Biggins Is Starr-Struck!

Hey Dolls

I have an extra special cracking interview for you on this bank holiday!

He is a national treasure and a king of the jungle. He’s done it all from movies musicals plays hit TV shows game shows and surprise surprise!

He is the Dame of all Dames he’s the definition of showbiz and never fails to have an incredible story. I am so honoured to having as a guest on my little podcast. Please enjoy my chat with Christopher Biggins !!

Enjoy

Xxxx

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey Deles, welcome to Star Story with Alan Starr. My guest today is a definition of a national treasure. He was the king of the jungle from Shakespeare to Songtime, from Porridge to Abfab, he is fantastic on stage and on TV. His musical roles include a baker, a baron, and name in Detroit. He's definitely a cult. Being a part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, he's loved and leaves people feeling happier after they've met him. He is the total pro, he's a proper hero of mine, and believe me, there is nothing like a dame. Please welcome Christopher Bickings.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Oh, what a lovely intro. Thank you very much. Excellent. You're welcome, how are you? Where are we right now? We're in the Birmingham Hippodrome in my Gloria's dressing room, and aren't those uh roses, white roses, beautiful. They came yesterday. Very barber's trisend, white rose. Very barber's trisend, yes. And uh Joe Collins loves white. Additionally, your newest fan. Uh white flowers, but uh they are I must say they are great. I love white. White flowers are beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Right, we're gonna try something at the very top. So tell me about your Great Auntie Val and the elocution lessons.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Right, so first of all, it was Great Auntie Vi. It's a plain to you, Christopher. And Great Auntie Vi was a terrible snob, uh, but she was wonderful because she I I was born in Oldham, so I um and I but I only stayed three weeks there. My mother, who was from Salisbury, hated it, and I came down uh from uh in the back of a Pickford's lorry from uh Oldham uh with terrible pneumonia wrapped in cotton wool, and I still have an aversion to cotton wool to this day, I can't bear it. But so we my parents, my father was from Oldham, my mother was from Wiltshire, and then all my family from Wiltshire, and everybody talked like that. You know, they were all you know, and my aunt hated it. She was from Kent and she was a real snob, and she had a wonderful shop there down in Kent, and she insisted that I have elocution lessons, which was wonderful from my point of view, because I had a wonderful woman called Mrs. Christian, who uh taught me how to speak the Queen's English, like I do so beautifully today. Indeed. And uh she then instigated that, and that's where Mrs. Christian got me interested in in acting and saw uh something that I may have had a talent or something to for the business, and that's how I started my career.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Incredible, yeah. Now your debut of the West End was the Al and the Pussycat Go to See? Yeah, went the The Alan the Pussycat went to see.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Wait to see. Dot dot dot dot dot. And David Wood, who I met at Salisbury Rep, where I started my career as a student ASM, uh, he remembered me and offered me the part of Head Jumbly, uh, which I did at the Janetica Cochrane Theatre, and it was it was the first thing I I did. And I I was 21 years old because I had my 21st birthday in London, and uh it was very exciting. I I loved it, it was great, a wonderful show, and so much so that we went on to make a record of it. Uh, the Pussycat was played by Hattie Jake, so it was unbelievable to work with her. She was wonderful, and she was a big girl, but very sexy voice, absolutely, and was fantastic. So that was a joy to do that. It was wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

And am I also right in thinking that you got spotted in that show, and that's where you got your first television break.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah, I think it was definitely that. I mean, I I I started to do a lot of televisions after that, certainly, and uh it was it was wonderful to be seen in something like the uh the pussycat went the sea, and it was a wonderful character that I played, and I think then I got uh Doctor at Sea and all the other situation comedies that were going on the rounds at that particular point because in those days, if you were young and cheap, you've got everything, you know, it was wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

And some would say nothing has changed.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

No, you're right, nothing has changed.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

And tell me about the first time that you were spotted by some bin men whilst you were driving a gorgeous convertible BMW.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Well, one of the series that I did, which I think without doubt uh people recognize me, and that was uh Porridge. And uh I had a wonderful character called Luke Worm, and he was in the we worked in the kitchen, and we never knew, you know. And Ronnie Ronnie Barker and uh was was just the most fantastic person to work with. But it was the first time I remembered I was in my convertible BMW car and I was at the traffic lights, and uh a lorry driver looked down and saw me and went, hello, bit hello, lukewarm.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Luke Warm.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

He said, So uh so that was that was when I first realized I you know I conquered uh a television series by being called the character. Then it went on that I suddenly became biggins, and people would shout, hello biggins. So it was it was really wonderful that. But uh Porridge was the first thing I I became recognised in.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

And still today, I again I know you don't get your royalties, you've been quite clear about that, but it's still so loved, and that show is again it's similar to Victoria Wood, where you can watch it again and again, it's got so much to say, and it's still so funny.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

I know, and you know, there were such a wonderful cast of actors, you know, and it was it was a joy to do. And who thought that Dick Clements and Ian Lafrenet, who wrote Porridge, would would come up with an idea of prisoners in a in a in a prison? I mean, it doesn't seem possible. You think no, no, no, that won't work. But it was charming, it was fantastic, and it was just brilliant. Absolutely, something for all the family. Exactly. And as you said, uh, still going to this day, with me getting no money at all. I get checks for £3.48.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Do you cash them?

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Of course I do.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Biggins, when was the first time you were hired as Biggins for a television program?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Well, I suppose it was when I did Surprise Surprise with Silla Black, um, and uh who was I I remember I was doing a pantomime in in Newcastle, and the producer came to see me and said, you know, we're gonna do uh a Saturday night uh program on uh ITV and we'd like you to co-host it. And I I couldn't believe what he was saying at this dinner, and I said, Oh, how lovely it's marvelous, and and it's called surprise, surprise. I said lovely. And at the end of the dinner, he said, You haven't asked who your co-star is. And I said, No, no, no, of course, I've forgotten who is my co-star. And he went, Scylla Black, and I thought, no, no, it's not possible, Silla Black, who I adored from afar and from the screen, and short thought she was wonderful, and it was fantastic to do. I mean, I remember the first day we met at the read-through of the first episode, and she was just fantastic, and we became lifelong friends, and uh I remember vividly the day that she died. I was in my car, and the news came through, and I had to pull over. I was in floods of tears, and it was just tragic that she had died. I mean, I'd been through her Bobby's death and with her children and everything, and you know, it that was bad enough, but when she died, it was just not possible. But she was great and she had a wonderful life, and it it was interesting, you know, when when Bobby died, Bobby did everything for her. He carried all the cash, he he she never carried money or she never carried anything. He did he did everything. I mean, you know, and when he died, we went to see her at her house in the country, and that night um we went home, and that night she rang me in tears at about midnight. And I said, What's the matter? What's the matter? She said, nothing really. She said, but I just don't know how to feed the dogs. I don't know where the food is. You know, and you thought, oh my goodness, this is just tragic. But she she got over that, and she and the the other thing was she she said that let we're all going out for dinner, a group of us, and she said, Um, I don't know what we're gonna do about the bill. And I said, Well, it's simple, we all go Dutch, and she said, What do you mean we go Dutch? I said, Well, we all pay for our own. She said, No, no, no, Bobby would never have allowed that. I said, Well, get get real, girl. This is how the real life is, you know. We didn't all have Bobbies, and you were lucky enough to, but we now we now cope with our own, you know. And she did get used to it, sort of, but it it was a it wasn't good for her, but she was kind and generous and a wonderful performer.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Absolutely, and I think to round up that uh surprise, surprise, please tell my gorgeous listeners about the non-proposal that happened.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Oh well, we we of course we did do live shows, and we did the first six shows were live, which was very, very exciting, and there are two stories about that. One was that that there were a man wanted to uh propose to his girlfriend on the show, so they came and she had no idea what was going to go on, and they came and she sat next to me, and he sat next to her. So Scylla talked to him, and she said, and this the the the girlfriend was very quiet, and she said, Right, off you go. So she came over and knelt before me and the boyfriend. And the boyfriend said, Uh, will you marry me? And she said, No. And I said, Oh, go on. Not you know, knowing it was live and it was uh, you know, and Scylla said, Yeah, and then we talked, and and but she wouldn't, they left separately. I mean, it was really embarrassing. And the other one I love where we did a live show, we had a uh the London Bridge had to go up, and it couldn't go up because of some problem, technical problem. So the show finished shorter than it should have done. And Scylla was singing um Surprise, Surprise at the end, and the producer came to me, uh Anna Boyd, and said, Look, uh, you have to go in and take her from where she's been singing the song at the end and take her back to the sofa and talk for eight minutes. And I went over and she was during the applause, I went over and she looked aghast, she didn't know what I was doing. And I said, Silla, we're under by eight minutes, and we've got to go back to the sofa and talk. And she she then relaxed, and we had the most wonderful eight minutes talking rubbish. But we had to, you know, had to fill in, and that's what's the wonderful thing about live television. It's very rarely done nowadays, but if it's done properly, it is wonderful. That's why I love Anton Deck so much when they do their Saturday night live shows. You know, they're wonderful, and it's it's very exciting to do. So, and you know, in those days, it was early days um of television, we used to get 20 million viewers. 20 million nowadays they're thrilled if they get 1.3 million. Yeah, I mean it's changed so much. I mean, really, television has changed enormously, but uh we we've seen the best. It was a great day.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Absolutely. And another thing what was live and you couldn't escape was the jungle. And there is so many, so many things I could talk about, but that I mean that clip when that rat is on your bed and the screaming is just it's just ins sensational.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

No, I mean it was it was I I loved doing a celebrity get me out of here, and of course, winning it was so special because you're voted by the audience at home watching, and that was what was so wonderful. And I was with the awful Janice Dickinson and uh or as well to call her Janice Dick in your song. That's a perfect one, but anyway, it was just the two of us at the end, and uh we'd had a wonderful adventure, and it was fantastic. I remember, you know, where all the water comes down. What do they call it? The big monsoon. Yes, that's right. And she I was off first with five stars, and I got to my position, and I looked back and I saw Gollum coming from uh, you know, look she looked just like Gollum in the in the rain and the water and everything. And I laughed and laughed and laughed, and then she picked up the four stars and moved on. And uh when we did the final, and it was uh just the two of us, um, I was convinced she'd won, as was she convinced she'd won. She was and so and they said, and this year the king of and she was so angry, and she she absolutely left almost immediately, and she also she went to the airport, and uh it was really shocking. Um, but she was not a very nice woman, I have to say, but it was a wonderful experience. I loved every moment of it.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

And I think it's a testament to you, Christopher, that you are so loved and still so loved, and you were voted the king of the jungle by the public when again that show was the height of everything, every front page would be about Ama Celeb, and you were such an incredible big winner. It's just show as a testament to you.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Well, that's very kind of you. I mean, I I I did love it, and you know, people um come to me for advice. I mean, recently Ruby Wax came to me for advice, and Ruby, I said, all you have to do, and it's a simple thing, is you have to be yourself. If you start acting a character, you'll fail because people will find you out, and it's you you can't sustain a character for three weeks, you know, like that. I mean, it and it I I just everything about it I loved, and uh it was it I you know I love most of the other people in it, uh and it is tough, you know. You have to sleep in the open air, and it I I slept the best I've ever slept, and I knew about it because they did ask me before to do it, and I was always working doing pantomime. So they asked me in February to do it in in in when is it November. So I dieted, especially, you know, I I no caffeine, no caffeine, no withdrawal, no, no. And that was good, I think, because I I never was never hungry, you know, and I it was just a wonderful experience, the whole thing. So going back to the uh the rats, uh Anna Ria Richardson and I had to go at night into an underground sort of dungeon, and there were two um um hammocks, and there was a a a loo, uh a portable loo in the corner, and we had then we sat there and we thought, what's gonna happen? And they let in 200 rats into this space, and we all started to scream and everything, and then we managed to fall asleep. How? I don't know. I think we were just tired, and so we were on these hammocks, and suddenly I felt something on my crutch, and I thought, oh, it's my water bottle. And of course, when you they they had a night camera, and it was a rat had climbed up. Yeah, and oh my crutch, and I I took I was fondling it, and but I didn't know what it was. So I then went back to see him again, and then eventually I did it again, and I suddenly realized that it was a rat, and I screamed, and I said, It's on me, it's on me, and I threw it, and it it hit a wall and fell down to the side of the wall, and it was it was just hysterical. Of course, that that was one of the reasons I think I wanted because it was people somebody up in Birmingham only the other day said, We always want if we want a good laugh, we put the rat sequence on. Absolutely, and it was it was terrific, really wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Again, it was like a viral moment, and before viral moments, there was cult, there was cult followings, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show that you were a part of, and that whole sequence and the time warp. What is your fondest memory of that filming? And also, did you keep anything from Seth?

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Right. Well, first of all, I went to the opening night of a stage show in the Theatre Royal um uh in in in uh London in Sloane Square, and it was the theatre upstairs, and I knew quite a few people in it, and I went that's why I was there the first night, and I've never seen anything like it. I mean, Tim Curry was extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. So I was a great fan of it, and when they came to do the film, they added 16 Transylvanians, and luckily they asked me if I would do it, and we were on it for 10 weeks. We got a hundred pounds a week, and at the end of it, I bought a sofa bed, and uh we were uh drugged every day because there was a not that we were taking anything, but there was just the smell of of you know uh drugs and things around it. But it was a wonderful experience. And as I said, Tim Curry gave the most fantastic performance. Um he is now has four carers. I mean, it is terrible. I mean, it's just awful when you think of the talent this man has, and thank God that he's got that wonderful performance up his sleeve. And he he did lots of other wonderful performances.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Did you ever see Mr. Bamelock?

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yes, wonderful, absolutely fantastic. And you know, he did a lot uh of things uh which were just wonderful, but his performance is unbelievable, and it's it's it's interesting that it's it's the stamp that everybody wants to get to if they get off of that role. And it's uh it's a wonderful role, and they're gonna do it again next year in in uh on Broadway, they're doing a new production of it, and I think it'll be and Luke Evans. Evans, yes, he's been brilliant, and he rang me, Luke. I uh Luke, I love, and he said, Look, I've been watching the film so many times, can you give me some advice? And uh he I've been doing the pants, he's been uh busy filming something else, and so I haven't talked to him yet, but hopefully I will. But he was he was just I mean, Tim Curry was unbelievable. And now he goes to these conventions to talk about uh the Rocky Horror Show, and uh you know he that's the only way he makes money, and he makes a lot of money because people want to be photographed with him. Absolutely, and it was you know, it's just a jump to the left and a step to the right, put your hands on your hips and bring your knees in tight.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Exactly, Megans, and also you play the narrator many a time. Yeah, what's the there's a I remember there's a um speaking to my friend uh Cadis Hines, and she says that one night when you were doing the play, the bumper just fell off of the car. Yeah. Oh god, that's just madness.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

No, it was madness, and it was but it was wonderful, and of course, the the audience loved the fact that I was in the film. Absolutely, and but they you know it was a real cult movie. I mean, the the the the you know huge women used to come dressed in basks and and looking and but they loved it, and I think that was the other joy of it. I mean, Richard O'Brien was so clever in in as much as I don't think he knew at the time, but you know, he's created a show that people love to go and see because they can join in. You know, it's like a pantomime, really.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

But it's that thing where I think sometimes people of musical theatre ilk who really love the theatre look down on it, but I go, look at what's happening. It's a mirror. What is happening on stage is happening in the audience? There's no there's no greater form of theatre than this. Look, it's happening. No, no, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

What's happening on stage is absolutely right. I mean, and and to answer your other question, did I steal anything from the set? It was the answer is no. Because none of us, you know, when we did the film, we never thought it was going to be the success that it is. And in fact, when it opened, it got terrible reviews. And we were all a bit disappointed. And it was only when it went to America and people started to join in by throwing water and toasts and rocks, absolutely, and all that, that it did become the and of course I think it's the biggest grossing film, English film ever made. I mean, it's it's it still is up there with the greats. I mean, it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

The sound of music, the Rocky Horror Picture show.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Guys and Dolls. You did Guys and Dolls, you did it with the gorgeous Bravo Windsor.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Uh I can only imagine what that was like. You both singing Sue Me. But you also met somebody else who played Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

I did. I I mean I love doing uh, and of course it was uh uh uh Guys and Dolls, and I did it because uh Ducky Squires, who I did my first pantomime with in Darlington, Mother Goose, um I did it with him, and he was a and his producer was a man called Jamie Phillips who was also did a lot of my pantomimes. So it was thrilling, and I love Barbara, so we we were we we just adored doing it. It was it was really fantastic production, and we toured it around the country and it was it was great. Um what was the question you asked?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Anyway, no, and I said you met somebody else who finds.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Oh, I see, that's right. I knew there was other parts of the story. So I'm in uh Los Angeles staying with my friend Joan Collins. Do you know Joan Collins?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I do, best friends, at least I'm going to Cancun with you tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

And uh she uh has uh she knows everybody in LA, and there was a couple called Barbara and Marvin Davis. They were billionaires, he owned Paramount Studios, she was uh an extraordinary woman, and one day I got a phone call. I was staying with Joan, and Joan said there's a phone call from his brother. Barbara. I said, Barbara Who? She said, Barbara Davis. So Barbara Davis came on the phone. She said, Christopher, we're having a 97th birthday party for George Burns. Would you like to come? So I said, Yes, I'd love to, Barbara. And put the phone down and screamed because it was so exciting. And they had um, I think 400 people to this dinner in the foyer of their house. Now, I mean a madness. And there were at this uh uh 400 people there with all these tables, and there was the Joan Collins table, the Jackie Collins table, the Sidney Poitiers table, the Michael Cain table. Uh every table had a star on it, or several stars. I was put on Barbara Davis's uh table, and I was sat next to Shakira Kane, who I knew really well, and then Shakira sat next to Frank Sinatra, and then Frank Sinatra sat next to Barbara Davis, our hostess. Next to the hostess was George Burns, the birthday boy, who was 97. We we sat down and I thought, yes, George Burns, very exciting and wonderful. But Frank Sinatra, I thought, if my mother could see me now, sitting one away from Frank Sinatra. So I I called him sir, and I called him Mr. Sinatra, and eventually he said to me, Christopher, call me Frank. So I thought I can't let this moment go by. So I said, Frank, many years ago in London, I played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. And he said, Do you know Christopher? So did I. And I thought, that's it now, I can die and go to heaven. I mean, it was uh Dan Aykroyd uh was the the actor next to the uh one of the daughters, and he said to me, Biggins, pinch yourself, you don't get you don't get many evenings like this, nor nor do you. I mean, it was extraordinary. Uh but Joan has been absolutely marvelous, she's a great friend and a good friend, and she is so good with her, you know, giving of all her friends to each other, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

But there was a time, Biggins, where you and Jo really fell out. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 24:06

There was. The Daily Mail asked me to do an article um about my favourite five women, and of course, Jo was in that list of five women, and um I I said that you know I'd been staying with her in the south of France and I'd seen her without her wig or without makeup, and she looks beautiful. And so the article came out, and it was the front page of the mail, and it said, Biggins says that I've that Joan Collins is I've seen Joan Collins without her makeup or her wigs, and uh that was the headline they picked out in brig print, and Joan was furious, and she didn't speak to me for three months, and uh she was away in America, she came back and she rang, she said, It's your friend with no makeup and no wigs. Do you want lunch? And we we got back again. I mean, you know that's the sort of woman she is, she's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

There is nothing like a dame and damn Joan Collins to you being the absolute antithesis of a dame to the point where there was a lovely moment at the uh Panto Awards where Ian McKellen was accepting his award for Mother Goose and he turned to you and got very emotional because he said how much he had learned and how much inspiration that you'd given to him.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I know, I mean that was that was one of them. I I I adore Ian, Ian is is marvelous, and he's what I mean. I you know, in my career we insisted on we had Simon Callow um play uh villain, you know, and because actors love to do pantomime, but they're Ian's sort of made it more acceptable by doing it, you know, and he was brilliant. I mean he's I love the fact that he has a go at anything, and he is absolutely unbelievably wonderful actor and a person, you know, he does things for theatre, which is great.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Absolutely, and what do you think makes a good Dame? Like what's your when you play Dame, what did you bring to her to make her so gorgeous?

SPEAKER_01 26:08

I think that secret in my day was that I was everybody's favourite aunt, favorite uh mother, I suppose, you know, and I I was just ordinary, a warm personality that loved what she was doing, and and you know, and it was great fun, you know. It was I I remember because Mother Goose is my favourite day because it's all about her, it's very rarely done Mother Goose. Have you done Mother Goose? No. And it's it's great though because she becomes uh uh subjected to money and and wants to make and she loses it in a way. And it but it it it's a wonderful, wonderful dame to play. And I've I've always loved it. I remember when I've uh when Peter Todd, who used to run this theatre, um, and a great friend of mine, and he was initiated my first dame at Darlington Civic Theatre. I played in pantomime at Salisbury when I was 16 years old, but he was instigated that. And uh I kept turning it down. I said, No, no, I'm an actor, I don't do pantomima. And this was in 1976, I think it was, and uh I kept turning it down. Eventually they said, Well, you know it's a thousand pounds a week. Well, in 76, a thousand pounds a week was a lot of money, and the seats were one and six, I think. So God knows how they made the money, but they did, and of course, I loved it so much, so I did it for the money, but I loved it so much I've done it ever since.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

And what I loved about when I I saw you so many times at Wolverhampton being an usher and watching you perform, seeing you do the song sheet with the children. Yeah, I love that. Is incredible, and there was a very special boy that came on stage once. And am I right in thinking that he was blind?

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Yes, absolutely. And it was it was wonderful, and all the way through the pantomime, his mother, he was I can see him now, he had a uh long grey trousers, he must have been about eight or something, and he had a blue sweater, v-neck sweater, and uh a tie, a blue tie, white shirt, and his eyes were wide open all the way through the pantomime, and his mother kept whispering things to him. And um I talked to him, and he was so funny, he was absolutely brilliant, and he um at the end of the uh song sheet, he went off with his present, and I went off to do a quick change, and everyone was crying in the wings, and I didn't know why they were crying, and no one could tell me because I was doing a quick change, so eventually when a pantomime said, What's the matter? And they said he's totally blind, and the courage to come up on stage and be funny, and his mother wrote me the most wonderful letter. I mean, I think that's what's so good about pantomime, it affects so many people of different ages, you know, and it it is a fantastic, and it's this has been a wonderful pantomime, this um uh Robin Hood that we're doing now, and I've loved every minute of it because it's a wonderful cast, and everybody backstage, front of house, everybody is wonderful except Charlotte. Well, but I don't think we can say anything about Charlotte, can we? Charlotte is one of our stagehands, she is unrelated. I love her to death. We have the most horrible relationship, it's not true. We shout and scream at each other, but she is fantastic. She's great, I love Charlotte. Oh god, she's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

And I think what a really nice moment wasn't it got me quite emotional, actually, about a few nights ago. Um, the audience were all, you know, the show had finished, they were all clapping along, and then and then Matt uh mentions that she was your 60th year doing panto. Yeah, and not missing a beat, the whole auditorium took on their feet. I know.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

It was such a beautiful, beautiful moment. That was really wonderful. I I was very moved by that, I must say. And that's the you know, the generosity of Matt. Uh, he is a fantastic pantomime performer, and I think is it 15 years he's done here? You know, and he's loved by the public and he's been very generous. I've really loved him, he's great. And uh Gok, who I adore, we have a very peculiar relationship, shout at each other and scream, and we love each other, he's great, he's great and so good to his family.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

To say one of my favourite moments of being of above musical theatre is watching that incredible celebration of Ham Mr. Producer, and you got to do one of the best princess tracks ever, which is you walked on and just went, heck I leave and play the maid in this sometime moment. And sometime is so important to me, and obviously Cameron brought you mad over, but you were a part of that, weren't you? You were somehow involved in getting him involved with Stone Time.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Well, what happened was they uh they they did a show, uh Julian Mackenzie and uh Millicent Martin, uh they did a show called Um Side by Side by Songtime, and it was on in a theatre in London, and Cameron McIntosh, who's my oldest friend, I've known him for 50 years, uh, was in America, couldn't go to see it. So he rang me and he said, Look, would you go and see it? And go with a friend of mine, uh, one of his backers, George Borick, and let me know what you think. So I went to see the show, and of course, I adored it. It was just fantastic. Ned Sharon as the host, and um it was it was just one of us. So I rang him, and in those days, it was a coin box, and all we had was 10 peas, I think. And so I had a pile of 10 peas to New York, and I said, Whatever you do, you've got to buy this. This is yours, you've got to have it, you you know, you've got to produce it. And so he did on my say-so, and Sondheim put it in his book, that story. Um, and so you know it was due to, of course, they did have the most amazing relationship. Yeah, and I agree with you. I mean, Sondheim is unbelievable. I think my favourite Sondheim show is Merrily We Roll Along, which I absolutely admit.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Did you see the revival that um Maria Friedman directed?

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yeah, I did, she's fantastic, directed it absolutely brilliantly. Um, and it you know, it so it was wonderful, and then when they came to um uh put it when the cast wanted to leave, uh they all said, Well, of course, no one it would be to take over from us. And Karen said, What do you mean? And they said, Well, you know, we've done the the performance of a lifetime. They said, Yes, he said, but there are other people who are as good as you, not better. They weren't pleased by that, but he did, he was right, and I played the Ned Sharon part on the tour, and we had such a wonderful time, it was great, it was a great, great show, and we had wonderful performers perform it as well, if not better than those four.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Um, I can't leave this meeting without tell asking you to tell one of my favourite stories, which is your date to Liza Manelli. Please tell my gorgeous listeners' story.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Well, Liza Manelli, I know Liza Manelli through uh a friend of mine who's Archdeacon of London, uh, but before that he was a producer in in uh Los Angeles, and his best friend in Los Angeles was Judy Garland. And he, in fact, married Judy Garland to her last husband, buried Judy Garland, and they were very close friends. So married Liza Minnelli to Mark Gero and married Nora Love to her husband, and uh we were all very close, and whenever she came to town, Liza would always ring me when we go to dinner and do all sorts of things. But anyway, she was doing a show at the Albert Hall, which was a show, a one-woman show, but there were people, women in the audience who pretended they were members of the audience. And so at the end of her first number, they would say, uh Liza was talking, and a woman would say, Well, I can sing as well as you. And so Liza said, What how so that was a conversation starter? So they came in and they performed in the show, and it was just the most I mean, I think Liza Modelli was the greatest performer I've ever seen, female, uh, on a stage. I mean, she was I saw um Bet uh Betty Davis, who is fantastic. I saw uh um uh Streisand, who was wonderful, but Liza could do everything. I mean, you know, she could sing, she could dance, she could act, she did everything. So we were good friends, and one day I got a phone call. She said to me, Uh, will you come and see the show again tonight? And will you take a friend of mine? So I said, I will. So where's the Abbott Hall? And we're in the dressing room and we're mucking around and having a laugh. And the door goes, and I opened the door, and there's my date, which was Princess Diana. So I we I I we we had a drink and then we laughed and what have you, stories, and then they said, Right, time for the show. And so they said that your seats are on the front row, but don't go in, let people see you, wait at the side, and then when the lights go down, go and sit down. So I was talking to her and I said, I've just seen that wonderful picture of you with on Britannia, the royal yacht, uh, with your boys, and you're on your knees with your arms open, and they're running towards you. And she said, Well, she said, you've got to remember they're the most important things in my life. And recently I was doing uh a pantomime section in the Royal Variety show this last year, and um our guest of all it was uh William and Catherine. And so William came up uh in the lineup and he said, Well done. I said, Well, it's it's marvelous to meet you, sir, because I have great memory of this theatre because I took your mother to see Liza Minnelli. And he went, Really? I said, Yes, and she was the most fantastic woman. And he said, Well, thank you very much, that means a lot. And then he moved on, and then he came back and he talked about various other things. Then Catherine moved in, and I said, and she said, Well done. I said, Do you take your children to the pantomime? She said, Well, we have at the bottom of our road, sort of thing. I don't think she said road, but bottom of our street, whatever, where it was the Windsor Theatre, which of course is by Windsor Castle. And uh, so we I'd taken them there, so I said, Well, that's great. I said, um, that's something she said, uh then she started to walk away, and she came back and she said, Actually, I when I was a girl, I played Principal Boy. And I said, Oh, really? I said, What was the pantomime? And she said, Dick Whittington. And I said, I bet your dick was wonderful. And she pointed her finger at me and said, if you tell anybody that story, I'll kill you. And she moved on, and we laughing, and it was wonderful. And I think that Catherine is the secret of the royal family funny. I'm a great royalist, I mean the Queen Elizabeth uh was uh to me the ultimate, and I was lucky enough to meet her many times, and she had a brilliant sense of humour.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

It's a very odd question to ask someone, but I think it's imperative to ask someone like yourself. When if you could be remembered for one thing, and people go, ah, Biggins, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Well, it is a very good question. I've I I've been asked this before, and I've you know, I've done things like I Claudius playing Nero, which I'm very thrilled with is a great role, and it it some still people still remember that. I then played the Sex Craze Vicar in in Poldark with Toes, with Luke's Flag's Toes, which I love doing, and you know, I've done some wonderful, wonderful work. I look at my CV and I think, my goodness, have I done all that? I mean it's extraordinary because I'm so old. But the one thing that I absolutely love, cherish, and can't thank people enough was the jungle. Yeah, and uh I think because and we've talked about this earlier, because that I was uh voted in by the public as the winner meant so much to me, and that public has stayed with me forever. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Are you ready for you, quick fire questions?

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

Hot or cold? Cold. Day or night. Day. Coffee or tea? Coffee. Cat or dog? Dog. Give or receive. Receive.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Heels or flats?

SPEAKER_00 38:24

What? Heels or flats? Oh, flats. Broadway or West End. West End. Too little or too much? Too little. Suntime or weather? Suntime. What's your favourite cast album? Musical theatre cast album.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Well, I suppose that's a very interesting question. Um I think it's probably uh the the Suntime musical um what I mentioned before.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Um Maryland.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

I think Mary only We Row Along is my favourite castle. I just love it. It's a great show.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

What's your favourite movie?

SPEAKER_01 39:03

Without doubt, is it's uh uh I'm gonna try again. The Sandy Music. The Sandy Music, that's the one. That's the one, thank you. What's your favourite book? Uh my favourite book is funny enough, this is a an interesting question. I love thrillers and I John Grisham, any John Grisham book I really love, and I've devoured them. What's your favourite drink? It used to be champagne, but as I'm getting older, it's now uh a dry martini. Shaken?

SPEAKER_00 39:32

What's shaken? What's your what was the first Broadway show you ever saw? The first Broadway show I ever saw.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Oh my goodness, this is a very good question. Um I used to love going to Broadway and I I now hate it. We went this year to see last year to see the Sondheim show with my friend Bonnie Langford. Um I think it was I think it was Gypsy.

unknown 40:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

With Angela Landsbury. Wow. Um what was your first time on stage? The first time I was on stage was I was fifteen and a half, sixteen years old at the Salisbury rep. What were you doing? I was doing uh well, I left school and I went to theatre one day and I said, Can I have a job? And Reggie Salberg, who was the theatre manager who brother ran the Alex in Birmingham. Okay, and so they were a dynasty of theatre people, and uh he said, Well, you can come for two weeks. And I stayed for two years and I loved it. Two pounds a week, I was on.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

What's the most important theatre viewing? What have you seen that's really impressed you or changed your mind about things?

SPEAKER_01 40:48

I think probably Les Miserables. I mean, you know, it's uh I remember going because Cameron Macintosh, as I said, a very close friend of mine, and I remember going to the first night at the Barbican of and it was a disaster. Everybody hated it, and Cameron Macintosh's tenacity said no. Funny the story is that he was in a after the production opening night, and it was a flop, uh, all by the critics. He was in a meeting and his phone went, and he went, excuse me, and he went away and took the phone call and came back, said, No, we're gonna transfer to the West. They said, No, you can't, you can't go. Why, why, why? He said that was the box office at the Barbican, and the queues are going three times round the theatre. And of course, that was history. I mean, you know, there it is still, 40 years later.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

What's the best singular performance you've seen live? Liza?

SPEAKER_01 41:45

No, I think funny enough, um, I it has to be at the old Vic, and it has to be an actress, Maggie Smith. And I adored Maggie Smith. I mean, Maggie Smith was uh wonderful. I remember I had a I was artistic director of a Shakespeare and opera season in Barbados, and uh three years I did, and I was in the Ivy, and uh Maggie Smith was having lunch with um uh Laurence Olivier's wife, Joan Ploughwright, and they called me over to the table and they were quite drunk, and they said, So, Darling, why haven't you asked us to go to Barbados to be in your season? So I said, Well, I I'd love to ask you, but would you come? We would love, wouldn't we love to come? And they it was hysterical. And Maggie Smith to me it was one of the, and of course, she was married to Robert Stevens, uh, who luckily now I know their son, who is absolutely a brilliant actor. Uh, but you know, it was it was that was Robert Stevens playing at a Welper in uh a play at the Old Vic. I mean, the Old Vic season was just wonderful, and that was really great theatre. I mean, I've seen you know, Liza Milleni, I've seen Judy uh I've seen um you know wonderful people, and they're wonderful in their own way, but there was something about those days, and that we're talking 50 years ago, and it was just wonderful theatre. And you know, I worked with Judy Dench at the uh the Oldwitch in a play called London Assurance, and with Donald Sindon, you know, I've done I've seen some great, great performances, and I've been very lucky, and they're all fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

What's your favourite interval snack?

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Interval snack, sort and vinegar vin uh uh um Walker's Crisps. Yeah, Walker's Crisp, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Me and you in a time machine, we've got tickets to the opening night of any musical or play ever written. What are we seeing and why?

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Well, I would love to see uh the Julie Andrews original stage production of um My Fair Lady My Fair Lady. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

What's your biggest on stage mishap?

SPEAKER_01 43:56

So many. Today alone. Today alone. Mishap, let me just have a think. Um I think probably Oh my god, it's a it's a very difficult one. Um can we come back to that one?

SPEAKER_00 44:16

What's your favourite quote?

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Quote Um I can't think. Sorry. Yeah. Have you got your mishap? I was on stage doing a play called Cludo, and I was playing the Vicar, and uh I was being interrogated by the inspector, and we were the only two actors on the stage, and uh a butterfly flew on stage and landed on the nose of the inspector. Well, it was great hilarity and mirth, as you can imagine, the audience were transfixed by it, and it flew away, and literally four or five seconds later came and landed on my nose. So that was quite extraordinary.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Magic. And Christopher, my last question to you before I let you go is when was the first time you were starstruck?

SPEAKER_01 45:16

I think I was starstruck when I joined Salisbury rep and uh I was 16 and a half years old, and there was an actress in it called Stephanie Cole, who I just had admired from the stage when I was before I joined the company, and I just thought she was unbelievable, and I certainly was starstruck from that, and I think she's maintained that stardom. And funny enough, my brother, who's 18 years younger than me, his uh godmother is Stephanie Cole, and she's still with us uh in that she's in her home, I think now, but she was absolutely she could do anything.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

Brilliant. Christopher begins, I can't thank you enough for doing this, and I mean this with no frills or anything to make you feel uncomfortable, but I adore you, I've adored you since watching you on TV, watching you in pantomime as the diamond, seeing how you conduct yourself, seeing how you conduct yourself in a company and how kind you are and how generous you are. I genuinely can't thank you enough for doing this today, and I'm such a huge fan. And they say don't meet people that you admire, and I've met you, and I couldn't be happier.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Oh, thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. It's a great. I'm sorry that I a few questions I couldn't answer. Next time, I mean we'll talk me and you and Joe and we'll go for a drink and yeah, absolutely. Great. Love you, biggins. And you, darling, love you more.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Hey dolls, thank you for listening to this episode of Starstruck with Adam Starr. I would like to thank my producers, Scott Byrd, and William J. Connolly, and I look forward to seeing you the next time I'm Starstruck.