 20 years ago, when I was out there doing a show. She was a singer and I was just starting out professionally. I thought she was lovely. She's a very soft-spoken girl, the first one to say, do you want me to help you with your lines? We worked for two weeks together, then didn't see each other for another two years until Cinderella, a panto in the Gaiety.

We did two pantomimes together after that. We just clicked. We had a lot in common – she’s an animal lover and so am I. In the pantomime, there were two ponies. Brenda and I would spend most of our lunchtime feeding them carrots.

Then Brenda came on a couple of my shows in the Red Cow Moran Hotel as a guest, singing and doing comedy with me. She’s a great comic, she has great facial expressions. Her background was musicals and a lot of my stuff is parody, and she’s well able for that sort of thing. I stick to a script, am very disciplined and Brenda’s like that too. She’s the only person I ever met who makes me cry laughing – she’s a great mimic.

We both love musical theatre, we go to shows in London together, do a bit of wine tasting. We have a lot in common – men, animals, London, wine, maybe not in that order.

I was born and bred in Tallaght when it was a rural village. Now I live there in a 115-year-old cottage with a huge back garden. Some people call it “the foot of the Dublin mountains” but I call it Tallaght.

I worked for Fujitsu Electronics for nine years and I took part in the John Player Tops of the Town competition in the 1980s. That’s really what started me off, got me into show business. I was 34 when I started as a professional, doing the show in Clontarf Castle.

Brenda got married in 2001. Five years ago Sophie was born, then Killian, who’s three. I never had children but I look on them as if they’re my own. I remember going up to Mount Carmel and sitting there crying with delight that this little bundle was hers.

We're friends for life. I couldn't imagine Brenda not being in my life. She's the nicest, gentlest, most sincere person you could ever meet. We probably drive the two husbands mad, we're on the phone to each other twice a day, every day. It's fantastic to have that relationship. I can tell her things and know she'll stay silent; we're both quite private. She's a smashing girl, she really is. The Hilarious June Rodgers show's nationwide tour finishes this weekend, see junerodgers.net. She also appears in Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie, released later this month Brenda Brooks is a singer, actor and assistant producer of 'The Hilarious June Rodgers' show. She toured Europe with 'Riverdance' as a singer, played Olga in 'Fair City' and works on stage, TV and in film. She lives with her husband, Robert Lawlor, and their children Sophie, 6, and Cillian, 2

I knew about June before I met her. We met and got on so well, immediately, we just clicked. I thought she was very funny, very talented, very hard working, very modest. I’ll do lines over and over to get it right and she’s the very same.

I’m from Stillorgan in Dublin and trained in singing and in musical theatre. I met June in a show in Clontarf Castle and did two pantos in the Gaiety with her. It was great to see a friendly face when I walked into the Gaiety. We bonded, then discovered we were both mad about animals.

When you do a show, you meet lots of people, you make lots of friends but you don’t necessarily keep it going. But June and I would go and have dinner, go out to her house, which has a gorgeous garden. It’s an oasis, a most incredible garden. If she didn’t mention that, she’s underselling herself. I look at a plant and it withers. She was over recently putting in some planters for me. A neighbour came over after and said, “Was June Rodgers digging your garden?”

We bonded over the horses, over our dogs. The wonderful thing about our friendship is that it stayed the same after I’d had children. June babysits; I did a tiny bit of filming for three days recently and she covered for me.

We can go from being friends to working together as well and that’s not always an easy transition. I’ve worked on her show for a couple of years and then we go off doing separate things. But we’re on the phone to each other every day without fail.

June was first into hospital when I had Sophie. June’s sister lives opposite Mount Carmel hospital so we had a park and ride facility for my family there. That expanded into teas, coffee, lunches, in June’s sister’s house. My whole family depended on her family. So the families really know each other.

In Fair City, I played Olga the internet bride, had to learn to talk in Russian because there was Russian dialogue in the script. June said, there’s a Russian down in the deli in Tallaght so we hopped in the car, went down and hired this very lovely, highly-educated girl to teach me.

June and I are friends for life, she’s part of the family. She’s a very trustworthy person, you can tell her anything and know it will go no further. And kind. I was on the phone one day bemoaning my ill health and the fact that I had to do a show, had an awful cough. I put the phone down and 10 minutes later she was standing at my door with a pharmacy bag. She’s very caring.

The pair of us can sit in her back garden with a big pot of tea and watch the birds all afternoon – it’s the simple things in life we like.