RSNO presents The Snowman

Perth Concert Hall, December 20; Caird Hall, Dundee, December 21

The televised version of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman has been a staple of the festive season since it was first shown 35 years ago on Channel 4, but it’s interesting to note the different associations which each generation has with it.

“Everyone I know has seen the Irnbru advert,” says 17-year-old actor Millie Innes, referring to the spoof take on the classic animation which first aired in 2007, “but I didn’t actually see the full film until I got the script for this. It’s really lovely.”

She’s referring to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s 2017 edition of its much-loved touring Christmas Concert, which this year is led off by an orchestrally scored screening of The Snowman – the original, not the Irn-bru version – which Innes will narrate.

From Cardonald in Glasgow and currently in sixth year at school, she has nearly a decade of high-profile acting roles behind her, mostly famously in her own CBBC series Millie Inbetween, and also as daughter to David Tennant and Jason Isaacs, respectively, in the BBC series’ Single Father and Case Histories.

“My job is reading the book while the orchestra play, essentially,” says Innes. “It’s quite daunting, I need to know when they’re going to play and what’s going to happen next in the film, and be careful not to speak too slow or too fast.

“It’s all about timing, which is a bit scary, but we’re getting there. It’s such a nice thing to be involved in, it’s so different, and it’s the first time the RSNO have had a young person narrating their Christmas story.”

The Snowman film, of course, is less than half an hour long, but the rest of the show will be filled with orchestral versions of seasonal songs and carols, and there will be plenty of opportunity for the audience to join in and get involved as well.

“It’s such a Christmassy atmosphere that we’ve got going on,” says Innes. “I haven’t actually rehearsed with the full orchestra yet, but I’ve seen video of the music and it sounds so nice. There will be a little boy from the junior choir singing Walking in the Air, it’s going to be lovely.”

Discovered by chance when her shopowner mother was asked by the photographer across the road if Millie could stand in for another child who pulled out of a shoot, Innes will be finishing school next year, and she plans to study drama at university.

Although the RSNO concert is a Christmas tradition for many families, this will be the first time she’s been to one – and she’ll be inviting her eightyear-old brother along, so his own childhood memories of The Snowman are unlikely to involve fizzy drinks.

www.rsno.org.uk

Millie Innes will be narrating the concert.