The Trubridge girls follow in their mum's dancesteps

WHEN Lottie and Billie Trubridge won parts in Bugsy Malone they knew who to ask for help with their lines - their mum, who starred in the film with Jodie Foster.

Tracey Trubridge was just 15 when she was hand-picked by writer and director Alan Parker for a role in the famous musical with the future Silence Of The Lambs star Foster and Happy Days favourite Scott Baio.

That was in 1976 and now the 39-year-old playgroup supervisor has helped inspire the cast of the Pied Piper Production's version with her photographs and memories of life on the Pinewood Studio set.

She said: "Bugsy Malone was one of the best things I ever did. I had no idea at the time how big it would become. I was just having fun."

Now her two daughters, Lottie, nine, and Billie, 11, are following in her footsteps - and enjoying every minute.

Lottie plays the part of Fizzy, a janitor who works in Fat Sam's Bar, but dreams of being a famous dancer and making it big.

She said: "He's a fun character. It's good because you get to say lots of things and it's one of the main characters."

Lottie, who attends Holy Trinity Primary School in Cuckfield, is relaxed about her big performance and has already learned her lines.

She beat dozens of other young hopefuls to the part at auditions where she had to sing songs from the musical, take part in an improvisation session and complete a dancing routine selected by the five judges.

Lottie, who hopes to carry on acting, has been practising her singing and dancing at home ready for the musical's debut.

She said: "I've done a lot of shows before, but this is the biggest one I've done."

Billie, who will take the part of Dottie, one of Fat Sam's dancers, is the only one of troupe who has never had any dancing lessons.

The younster, who wants to be an actress like Kate Winslett, said: "I was stunned when I got the part because the director had wanted to see me dance and I got a bit worried because I don't go to dancing lessons."

The pupil at Warden Park Secondary School in Cuckfield, admitted she sometimes got stuck with her Bugsy routines, but the other dancers helped her out.

The girls are now just dreaming of the day when they graduate from stage to screen and hope their co-stars will be as famous as their mum's.

Tracey has vivid memories of rubbing shoulders with the film's biggest star.

Jodie Foster is now one of Hollywood's biggest names, but as showgirl Tallulah she was just one of the gang.

Tracey said: "Jodie Foster had already done some films by the time she starred in Bugsy, but she was just one of the kids. Obviously she was American and that was special for us.

"She was very tomboyish and loved to play basketball between shooting. The whole cast was really friendly and she was wonderful. She wasn't as big a star then, but we knew she was going to make a name for herself."

Future heart-throb Scott Baio also made an impression: "He was great, really cheeky, and he already liked the girls."

Tracey was chosen for the chorus of the film, set in 1920s New York, from hundreds of hopefuls while she was a pupil at the Corona Academy stage school in London.

She had already starred in 12 editions of Junior Showtime and loved her time on the film set.

She said: "Alan Parker auditioned all of us two or three times and it was just an honour to be chosen by him.

"I had my 16th birthday while doing the film and that meant I didn't have to have a chaperone anymore or have lessons and Alan was never strict about us hanging around the set watching. It was wonderful."

Tracey went on to have roles in three major West End musicals and to play and write for a band she set up with her husband, Horace. But she gave up showbusiness when she had Billie, the first of her three children.

She said: "It is almost as if I never met Jodie Foster now because she has become so big in Hollywood and it seems so different from Bugsy Malone."

But her memories have helped her daughters' friends as they prepare for their show at the Clair Hall in Haywards Heath, which runs from February 23 to 26 at 7.15pm, with a 2pm matinee.

For more information, call the box office on 01444 455440.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.