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Interview with Peter Hudson

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Interview with Peter Hudson THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT http://sounds.bl.uk Peter Hudson – interview transcript Interviewer: Sue Barbour 24 October 2008 Singer and comedian. Agents; auditions; The Bill Shepherd Singers; Concert Artists Association; Tommy Cooper; digs; Equity; Cyril Fletcher; Frank Loesser; London Management; The Most Happy Fella; The Music Man; opera; Michael Parkinson; Pontin Circuit; television; touring; Max Wall; C. Daniel Warren; Mike and Bernie Winters. Read other interviews by and about variety performers and their way of life here. SB: This is Sue Barbour from the University of Sheffield, interviewing Peter Hudson, an all round entertainer. Hi Peter. PH: Hello Sue, Hello. SB: First of all let me ask you how you started your career in show-business? PH: Well, I suppose the best way of putting it is that I actually did an audition for a Harold Fielding production of Cinderella - I had been training as a singer and I got in, to begin with, as a singer in The Bill Shepherd Singers at the London Coliseum, in Cinderella, and that’s how I started. SB: And what date was that? What sort of year? PH: It was in November… 1958. And, in fact it’s next month I shall be celebrating - for want of a better word - 50 years in show business. SB: Oh, that’s incredible! PH: Yes. SB: So you were a singer in that production… http://sounds.bl.uk Page 1 of 17 Theatre Archive Project PH: Yes, yes. SB: And what did you do when that finished? PH: Well, when that finished, funnily enough, somebody was asked to do an audition for Cyril Fletcher, but they couldn’t make it because - well, I remember his name, John Clifford - he had a sore throat, so he said, ‘You go’… and I went along and auditioned at the end of it they said, ‘We think you’re absolutely ideal for the show, Mr. Clifford’, and I said, ‘No, I’m Peter Hudson’, ‘Oh, really? Oh, well, Mum and I…’ - he always called Betty Estelle, his wife, Mum - ‘would like you to appear at Sandown Pavilion in 1959 Summer Season’. And that’s how I started, as a Utility Man - I was not just a singer in the show but I had to do all the straight bits… I didn’t do any comedy that year. SB: Oh, and was it a production show? PH: It was a big, a Concert Party. We did four programmes in two weeks, so if anybody had the stamina they could go to the theatre four times in two weeks while they were on holiday - because you did have two weeks holiday in those days - and see the show. I mean, the price of tickets for that show was… I think 2/6 was the top price. SB: [laughs] PH: Real money… Yes, so that’s how I started. But it was while I was with him that first season he discovered that I’d been in a Variety Show - once only, doing comedy - and it was a few weeks after the Summer Season finished I went to East Grinstead and spent the day with him telling jokes, just to him. SB: Really? PH: Yes, and he said ‘I think you are very funny. I’m going to give you four Sunday Concerts… and I did… I did four Sundays and on one of them… I’ve got a photograph somewhere… the Top of the Bill was Petula Clark, and it was 6/6 the top price for that. SB: Oh, goodness! And did you do all types of… did you do Summer Seasons and pantomimes and… PH: Yes, from that moment on I did pantomime, Summer Season, pantomime and then I got into an American Folk Opera The Most Happy Fella and from there immediately - straight after we closed - I started rehearsing The Music Man at the Adelphi Theatre with Van Johnson... as a singer - I was just a singer there, I was in the Barbershop Quartet. They were known as ‘The Square Pegs’ at that time, yes, so I spent I suppose… http://sounds.bl.uk Page 2 of 17 Theatre Archive Project three… four years in the West End before going back with Cyril Fletcher in Concert Party and I did Concert Party with Cyril for about four or five years after that. SB: Oh, right. And was it always in the same place? PH: No, no… different places every year. Eastbourne, one summer… Sandown, Isle of Wight again, Hastings and Bournemouth… so, I got around. I must admit I was lucky, I learnt… my apprenticeship was doing Concert Party… learning the ropes… being able to sing in Shanas - Operettas written by Betty Estelle - and feeding Cyril, which was quite a chore at times – it was a bit difficult feeding him. SB: Oh really? PH: Yes, because he would wander off sometimes and I would have to bring him back… SB: Oh, would he? PH: … as the Straight Man. But it was good ground schooling for me. SB: Mm… and what about accommodation? Where did you stay during those days? PH: Well, in the early days, I mean, I just went into digs, but once I’d got my second summer season with Cyril, I got a flat and then my wife and my first daughter would come down and stay for the length of the season, in a flat. I mean, we invariably, from that moment on, all my life I would always get a bed-sit or a flat, rather than go into digs. SB: Yes. So… in the early days you did go into digs… were there any peculiar landladies or anything? PH: No… only one I think… there was one actually at [pause] I’m trying to think where it was… at Bristol… it - the actual house - was called "Prompt Corner". SB: Oh, really! PH: “Prompt Corner”, yes, “Prompt Corner” and her wall, in the dining room, where we used to all eat when we were there, the Variety Acts or whatever, was absolutely covered with everybody you would care to mention who had stayed there… big names… as well, Jimmy Jewel, Ben Warris, Arth… what’s his name, English? http://sounds.bl.uk Page 3 of 17 Theatre Archive Project SB: Oh, Arthur English, yes. PH: Arthur English, Arthur English amongst others… Jimmy Wheeler, all stayed at these digs… Prompt Corner. She was a very quaint lady. Her husband was a drummer on a ship. SB: Oh really? PH: So… and every time…when we came back from the show at night… we’d have a full scale dinner… a big meal lined up. She’d cook. She’d give us something light before we went to the theatre but when we came back you’d get a big, full blown meal. I mean, to eat a full scale meal at half past eleven at night took a bit of doing. SB: Yes. PH: But when you are young your metabolism worked better. SB: Oh Gosh! And what about transport? How did you get from place to place? PH: Well, funnily enough… I didn’t drive… I was a late starter because I auditioned for the Pontin Circuit in 1968 and at the end of it they said, ‘Yes, you’ve got the job. You’ll do twelve camps a week.’ And I said, ‘Oh, where are they?’ and when they told me where they all were I said, ‘Well, how am I going to get there by train?’ ‘Train? You’re going to have to drive!’ So, I took 24 lessons with the BSM [British School of Motoring] passed first time and got a second hand Morris 1100 and drove that for the first year. SB: Oh, really! So for the early part of your career you always travelled by train? PH: Always, by train. Yes, always by train. SB: Did you? Mmm. PH: Yes, I was a late starter. It was 1968 when I learned to drive and I only had that car for that first summer and then I got a new car, a brand new car which I drove out of Daggenham Motor Factors, because Ford’s were very big there then. A Corsair 2000E, which somebody had won by designing something for the Cortina and I had it for £1000 brand new. SB: Gosh! http://sounds.bl.uk Page 4 of 17 Theatre Archive Project PH: That was good, wasn’t it? SB: Certainly was. So you did sort of all different kinds of entertainment. Where did you enjoy working the most? What kind of… PH: Anywhere! SB: [laughs] PH: Anywhere where there was a theatre, I enjoyed it. I mean, when I did the Pontin’s Circuit… I did it … and I was very good. I mean, David Lever was the Entertainments Manager for Fred Pontin and he did all the bookings but I must admit that I’m a theatre man, born and bred really… I mean, I love the theatre. I did Cabaret for many many years, all over the land, especially in the winter, but no… I… give me a theatre, it’s the best. SB: And I believe you did some television warm-up spots, tell me about them… PH: Yes, that came a lot later actually. I mean, I actually did television: Seaside Special, Big Top Variety Show… all those things, but then I was called out on one night when Felix Bowness… SB: Oh, yes! PH: Who should have been doing a warm-up… he did many… he was the King of Warm-ups… couldn’t do it and it was for Michael Parkinson.
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