Dolls deliver at the double
Scot Squad‘s Gayle Telfer Stevens and Louise McCarthy have teamed up as a double act and are set to star in panto, too
SCOTLAND’S latest comedy double act will finish their breakthrough year as the stars of Scotland’s biggest panto.
Scotland’s best comedy has traditionally come from double acts – Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy’s Francie and Josie, Fran and Anna, Gregor Fisher and Tony Roper’s Rab C Nesbitt and Jamesie Cotter and, most recently, Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill’s Jack and Victor from Still Game.
And The Dolls, aka Gayle Telfer Stevens and Louise McCarthy, play cleaners Agnes and Sadie in Jack and the Beanstalk at Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo. They are teaming up with Greg McHugh’s Gary: Tank Commander for the panto.
The Dolls have become a phenomenon. Earlier this year, when they announced a tour, the Motherwell gig sold out in seven minutes, Falkirk in eight and Glasgow in 52 minutes.
Louise, from Glasgow’s Maryhill, part of Scotland’s comedy moment of 2017 as the cop struggling with bam talk in Scot Squad, said: “We’ve done panto individually but have never done it as The Dolls so this is a first-time experience and an exciting one.
“We feel really lucky to have been given a fabulous new opportunity as The Dolls.”
Panto was made for The Dolls’ bawdy humour – it’s Glasgow patter at its finest.
While the theatre style helps bring families together, the best pantos also have humour that goes over the weans’ heads and gives something for adults, too.
The Dolls are a huge hit with female audiences but reckon they will make kids and men laugh, too.
Louise added: “We’re going to bring everyone together. We’re bright, bash and great fun. I guess you’d say we are all-singing, all-dancing, good-time girls.
“We are a good, old-fashioned act with a modern twist that can be enjoyed by all ages – but yes,
RICK FULTON
we are also doing it for the lassies.”
Since the SEC and panto producers Qdos Entertainment teamed up seven years ago, they’ve created the must-see event of the festive calendar – a panto plus with 3D glasses and the biggest and best special effects.
But The Dolls will add that something that has been missing since John Barrowman and The Krankies, who had created something special for the first five years but were split up after the 2014 panto.
It’s not been the same since the duo were teamed up with David Hasselhoff in 2015 or last year, when Johnny Mac and Marti Pellow were the big names.
Gayle, from Renton in Dunbartonshire, who plays Caitlin McLean in River City, said: “You can’t fill The Krankies shoes. They are amazing.
“The Dolls will do their own thing, shakin oor shammies and dancing around oor handbags.”
The pair dreamt up The Dolls after meeting at a one-night cabaret show at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre in 2011. Gayle said: “We met when we were working on a show together and there was an instant chemistry. We totally ‘got’ each other and knew we could be great on stage as a double act.
“Things weren’t going too well. We had both gone to musical theatre school in Glasgow and London, and landed the big London West End jobs. I was in Jerry Springer: The Opera and Louise in Mamma Mia.”
But after a promising start, the work dried up. It was the same for Louise and, disillusioned and unable to get work, she began working in restaurants while Gayle worked as a chambermaid.
The pair kept in touch and came up with their cleaners’ double act, using legendary actress Dorothy Paul as their inspiration.
They developed The Dolls in bowling clubs while auditioning for other work.
Gayle got a role on River City while Louise acted alongside Gregor Fisher in the National Theatre’s Yer Granny.
A full play, The Dolls Abroad – about a trip to Greece – became a hit when they ran it for a week last year at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow.
Producer Robert C Kelly saw it and they toured in earlier this year. Now, an even bigger audience awaits. In the panto, Greg will play Jack and they will be his naughty aunties, Auntie Agnes and Auntie Sadie.
So, will The Dolls boss Greg about?
“No way,” said Louise. “We are a team and, if anything, we’re the ones that need reined in.”
Louise became an overnight sensation this year in Scot Squad.
She played new detective DC Andrea McGill who couldn’t work out what a ned was saying and had to ask “bam whisperer” DC Megan Squire, played by Julie Wilson Nimmo, what he was saying.
They became an instant hit with viewers and a clip of the “bam whisperer” scene has been seen by more than two million people on Facebook.
Viewers loved Louise’s vow: “When they start to bam us up, we just bang them up”.
However, she says she won’t be putting any bam chat in to the panto. She said: “I loved working with Julie on Scot Squad – what a laugh we had. We can’t believe how well it has been received. It’s been amazing.
“But no bam whisperer technique is required for this panto – it’s bam-free.”
Jack and the Beanstalk starts tomorrow at the SEC Armadillo and runs until January 7. Tickets from £17.05. Go to www.sec.co.uk or call the ticket hotline on 0844 395 4000.
We totally ‘got’ each other and knew we could be great as a double act