Roy Hudd writes just for you…
This fortnight Roy’s been confronted by people from his past who he never even knew were there!
Auseless old bit of folklore came into my brain this past week. My gran – who was the bearer of so many odd facts – always used to say, “If you walk around Piccadilly Circus all day you’re sure to meet someone you know.” (Or get arrested, I should think.) Now, I’ve been walking around in showbusiness for many a long day and it’s amazing how often you do meet up with toilers in the field of entertaining. Folk you’ve worked with in the past particularly. The other week I had two such meetings in two days. Let me tell you – oh, go on – please. I spent a day in Birmingham recording some episodes for a BBC Radio 4 series called Home Front*. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that in the cast was a lady who I’ve always been a great fan of, Joanna David. We’d never met – or so I thought – until she announced to the entire cast, “Roy and I worked together 54 years ago”. I blushed and explained, “Well, I was a child star.” “No, I was the child, but certainly not the star,” said Joanna. “I was 16 and you were the comic.” “Where?” “We were together in The Ocean Revue on Clacton Pier – I was a Laguna Lovely – a dancer.” As soon as I got home I rummaged through my archives – they can’t touch you for it – and found the programme for that very show. Yes, The Laguna Lovelies were there, but without Miss David. I tackled her about it and she said, “I was Joanna Nesbitt then.” Yes, it was her. We both got told off for talking and laughing during rehearsals and had to resort to sending each other notes, which we laughed out loud at and got told off again. Incidentally, Joanna is the mum of Emilia Fox and Emilia’s dad is Edward Fox, so she should be pretty damn good – and she is, especially in Silent Witness. Just the day after this terrific wander down Memory Lane, I was doing a bit more for the series I wrote about in my last column, Bus Pass Bandits. The very pretty make-up lady (aren’t they all?) seemed to enjoy trying to make me look human – she told me she does love a challenge. Between putting on yet another layer of Polyfilla, she told me that we’d met before. We didn’t actually work together, but she was one of the kids I get up from the audience to join me in a song at the end of a pantomime. This panto was at the Birmingham Hippodrome. She said, “I’ve never forgotten you...” I enjoyed that, thinking how my brilliant comedy must have entranced her. “...I was the only one who didn’t know the words and you knocked me off the bench we were sitting on!” So much for being the great children’s entertainer. *home Front is a serial on bbc radio 4 every weekday from 12.04pm until 12.15pm. it’s the continuing story of those left at home while the lads went off to the First World War – a bit like the archers with gas masks.
‘I didn’t know the words, so you knocked me off the bench I was on’