This Is Your Life: Su Pollard

Su POLLARD (1949-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Su Pollard, actress and singer, was surprised by Michael Aspel during the curtain call of the pantomime Dick Whittington at the Richmond Theatre, from where the programme was then recorded.

Su, who was born in Nottingham, first began performing at a junior drama school at her local Co-op Arts Theatre. She took a secretarial course and found work with the Co-op while singing in working men's clubs and charity shows. In 1974, she appeared on the ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks - coming second to a singing dog! Two years later, she got her West End break in the musical Godspell and appeared in the revue Oh Mr Porter the following year.

While appearing in a pantomime in Wolverhampton, the writer Jimmy Perry spotted her and, in 1980, cast her as Peggy in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, which ran for eight series and made Su a household name. In 1985, she appeared in the West End musical Me and My Girl, and when Hi-de-Hi! finished its run in 1988, she starred in the BBC sitcom You Rang M'Lord?

"I'm really surprised! I can't believe it!"

programme details...

Edition No: 757
Subject No: 749
Broadcast date: Wed 1 Mar 1989
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Sat 4 Feb 1988
Venue: Richmond Theatre
Series: 29
Edition: 20
Code name: Glasses

on the guest list...

cast members of Dick Whittington
Peter Blake
Ken Bruce
Bernie Winters
Schnorbitz the dog
Peter Keogh - husband
Jean - sister
Nora - aunt
David - uncle
Dorothy - aunt
Stewart - cousin
Lesley - Stewart's wife
Julie Jones
Doris Bates
Dorothy Berry
members of Nottingham Co-op Arts Theatre
Mary Salivansky
Keith Pike
Harry Gumm
Sam the singing dog
Jimmy Perry
Felix Bowness
Linda Regan
Nikki Kelly
Laura Jackson
David Webb
Tony Webb
Chris Andrews
Diane Holland
Barry Howard
Paul Shane
Hilda - mother
Don - father
Ruth Madoc

production team...

Researchers: Sue Green, Joanna Stewart
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Director: Brian Klein
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

The Good Life

the sitcom stars

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Screenshots of Su Pollard This Is Your Life

News Shopper 14 November 2001

Pirate Peggy

Su Pollard can talk the hind legs off a donkey, but she's more concerned with seagulls at the moment.

As we talk the New Shakespeare Company's tour of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, in which she plays Ruth, is in Plymouth.

"There are seagulls everywhere!" she says excitedly, sounding exactly like her best-known alter-ego, Peggy from Hi-De-Hi. "We've got seagulls as part of the soundtrack indoors, and then when you go outside there are seagulls there as well!

"It's really adding to the atmosphere. We're in the heart of pirate country, and we've had navy people at the shows. It makes a change from parrots, anyway. When we were doing the show in Regent's Park people would come along with plastic parrots on their shoulders!"

There won't be many seagulls or parrots when the show comes to Richmond Theatre on Monday (November 19), but Su's got another reason to look forward to her visit.

"A few years ago I was in Richmond doing Dick Whittington," she recalls, "and that's when they 'got' me for This Is Your Life. Everyone else was in on it, and I didn't cotton on at all!

"I should have been suspicious, you always think the subject must know, don't you, because there was a TV van outside and everything. But they told me it was for TV coverage of the panto and I fell for it!

"They asked me to do a curtain call at the end of the show to ask people to put some money in the bucket for charity and that's when Michael Aspel came on!"

That edition of This Is Your Life certainly had plenty to cover. Since coming second to a singing dog in a talent show in Nottingham, she's become best known for her long-running TV roles in Hi-De-Hi and You Rang M'Lord. She has also toured with some of the biggest musicals including Godspell and Grease and starred in numerous pantos, plays and radio shows, as well as launching her own cabaret shows. She's also the voice behind popular children's character Penny Crayon and has released a hit single, Starting Together, a keep-fit video and even a book, Hearts and Showers.

She must work as fast as she talks to fit all that in, but true to form she's only concerned with the present and loving every minute of her role alongside Gary Wilmot as tomboy pirate Ruth in the ever-popular operetta.

"It's a fabulous show. It only seems to last 10 minutes. I could never, ever get bored with it. I've had people saying to me, 'I can't believe it's over so soon', which is great, because people don't want to be hanging about all night, do they?" says the down-to-earth star.

"It's great for people who aren't familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan because although it's a comedy already we've brought in some extra fun elements it's a bit like a pantomime in that we spilt the audience to join in with some songs.

"It's great for kids too and the greatest compliment I've had so far is from a boy who said he chose between coming to see the show and watching England play Greece and he was glad he came!"

After the tour, which will continue after Christmas following a break for Su's ubiquitous appearance in panto in Wales, she's back on the small screen again in a role which will make even Peggy look normal as Tom's singing teacher in BBC2 comedy Gimme Gimme Gimme!

By Vienna Leigh

Your Local Guardian 28 August 2009

Pollard is a happy camper

By Will Gore

Su Pollard is best known for playing bespectacled chalet maid Peggy in Hi-de-Hi! but now she is heading to Richmond Theatre to play alcoholic orphanage mistress Miss Hannigan in Annie. She spoke to Will Gore about acting drunk, singing dogs, and being given the surprise of her life by Michael Aspel.

Will Gore: Is Annie an enjoyable show to do?

Su Pollard: We have been fortunate to have been really well received. The show is 30 years old now and most people know what is about. It is a feel-good story and people can bring their children without fear of being offended.

WG: Miss Hannigan is a troubled soul, isn't she?

SP: Poor Miss Hannigan. People always say: "Oh my gosh, she is really nasty," but she is only like that because of the drink. She has become so tormented after 20 years in the orphanage that she has gone to the Jack Daniels and become addled.

WG: Have you been having a few drinks to help get yourself into character?

SP: I said to my director: "I think I need some expenses so that I can go on a pub crawl." He told me to use my imagination. I didn't get away with that one. You have to be careful when acting drunk, it is so easy to overdo it.

WG: Tell us about your run in with a performing pooch.

SP: I got beaten by a singing dog in Opportunity Knocks. It was a jack russell who sang a duet with this bloke who came on dressed as a farmer. He sang Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!, the dog went "Ow" and that was it it. They won and I was mortified. I thought my career was over before it had started.

WG: Are you looking forward to coming to Richmond?

SP: I have a great fondness for Richmond, it's a lovely place and the theatre is beautiful – quaint with lots of history.

WG: Have you performed at Richmond Theatre before?

SP: Loads of times, it was where I was surprised for This Is Your Life. I was performing in panto and used to appeal after every show to the audience to donate money to raise funds to renovate the theatre. It was an idea thought up by the director who had colluded with the theatre manager. I had no idea I was being duped. One night, when I did the appeal, Michael Aspel popped up in his white suit. I said: "I can't believe it, you swine!"

WG: Do you still get plenty of happy campers coming up to say "hi-de-hi"?

SP: All the time and I don't mind at all, I will always reply with a "ho-de-ho". Although recently, when I was in Romeo and Juliet as the nurse, I said my line: "There, there now Juliet, Romeo lovest thee," and someone shouted: "Hi-de-hi". Everyone killed themselves laughing but I had to stoically ignore it and carry on.

Series 29 subjects