The Nardini family were best known for their ice cream before daughter Daniela won us over with her portrayal of a fiesty young lawyer in This Life.
The acclaimed actor now lives in Glasgow, but Largs is still in her heart.
In this interview, originally published in 2015, she tells of her life and love of Largs.
The Nardinis could have been in The Godfather. Our Italian passions can become fiery at times, and there was a lot of feuding between different parts of the family. Francis Ford Coppola could have shot his film on a rowing boat between Millport and Largs.
Luckily, I wasn’t part of the feud because it mostly involved my father’s generation, but unfortunately family businesses come with fallings-out.
Following the feud, the big Art Deco Nardini’s ice cream shop on the prom in Largs is no longer run by the family. It was founded by Pietro, my great-grandfather, who came to Scotland from Barga in Tuscany. He ended up in Paisley and then moved to Largs to open his shop. My brother Aldo still works in the catering industry and now runs the Nardini Brothers cafe by the pier, not far from the old shop.
Largs was a lovely place to grow up. There were a lot of local businesses back then and the high street was really vibrant. We had lots of trips along the prom, throwing pebbles in the water. My brother Nicky was probably the best at skimming stones.
Daniela Nardini taking the sea air on the prom at Largs (Photo: Angus Blackburn)
We lived at the end of the town in a house at the foot of the hills. It had a river running through the garden and we spent our whole childhood jumping from stone to stone in the river and going up the hills – very different from the childhood that Claudia, my daughter, is having now in Glasgow.
We were outdoors all the time – my mum used to ring a bell and we’d come in for dinner. The weather didn’t seem to bother us – we just went out, rain or shine. We’d swim in the burn and up at Greeto Falls. I have really good memories of growing up in Largs.
I started working in the family business when I was 13, which is probably illegal now. I worked behind the counter in the ice cream shop, serving customers. They put me behind the counter because I was pretty. The boys had to wash the dishes.
In those days we used to get free ice cream for our friends, which made us extra popular. But after a while there were so many Nardini children with so many friends, that they had to change it so just the family members got freebies.
I went to St Mary’s, a Catholic primary school in Largs. My little girl asked me recently, ‘What was your primary three teacher like, Mummy?’ and I told her, ‘I didn’t really like her because she used to make us stand and pray for ages.’
She looked confused: ‘What do you mean, pray?’ and I had to explain that it’s something she doesn’t have to do because she goes to an interdenominational school.
Daniela regularly returned home to Largs throughout her acting career (Photo: Daniela Nardini)
I told my daughter that I got the belt once for writing on the blackboard and she was astounded. There was a lot of belting at school. But it was a nice school and there was nothing traumatising about it, apart from the long prayers. Aldo, my brother, has much worse stories because he went to St Columba’s, a boys’ school, which was very strict.
Then I went to Largs Academy, which was mixed, so the prayers stopped finally. I was really interested in English and art but hopeless at maths. I did as little work as I could at school then enjoyed dressing up in as short a skirt as possible and going to discos with my friends. I’d like to say I was more profound, but I wasn’t – I just wanted to turn on the boys. Having said that, I was a one-man-girl – I had the same boyfriend for four years, my brother Nicky’s best friend.
As we got older, my friends and I used to go – illegally – to the disco at the Royal Hotel. We’d be about fifteen and we’d drink cider and Babycham and pretend we were eighteen. I wasn’t a good girl. We’d put on as much makeup as we possibly could and would blag our way in.
Then we progressed to a place called The Fiddlers, which is still going. We’d get a bit pissed beforehand, go to The Fiddlers, and then pretend not to be pissed when we got home. I think my mum and dad trusted me. We weren’t being outrageous, we were just being teenagers.
Daniela was brought up enjoying the outdoors (Photo: Angus Blackburn)
When I was seventeen, I drank a bottle of sherry with my friend Fiona. I remember us doing handstands. I got to the Royal disco and my vision was blurred, like when a TV goes fuzzy. My boyfriend took me home. We got to the bottom of the road and he said, ‘For God’s sake, walk properly! I don’t want to have to carry you!’ and I just said, ‘Carry me’, so he had to do it. I was a lot lighter then. I learned my lesson and didn’t do anything as silly as that again.
My brother Pete died when I was sixteen. He was knocked down by a car when he was trying to get the driver to stop. They were just larking about and it was one of those awful freak accidents. It was a huge heartbreak for the entire family, and still is to an extent. It completely changed our lives. The only positive thing to come out of it is that we’re incredibly close and protective of one another.
We didn’t get taught drama at school so I had a tutor from the age of fourteen. It was something I discovered I was quite good at.
I got in to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (RSAMD) when I was nineteen. I fell in love with acting. I really enjoyed it. I still enjoy it now, so it was obviously the right decision. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had some good breaks. But it’s a tough profession. Lots of my contemporaries have given up – I think there are only three of us from my drama school year who are still acting. The RSAMD is now the Royal Scottish Conservatoire and I’m on the auditions board.
You can instantly spot talent. I find it interesting but I can sense how nervous the applicants are. It’s hard seeing them because they’re all nervous and sometimes they forget their lines and get tearful – it’s all a bit dramatic. You want to warn them that it’s not an easy choice to make.
A breezy day on the prom, with the ferry to Millport behind Daniela Nardini (Photo: Angus Blackburn)
I lived in London for a long time and we moved back because my husband, Ivan Stein, wanted to retrain as a chef. I’d just had Claudia. We lived in Fairlie, down the road from Largs, for a year and then moved to Edinburgh. That didn’t really work out for me; I’m a West Coast girl. So we moved to Glasgow, which suited me a lot better. We used to go down to Largs at weekends, but now Claudia has her own social life and I’ve become a taxi service for her instead.
It’s only forty minutes away from Glasgow though, and my parents still live in Largs so I see them most weeks. They’re very happy here.
Mum was from Glasgow and has Highland roots. My great-grandfather on her side had a similar story to that of the Nardinis – he came down from Skye and opened a pub in Glasgow. So we’ve got this wandering spirit coming through, I suppose.
I think my acting comes more from my mother’s side. In fact, Gillies MacKinnon, the film director, is related to me on that side of the family. From my father’s side, I think I get my passion and my fire. Without a doubt that has been reflected in some of the roles I’ve had, along with my ‘naughty girl’ past.
My dad was big into hunting. He actually qualified for the Olympic clay pigeon shooting team, but couldn’t go to the Olympics because he couldn’t get away from work. That would have been when he was in his twenties. My nephew is a good shot too and has trained as a gamekeeper. So that interest definitely comes from the Italian side. Aldo, my brother, used to shoot too, but he went off the idea of killing things.
Aldo is the only one who works in catering now. My brother Nicky used to, but now works for the West Brewery in Glasgow. I never worked in catering – although now I find myself married to a chef.
Daniela Nardini at Kelburn Castle, whose colourful walls were painted by specially invited Brazilian graffiti artists (Photo: Angus Blackburn)
I met Ivan at the Edinburgh Festival. I went to see a play at the Assembly Rooms with a friend of mine who was also a friend of Ivan’s dad’s girlfriend. We clicked and then he came to see me in a play in London and that’s when we started going out together. He went to Oxford and did politics then taught English abroad and landed in the civil service as a temp and stayed too long. His passion was always food – he’s a proper foodie. He cooked for me when we were going out. That’s a very sexy thing to do. Ivan now runs The Gannet, his own restaurant in Glasgow. He leaves at seven in the morning and gets home after eleven at night, five days a week. He has won awards and it’s now on the map as a real gastronomic place to go. The menu is changing all the time.
I love food but Claudia is terrible at the moment. She’s really picky and won’t try things. She likes Heinz tomato soup and has a ham and cheese bagel for lunch every day. We’re waiting for her to change into our real child. She’s very funny but it’s too early to say what she’ll do when she’s older. I sent her to the Scottish Youth Theatre for a class but she didn’t like it. She says she wants to be a designer. The other day she said she wanted to design curtains.
Whatever she decides to do, I hope that she’ll grow up to love Largs as much as I do.
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