MEET THE ORIGINAL SUPERSTAR
IF PAUL Nicholas were an animal, he’d have to be a cat. Pop singer, actor, musical theatre performer, producer, director, sitcom and soap star – he’s fast enjoying his nine lives.and now, at 76, he’s written his autobiography, Musicals, Marigolds & Me. It came about through a collaboration with professional writer Douglasthompson.
“I’d start telling him a particular story,” explains Paul. “Then he’d go away and give a chapter some shape before showing it to me – at which point I’d refine it and add in other details I’d remembered.
“Actually, my wife Linzi is much better on the computer than me, so she’d type in all the new additions.
“We’ve been together for 50 years. Hair was my first job and I met Linzi on the tour of the show. She has a good memory for all the things that have happened since 1971.”
He said he has sent the book to his six children. “Three of them have acknowledged receipt,” he says, with a wry smile, “and one said the photographs are nice.”
It was Screaming Lord Sutch who first awakened something theatrical in Paul.
“Before that I was singing as Paul Dean, in a local band doing covers of Top 10 hits. His pianist left and I got the job.
“There was a Jack the Ripper routine which involved me getting stabbed every
‘In fact, the show was
very much pro-jesus’
night before Sutch pulled out rubber hearts and lungs. He wore buffalo horns and a lavatory seat round his neck. I liked the outrageousness of it all.”
It was to stand him in good stead.
“I got the role of the narrator, Claude, in the inaugural production of Hair in 1968, the very day after the Lord Chamberlain [power to refuse a licence] was abolished.
“It meant nudity and four-letter words were now possible on a public stage.”
Uniquely among the cast, he didn’t have to strip naked: “I would have done if they’d asked. Nowadays, of course, producers would pay me to keep my clothes on.”
As it happened, David Bowie had four auditions to join the original cast of Hair but wasn’t chosen. He subsequently saw the show which apparently left him, he said, “unimpressed”.
Ask Paul to nominate his theatrical milestones and he doesn’t hesitate: “Jesus Christ Superstar was very special.
“It’s not every day you get to perform in the first rock opera, and to play Jesus as your second job is pretty mind-blowing.”
It wasn’t without controversy, with nuns picketing the Palace Theatre carrying placards urging people to boycott the show.
“To call Jesus Christ a superstar was considered blasphemous by some people – perhaps it still is. In fact, the show was very much pro-jesus.”
Although reviews were mixed, public demand ensured it became a huge hit.
His second choice would be Grease, his third musical on the trot: “I was originally offered the part of the second lead, Kenickie, Danny Zuko’s best friend.
“They’d brought Richard Gere over from America to play Danny but I’d just played the lead in Superstar so I turned it down.”
But when Gere left, they offered Paul the role of Danny with Elaine Paige playing
Sandy. And he said he loved his time as Tevye in the 2003/4 touring production of Fiddler On The Roof: “That was a tremendously rich experience. It was about family and persecution and religion.
“It managed to be both poignant and funny, a wonderful piece of work.”
Significantly, he doesn’t choose Hair or Cats. “That’s because both were ensemble shows. I loved playing both Claude and Rum Tum Tugger, but they weren’t leading roles – they simply didn’t have as much meat on them as Jesus, Danny and Tevye.”
AS A PRODUCER, he nominates Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Singin’ In The Rain: “My mum took me to a production of that in the 50s and it made a huge impression on me.
“In 1995, I both performed in it and produced it. As a matter of fact, I was very generous with my wage.”
However, his film career, he admits, has been a bit of a mixed bag: “I’d have to pick The Who’s rock opera, Tommy, in which I played Roger Daltrey’s cousin, Kevin, alongside Tina Turner and Oliver Reed, and directed by Ken Russell. Stardust was a
huge hit but the film belonged to David Essex, who was a big star at the time, and Adam Faith. Mine wasn’t a very big part.
“And I’d also have to pick Robert Stigwood’s movie version of Sergeant Pepper, which was shot in Hollywood.”
The 1970s saw a further step-change when Paul became a chart-topping singer with hits like Dancing With The Captain and Grandma’s Party.
“Having spent so much time trying to make a hit record, this was something I had to get out of my system.”
On TV, there was no disputing his success as Paul added another string to his bow.
“A script arrived one day from my agent and I loved it the moment I read it.”
It was the pilot of a new sitcom called Just Good Friends.
“John Sullivan, the writer, and Ray Butt, the director, came to see me in Cats.
“Then I got a call inviting me along to the BBC to meet the actress they wanted to cast as my ex-fiancee, Penny.
“I recognised Jan Francis as soon as I saw her because she’d been one of the stars of Secret Army.
“Vince had ditched Penny on their wedding day. Could they ever really get back together? He was a bit of a working class Jack-the-lad – she was quite posh. I think people responded to the will-they-won’tthey storyline and, of course, it was beautifully written.”
The role could not have been at greater contrast to black-hearted Gavin Sullivan, Sharon Mitchell’s birth father in Eastenders who turned up in Walford in 2015 leaving a trail of murder and mayhem in his wake.
IN THE END, his wicked ways caught up with him and we saw Sharon throw his cremated ashes into a waste bin. “Ah, but did we?” asks Paul. “Can we be sure they were Gavin’s ashes? Dirty Den came back.why not Gavin?”
And if such an opportunity were presented to him? “I’d go for it like a shot. I loved being in Eastenders and I have nothing but admiration for the long-term actors in the show.”
Paul popped up as himself in the second series of The Real Marigold Hotel on a trip to India with Lionel Blair, Sheila Ferguson from The Three Degrees, Dennis Taylor and Miriam Margolyes among others.
He subsequently went to Iceland, Mexico, Argentina and Thailand.
So, what next? The book apart, he’s recorded three CDS of music: pop songs; stage musical numbers; and romance, everything from the theme tune of Just Good Friends to love songs like Lady In Red and The Air That I Breathe.
He’s written a sitcom – “with a very good part for me” – and a play which he can’t talk about at the moment.
“The point is that I don’t have any hobbies. I don’t play golf. I have a garden shed but I never go in it. But I do like watching my family grow.”
He has two children from youthful affairs (“Well, I was on the road a lot”); two from his first wife Susan, tragically killed in a car crash after they divorced; and two with Linzi. And there are now 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Retirement? He laughs: “I think most actors are permanently retired until a new job comes up.”
But if you’re Paul
Nicholas, that shouldn’t be too long.
Musicals, Marigolds & Me (Fantom Publishing, £19.99) is published on October 18. Paul Nicholas – Gold (Demon Records) is released on October 22