Su Pollard shares her excitement at performing in a Blackpool pantomime this summer

National treasure Su, 74, has a career spanning 50 years in which she has appeared in over 35 stage plays and musicals, as well as TV shows such as ‘Hi-de-Hi!’,‘You Rang, M’Lord?’ and ‘Oh, Doctor Beeching!’.

Now in her latest role, Su will be playing Cinderalla’s Fairy Godmother at Blackpool’s The Joe Longthorne Theatre (former North Pier Pavilion), brought you by LHK Productions.

On the announcement of her role, Su said: “What better way to help celebrate 50 years in showbiz than at a great venue, The Joe Longthorne Theatre and in Blackpool, one of my all time favourite places.”

This panto is coming to Blackpool’s North Pier this August with shows on every weekend and tickets are on sale now at North Pier Box Office, online or phone 01253 621 452.

Today a press event for Cinderella was held in Blackpool, and we were able to catch Sue for a chat so see what she had to say below…

How does it feel to be in Blackpool promoting your upcoming panto? 

Su: “It gets you in the mood. It's almost like I'm starting to do it next week and of course, it's not till August. So these launches are always really good because you get the measure of your costume which you have to be comfortable with, you can't have last minute.com!

“And already, as I look out onto the sea, I remember coming here once with a show called The Laugher Show with Roy Walker (who I believe is a local resident) and Les Dennis and it was the most fantastic sunset you've ever seen, better than Hawaii. I love Blackpool, it's just such a great place. You are what you are here, nobody pretends! Audiences are great and I just feel it's an all out fun place to be anytime of the year.

“And you know what, I'm delighted to say that when I got off the train, I went ‘Yeah, they're spending money!’ We went into the Holiday Inn Express and I thought, well, this is really lovely. Blackpool is now having money spent on it and I'm glad to see it coming back to its rightful place again - one of the top five resorts in the country- because it's got so much to offer. Everybody's lovely here, they're proud of their town and so they should be so I'm sure I should have a marvellous time.”

So you have performed on the Fylde Coast before?

Su: “I always love coming here! About two years ago, I did a one woman show at the Thornton Little Theatre and it was excellent. I really enjoyed it. Then of course, we had a great season here, it's got to be 40 years ago now with the Laughter Show. Then we did Heidi Hi at the Winter Gardens and more recently - well she says more recently, about eight years ago - we did the Grand Theatre, and it was a panto. So Blackpool has been part of my career for years, I've got a great affection for it.” 

How are you feeling about playing the Fairy Godmother?

Su: “I've done a fairy godmother before, a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed the experience because you're free of all ‘the evil stuff’, like it's always the Wicked Queen that I've done… So I liked the Fairy Godmother and I think it's going to be fun.

“The look is half traditional but then she's half quirky: I’ve got a fantastic skirt and a beautiful thrill around the neck and boots with the diamonds on. Hopefully, the children will like it because it will light beautifully, it's white so that’s traditional but she's not just swanning about in this years ago dress. I think the costume’s fabulous and as long as you've got something on that you feel happy with darling, then the audience can sit for a couple of hours and just be transported into the magical world so it'll be great.”

Will you be injecting some of that famous Su Pollard personality into the role?

Su: “I always like to think that you've got to bring your own brand of humour, a bit of pathos. But I like the audience to feel that this story transports them from one scene to another, it's no good just doing speciality acts every 10 minutes, I just don't think that works. It’s important that the story is loyal and you get all the elements in it that people like to see and this is going to offer that. Everybody's been working hard on it so we will certainly give them VFM* as I call it!”

*value for money

Will you be up to anything else whilst in Blackpool?

Su: “I will be visiting all my gay haunts which I love to visit- the Mardi Gras, which is fantastic, the Flying Handbag, Funny Girls, and I'll be visiting Harry Ramsden which will be great. It will just be nice to walk around again.

“I will also probably be visiting the Beach House, which is a fabulous restaurant, and not only that, I think I'll be going into Lytham and pay tribute to my old friend Bobby Ball because of his statue. It would be really nice to go up it and say ‘Hey, Bobby, I’m sending you love through the ether’.”

Why should the people of Lancashire grab tickets to see you?

Su: “It's got everything that you would want to actually see in show, all the traditional things. Come along and visit, even if you've never been to a panto before - now's the perfect opportunity, you don't have to freeze yourself to death to come, you can actually come in the summer and it's marvellous. It'll be the same elements but it's just a little bit earlier in the season - Christmas will come early so get your tickets now!”

You can also find out more about the production on The Joe Longthorne Theatre’s website.