Sherrie Hewson Interview: The Changing Face of Pantomime
Title
Sherrie Hewson Interview: The Changing Face of Pantomime
Date
11 January 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Sherrie Hewson, star of 2017 Pantomime 'Beauty and the Beast' and Nottingham born and bred.
What's the story?
Sherrie Hewson is one of our most well-known actors and presenters. Her TV work includes roles on Coronation Street, Crossroads, Emmerdale and Benidorm.
She has been a panellist on lunchtime chat show Loose Women and in 2015, she came sixth place in Celebrity Big Brother.
Sherrie was born in Nottingham growing up in Burton Joyce in a show-business family. Her father was a singer and her mother was a model. She began performing at the age of six, touring the UK's theatres in revues and later was granted a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
In this interview she talks about the changing face of Pantomime, in particular the innovation of 3D technology into Panto. She says she "can't watch it, it's terrifying".
She also talks about the Principal Boy and Dame roles, making an interesting comparison to her role as one of Cinderella's step-sisters in Bryan Forbes' 1976 film 'The Slipper and the Rose':
I do work for Qdos a lot and, as we know, they put on very good pantomimes and they spend money. Pantomime takes a lot of money. The 3D in this has cost millions, I should imagine, because I’ve never, ever in my life seen a 3D film like it. I can’t watch it, because it’s terrifying. I’ve never seen anything like it: it’s so clever.
But the problem is like when they changed the Principal Boy from girl to boy, because it’s always been a girl, and I’ve played Principal Boy, and once that started, we all knew that was the beginning of the changing of Pantomime as we know it. I don’t mean the Dame. I’ve played lady Dame and it doesn’t work. It has to be a man. The same with the Uglies. I think the Uglies have to be men because they’re Grotesques. If you get women, they become evil women, but as men they’re Grotesques, as in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. You can recognise them as these grotesque men, but as women they’re, sort of, very nasty. I did a film called The Slipper and the Rose with Richard Chamberlain and it’s the story of Cinderella and Margaret Lockwood was the Mother and me and another girl played the Ugly Sisters. But we played them as very nasty girls. And so not Ugly Sisters, but really, really horrible and that, kind of, works on a film, but it wouldn’t work on stage, because we’re talking about Pantomime and it is big!
But once that happened, we all knew that Pantomime was changing because the children have ipads. My 6 year old granddaughter, she’s got everything: computers, ipads, everything, and can do it much better than I can. So the 3Ds have come in and they have them for the Beanstalk and everything now and you think “Is that good?” I don’t know.
She has been a panellist on lunchtime chat show Loose Women and in 2015, she came sixth place in Celebrity Big Brother.
Sherrie was born in Nottingham growing up in Burton Joyce in a show-business family. Her father was a singer and her mother was a model. She began performing at the age of six, touring the UK's theatres in revues and later was granted a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
In this interview she talks about the changing face of Pantomime, in particular the innovation of 3D technology into Panto. She says she "can't watch it, it's terrifying".
She also talks about the Principal Boy and Dame roles, making an interesting comparison to her role as one of Cinderella's step-sisters in Bryan Forbes' 1976 film 'The Slipper and the Rose':
I do work for Qdos a lot and, as we know, they put on very good pantomimes and they spend money. Pantomime takes a lot of money. The 3D in this has cost millions, I should imagine, because I’ve never, ever in my life seen a 3D film like it. I can’t watch it, because it’s terrifying. I’ve never seen anything like it: it’s so clever.
But the problem is like when they changed the Principal Boy from girl to boy, because it’s always been a girl, and I’ve played Principal Boy, and once that started, we all knew that was the beginning of the changing of Pantomime as we know it. I don’t mean the Dame. I’ve played lady Dame and it doesn’t work. It has to be a man. The same with the Uglies. I think the Uglies have to be men because they’re Grotesques. If you get women, they become evil women, but as men they’re Grotesques, as in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. You can recognise them as these grotesque men, but as women they’re, sort of, very nasty. I did a film called The Slipper and the Rose with Richard Chamberlain and it’s the story of Cinderella and Margaret Lockwood was the Mother and me and another girl played the Ugly Sisters. But we played them as very nasty girls. And so not Ugly Sisters, but really, really horrible and that, kind of, works on a film, but it wouldn’t work on stage, because we’re talking about Pantomime and it is big!
But once that happened, we all knew that Pantomime was changing because the children have ipads. My 6 year old granddaughter, she’s got everything: computers, ipads, everything, and can do it much better than I can. So the 3Ds have come in and they have them for the Beanstalk and everything now and you think “Is that good?” I don’t know.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Diane Jones & Jennifer Sherwood
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
