Hi-de-Highs andlowsof alifeinthe spotlight
they don’t quite fit in with society’s expectations of normal behaviour.”
It comes at a time when social isolation among the elderly is being recognised as a serious issue. ecent statistics from Age UK show that 1.9million elderly people feel alone or invisible, due to a lack of companionship, relationships or basic communication.
Medication is a huge issue for those with mental health problems, which is also explored in the play.
Su said: “Birdie, who had an extreme and more obvious mental illness, will have been through so many shifts in medication over the last few years. In the play she’s stopped taking her pills and I can’t say I blame her.”
While some may have laughed at Su and her fashion sense, she has managed a four-decade career which included
Hi-de-Hi!, You Rang, M’Lord?, panto most years and a No2 hit in 1986 with Starting Together.
She was in her late 60s when she made her Festival Fringe debut in Harpy. Remembering the run two years ago, Su lights up.
She said: “I’d never been to the Edinburgh Fringe before, so it was a new experience to see so many performance spaces so close together.
“I was there doing a play about loneliness and mental health and next door to me was a rock ‘n’ roll show, with a stand-up comic doing impressions of engines on the other side – it was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done.
“But it was a great experience, I’ve always loved Scotland and I would go back there any time, any year to work.”
And she revealed the reason why she took on a one-woman play at her age, saying: “Firstly, the big attraction was having a play written for me, That has never happened, so I was mega excited.
“Secondly, when I read the script, I was immediately struck by how real, sincere, poignant and funny it was.”
The new touring version is different to the Fringe version. Author Philip Meeks has added more scenes “bringing out more of her quirks”. he thrust of Birdy’s character is her hoarding. Su revealed she has kept one dress for years. She laughed: “It’s not really weird but I have had a long, multicoloured hand-knitted dress with a big collar for 40 years and I can turn it into a mini skirt. It is marvellous.”
Su has had a wonderfully bonkers career. In 1972, she got her first professional job in the chorus of the touring musical The Desert Song and has never looked back. Two years later, aged 22, she entered Opportunity Knocks and came second to a singing dog.
While sitcom Two Up, Two Down with Paul Nicholas only lasted a series, the next year she landed the role of chalet maid Peggy in Hi-de-Hi!, becoming one of the biggest and more parodied stars of the 80s.
Since then, she’s had as varied a career as one of her outfits, appearing on It’s a Royal Knockout and Songs of Praise as well as Gimme Gimme Gimme and Benidorm.
Su grinned: “My byword is, ‘Don’t turn anything down unless you really feel it’s not for you’. I’ve done Shakespeare, cabaret, reality TV, after-dinner speaking. I’ll give most things a go.” Harpy is at The Brunton, Musselburgh on March 20. For tickets, call 0131 665 2240 or go to theburnton.co.uk