From TV's The Royal to panto royalty - Michelle Hardwick

by Patrick Astill

You might not spot Princess Jasmine if she walked past you in the street, but that’s something actress Michelle Hardwick has become used to over the years.

Fans would certainly recognise her in her 60s gear as ever-present character Lizzie Hopkirk from TV’s The Royal, who she’s played for six years.

Now resident at the Lincoln’s Theatre Royal for the next five weeks, she’ll be sharing the stage with veteran comedy duo Cannon and Ball, ‘Confessions’ film star Robin Askwith, and Lincoln's own panto dame Steve Barclay as Widow Twankey.

And with the curtain rising on the first performance yesterday, the hard work is only just beginning.

“It is hard work,” she said. “It can be three shows a day, sometimes, and we’ve got a two-hour show. There are 53 shows ahead of us!

“It’s an odd one, panto, because you only have five or six days of rehearsals. I learn my lines before I get there and then concentrate on the songs.

“In television you can be getting up at 6am, sitting in make-up by 6.30am and then it can be 12-hours plus.

“There’s more adrenaline on stage in panto, though, you’ve got to be quick, and working with people like Tommy and Bobby I have to be careful they don’t make me laugh because I’m playing a straight character.”

Michelle started off on The Royal when she was 25 and did eight series in all. In fact, she worked with Bobby Ball on one story while he was doing straight acting.

Working with Cannon and Ball is a privilege and a pleasure, she said: “It’s natural to them; they are such professionals. It’s been a good mix of laughing and not too much messing about.

“It’s fabulous for me because when I was younger I wanted to go to see them. I did have red braces that said ‘Rock on Tommy’ on them, but I haven’t dared tell them that!”

In panto, of course you can get away with any slip-ups. But not so much when Michelle is on stage by herself or in a two-hander.

That’s why her musical numbers are so important, because she up there on her own and the audience can share her love of music.

“I’m not a trained singer,” she said, “I’m an actress who can hold a tune! I enjoy singing, and if you enjoy something it makes it so much better.”

She’s all for traditional panto, and happy there’s a female principal boy as Aladdin, and that last year when she was in a Cinderella, there was a female prince, in Dandini.

So what’s her panto highlight this season? “For me it’s the scenes like the one where I am choosing the lamp and the kids are going through the roof – it’s the reaction from the children, being on stage and bringing them in to the show. It’s magical.”

First published in the Lincolnshire Echo. 

'You can't keep a good fox down' - boom! boom!

by Patrick Astill

The cheeky fox himself answered the phone when I called Basil Brush to find out more about his show at the Theatre Royal later this month.

With a string of dreadful, quickfire one-liners and terrible puns, it was soon clear that he’d lost none of his sharpness in 40 years of entertaining.

Resting in a “rather splendid foxhole” in deepest Surrey while on tour, he confessed that he didn’t have to share digs with his long-suffering TV partner, Mr Stephen, who’s also in the show.

“I wouldn’t share anything with him,” said Basil. “It was bad enough sharing a flat with him. He went to Broadway you know, before we got back on the road - Ealing Broadway, Boom Boom!”

For those who can remember, Basil retired in the late 1980s for 20 years, but returned to showbiz because, he says, “Auntie Beeb begged me to come back. You can’t keep a good fox down!”

I told Basil that I was almost as old as he is - and remember his first spell on our screens, when he became famous the world over and even performed in the Royal Variety Show.

“You saw me in flares then?” he asks. “I had to stop wearing them as it was attracting rescue teams.”

Of course, the little fella moves with the times and now dresses slightly differently to appeal to the youngsters.

“I’ve taken the lead in a modern world. Yo! Brother, it’s cos I is orange geezer,” he said, before confiding that he actually owns a couple of hoodies.

Still on the topic of clothes, he asks if I’ve seen him presenting the new Swap Shop on Saturday mornings. I had to confess that I hadn’t, but remembered the Noel Edmonds version.

Quick as a flash, he replied: “Yes, they asked me to do it because I’m furry and had bad taste in clothes too!”

He’s glad to be visiting to Lincoln again, to see the mums, dads and children, ending a tour of live shows.

“On television you don’t get to hear the laughs,” he said. “I love the fact that on stage I can hear the boys and girls laughing their heads off.

“We’ve always come to the Theatre Royal on tour, it’s just the one show this time so we want to get it full up!”

There will be the chance for children to give Mr Stephen a cream pie in the face, and lots of singing and joining in.

A full supporting cast includes Gameshow Charlie, who will give the audience a chance to win big prizes in some crazy games, award-winning circus star The Amazing Jeni – as well as some monkey business from Cheryl Chimp.

SAMPLE JOKE: Why do the Teletubbies always go to the toilet together? Because they've only got one tinkie winkie. Boom Boom!!”

First published in the Lincolnshire Echo. 

Three young actors steal the laughs from Charley's Aunt

When two Oxford students require a chaperone at short notice so they can lunch with their sweethearts, the non-arrival of a millionaire aunt sets a trail of mayhem in motion.

The nearest they can get to a stand-in is a (male) student friend, so he togs up in ladies’ garb and the deception begins …

Nick Waring as Lord Fancourt Babberley is reluctantly called upon to be the imposter aunt by the two would-be suitors Charles Wykeham and Jack Chesney, played by Henry Gilbert and Tim Samuels.

The three young actors in Charley’s Aunt at Lincoln’s Theatre Royal excelled – and carried most of the laughs between them.

They supported the more famous faces among the senior cast, which included Duty Free’s Neil Stacy as Jack’s hard-up father, Ben Roberts from The Bill, Sabina Franklyn (the real millionaire widowed aunt) and Glyn Grain.

The humour started right from the off, with some visual gags and slapstick humour from the three young men.

While the students pursue their own loves, Jack’s impoverished father sets his sights on Donna Lucia D’Alvadorez who sadly is, in his/her own words, “no ordinary woman”.

Spurned (quite reasonably) by what he thinks is the real Victorian widow, he predictably finds love with a new arrival into the plot.

The cross-dressing Babberley then attracts another suitor and must keep the deception running long enough to secure evil uncle Stephen Spettigue’s permission for his niece and his ward – Eloise Irving as Amy Spettigue and Isla Carter as Kitty Verdun – to marry the student pals.

Bearing in mind the play was written way back in the 1890s, the humour transferred instantly to the modern audience.

Cliché it might be, with bashful lovers, an evil uncle, broke dad and a mystery missing aunt – but that is the stuff of a good farce and this one is a comedy classic which continues to impress.