Cotchee d'Arcy has a big, throaty laugh, and a voice that commands attention - the same voice that won her a scholarship to RADA, and roles in theatre and television in the 1970s and 1980s in classic shows like Z Cars and General Hospital.
Her most precious possession is a 1920s art deco-style scarf of black net, with delicate inlaid strips of silver. "It was bought for me by a friend for my 21st birthday when I was a struggling actress in London. She got it in a shop on the Portobello Road that specialised in second-hand classics. I also had a 1960s dress that I used to call my Jackie Onassis dress. It was black crepe and chiffon, with gauze at the neck, and ostrich feathers on the sleeves".
Cotchee wore the dress, with the scarf, through many swinging parties in London in the 1970s and early 1980s. "I remember going to a party at a house owned by Virgin records, where guests were arriving in helicopters. People were holding court in the bath. And there I was, in my scarf."
In 1976, the scarf, and Cotchee, almost made it to the pages of Vogue. "A friend of mine was going out with a photographer, who took photos of me for my acting portfolio. He went off to Vogue magazine with them, and, except that he wasn't insistent enough, we would have made the next month's issue.
"It was such a wise, wearable investment. People don't buy things to last any more, but this scarf is timeless. That's the thing about a good classic: it survives the ages, and the transient fashions of the time. I can see myself wearing it when I'm 90."
