I’ve being trying to find the positive spark in everything
Lucy Porter tells MARION McMULLEN about life in lockdown as she becomes the latest celebrity to take part in singing project The Smiling Sessions
The Smiling Sessions, run by performing arts company Shapeshifter Productions, have been organising online singalongs in care homes. How did you become involved?
A MUTUAL friend was telling me about it and I thought it was an amazing idea.
(Musicians) Pete Baikie, Alison Jones and Dick Smith organise everything and Pete and I go way back, we’ve been friends for years, and he’s done extensive training in musical therapy.
Everyone’s had to come to terms with different things during lockdown with limited access to the outside world and it must be awful to be in a care home and not be able to have visitors or enjoy a trip to the shops. The Smiling Sessions just cheer everybody up.
Actor Nick Moran, Jay and Cheryl from Bucks Fizz and Basil Brush are among those taking part. How do you rate yourself as a singer?
(Laughs) I’m not the singer in the family. My husband (actor Justin Edwards) is the musical one. I’m leading the way for those who are not very good at singing to prove you can still have a go.
I’ve not decided what I’m going to sing yet.
Alison, from The Smiling Sessions, asked me what my vocal range was and I said ‘What vocal range?’ I can either talk and do spoken word or go for belt-out shouting like a Shirley Bassey wannabe.
I was thinking of maybe doing a Cockney medley. The only time I’ve sung in public was in a musical hall show at school singing Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner and It’s A Long Way To Tipperary or maybe I could do something from the 80s.
I’m not going to do anything too extreme. Katherine Jenkins has no need to worry.
Do you enjoy karaoke?
I LOVE karaoke, but I’m terrible. You pick a song that you think is going to be easy and then find it’s not easy at all like Carly Simon’s Nobody Does It Better. It doesn’t sound like a difficult song, but it really is. She just makes it seem effortless.
I remember doing a duet with an actor friend of the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton song Islands In The Stream. Most actors have some singing training and he did his bit brilliantly and then I started singing and, well, it was such an insult to Dolly Parton.
People were looking away in embarrassment for me. (Laughs) But, God loves a trier.
You were on tour with your Be Prepared stand-up show when lockdown happened. How have you been coping?
MY husband and I had live theatre work planned. I was on tour and my husband was going to be in Stratford working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and it was going to be an absolute nightmare when it came to child care. We would have been exhausted from all the running around and then everything changed. I’ve been trying to find the positive spark in everything and it is a different way or working and more online stuff.
I won’t be going to the Edinburgh Fringe this year so I’m planning to spend time writing and I have been doing TV clip shows. I’ve done one on Victoria Wood and one on 80s hit songs... and the garden has never looked so lovely.
The last live show I did before lockdown we had great fun. The show about being prepared – and then along came something no-one could have prepared for.
Have you been enjoying your quiz podcast Fingers On Buzzers with The Chase’s Jenny Ryan?
I’M so lucky to be able to do that every week. It has been a really fun thing to do and we’ve had some big names on it because people are around at the moment.
When Quiz – about Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? – was recently on ITV we had Michael Sheen on, who played Chris Tarrant. He would normally be busy all over the place and we wouldn’t be able to get him, but he did the podcast and we’ve had Richard Osman and Henry Kelly as well.
I don’t think I’ve got any better at quizzes though. People expect me to good, but I think I’m just enthusiastic.
Jenny is a proper quizzer and I’m there being the slight idiot. I’m not great, but I do love a quiz. (Laughs) Enthusiasm can go a long way for making up for lack of quizzing talent.
What are you looking forward to most when restrictions are all lifted?
DOING my first live show. It will be such a glorious experience.