AS a youngster growing up in England, I always felt a tingle of excitement when I heard that my glamorous cousin Carmen Munroe was due to pay a visit to her sisters and brothers, who lived in several apartments in the same building in London.
The news would spread through the family like a murmur and even though I did not live in London, I hoped that my summer holiday visit would coincide with hers and I would get a chance to see her.

Living in Yorkshire, in the north of England with her older sister, Daphne Steele, who had already achieved fame as the first black matron in England, I would hear snippets of conversation about Carmen’s appearances in theatre shows in London’s famed West End.
This was in the late 60s and Carmen had already appeared on television, making us all proud. And so it was on one fateful day I happened to be at the apartment of one of her sisters when she wafted in on a cloud of expensive perfume, cloaked in what I learned was chinchilla fur.

I remember to this day her rich, distinctive voice, great diction, dimpled smile and an air of mystery which fascinated me. I knew I was in the presence of a rising star and I was in awe.
So it came as no surprise that Carmen went from strength to strength until she became a household name on British television in the popular sitcom, Desmond, in 1989. Starring alongside another stellar Guyanese actor, Norman Beaton, she played his wife, Shirley and the mother of two children, in the half-hour show which was set in a barber shop.

Emigrating to England three years before I was born, in 1951, Carmen’s ground-breaking work began from her first appearance in the West End in Tennessee Williams’ ‘Period of Adjustment.’ She went on to appear in an impressive list of West End productions such as Lorraine Hansberry’s, ‘A Raisin in the sun’; James Baldwin’s, ‘The Amen Corner’ and Alice Childress’, ‘Trouble in Mind.’
These were the days when hardly a black face was seen on stage and television and, as Carmen recalled, “the struggle was real”, not just to get the part or be seen, but to be recognized as being capable of quality acting.

In fact, in a tribute two years ago to black actor Earl Cameron, Carmen noted, “I grew up with American actors, black and white…and even when I came here first, films weren’t British. We didn’t see a lot of British films, English films…” And she credited, Cameron, one of the first black actors to break through in British film, with being her inspiration.

“Those were my days looking up and thinking, ‘Gosh, this is one of us, who can do this…this is where I want to be, this is where I think I’m capable of (being)’.”
So this vivacious and tenacious woman, with a consuming love for her craft, pressed on, with renewed determination. She subsequently ‘spread her wings’ directing a James Saunders play, ‘Alas, Poor Fred’ and also a British premiere of Remembrance by Derek Walcott at London’s Arts Theatre in 1987.

Carmen’s television career also took off in the late 60s, with parts in the scifi drama, Dr Who in 1967, General Hospital, the Persuaders and later, another sitcom, The Fosters (1976 – 1977). She appeared in Alfred Fagon’s, ‘Shakespeare Country’ (BBC 1974) and four years later in Michael Abbensett’s, ‘Black Christmas’, also for the BBC. She was, for a time presenter of Play School and the BBC’s lunchtime children’s programme, ‘How Do You Do.’

She was hailed for her ‘outstanding performance’ as Essie Robeson in a BBC play, ‘A Song at Twilight’ in 1992 and in 2007 received ‘rave reviews’ for her part as Eartha in Allister Bain’s play, ‘Catalysta’.
The Guyanese actress, born when this country was still British Guiana and so referred to as British, is one of the founders of Talawa, which is the leading black theatre company in the UK. It was established along with Mona Hammond, Inigo Espegel and Yvonne Brewster.

For her services to drama, Carmen was appointed an ‘Officer of the Order’ of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s 2007 Birthday Honours and also received the Trailblazer Award for which she was lauded by cast members of ‘Desmond’ and others with whom she worked, who considered her a shining source of inspiration and encouragement for them in their careers.

Now 90 years old, with more than five decades in drama, Carmen Munroe has not only ‘blazed a trail’, but ‘broken the ice’ and ‘paved the way’ for so many who came after her. No doubt, when another Guyanese actress, Letitia Wright, acknowledged that she had achieved success ‘on the shoulders’ of those who came before her, she was alluding to the inimitable Carmen Munroe and others like her who have made it possible for black actors to gain recognition on screen and stage today.