Palladium Days!

Photographs courtesy of Craig Sugden

Wednesday 11th January 2016

A glorious day backstage at The London Palladium doing a panto style “Make-Over” on two lovely ladies, Norie and Louise!

Norie Lijima won a competition run by Qdos, The Palladium (RUG) and SOLT Accompanied by her friend Louise Forster the ladies were met at The Palladium, given a tour of the building- they especially enjoyed The Royal Box- and then got a Panto Dame style make-over with me before heading for the stage!

Craig Sugden was at hand along with staff from the Palladium to do a Photo Shoot on the set of Cinderella’s Palace Finale, joined by Mark Jones from Qdos Entertainment and Elizabeth Stormfield from SOLT. Teresa at Qdos supplied a pair of fabulous costumes for the event, and we had a lot of fun during the afternoon!

I’m in awe of the backstage changes to the Palladium. It is carpeted throughout and looks very spruced up to my last visit a few years ago. The wings were packed with the props and scenery for the evening’s pantomime- including my old car! Yes- the beautiful Rolls Royce that I had to make my entrance in “Sleeping Beauty” two years ago is now The Baroness’s mode of transport for Paul O’Grady! In between it was borrowed by someone called err.. oh yes, Glenn Close for “Sunset Boulevard” at the Coliseum- which means the lovely Ria Jones rode in it as well!

After the ladies left for dinner- followed by  champagne in the VIP room and the show, I packed up my make-up and headed front of house to take my seats in K row (Thanks Jess!) to see The most glorious and magical Pantomime!

After nearly thirty years the Magic of Pantomime has returned to its home- and it couldn’t be more magical if it tried! Bookings are already being taken I’m sure for next year’s “Dick Whittington”. Book early-It will be a total sell out!