SU POLLARD: MISS HANNIGAN

After an apprenticeship at the Arts Theatre in her home town of Nottingham, Su made her television debut on Opportunity Knocks, where she came second to a singing Jack Russell dog.

Undeterred, she went on to appear in National Tours of The Desert Song, Rose Marie (both with John Hanson), Grease, Babes In Arms, a musical based on the music of Cole Porter Oh Mr Porter and Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s West End Production of Godspell.  She has also taken the title role in the musical Sweet Charity, Audrey in Little Shop Of Horrors, and Sally in Me and My Girl  at the Adelphi, London. As well as a career in musicals Su has appeared in many plays, most notably creating the part of Suzette in the phenomenally successful farce Don’t Dress For Dinner in the West End and on Tour both in the UK and New Zealand. She also toured New Zealand in The Good Sex Guide Musical Revue ( all in the best possible taste! ) 

Su first appeared on the BBC playing hippy Flo in Two Up, Two Down with Paul Nicholas but is of course best known for playing Peggy Ollerenshaw, the down trodden maid in nine series of Hi De Hi! This series was so successful that it won a Bafta award and resulted in a sell-out musical stage show which played seasons in Bournemouth, Blackpool and at the Victoria Palace in the West End. The writers of Hi De Hi! – Jimmy Perry and David Croft – then wrote the very popular You Rang M’Lord? In which Su played domestic servant Ivy for four series. Su was reunited with her friends Paul Shane and Jeffrey Holland in David Croft’s raillway comedy Oh Doctor Beeching! Playing station busybody Ethel. 

In addition Su has guest starred on virtually every notable light entertainment show of the last twenty five years. She is very proud to have taken part in five Royal Variety Galas, in the process meeting nearly all the members of the Royal Family and in 1989 she was honoured as the subject of This Is Your Life. Su provided the voice over to the very popular animated children’s series Penny Crayon and Jemima Puddleduck.

Pantomime is a great favourite with Su and she has appeared as a principal boy in Babes In The Wood, Pinocchio, Aladdin, Dick Whittington and Jack and The Beanstalk.

As a cabaret artist Su has performed at the London Hippodrome and twice aboard the QE2. She also took her act to New York where she played the Park Ten Club, Park Avenue. She’s toured nationally with The Su Pollard Show which was followed by a season in the Donmar Warehouse in her one woman show A Song, A Frock And A Tinkle. This was so successful that once more Su toured throughout the country. The Daily Express described her as ‘”The best one woman show comedienne since Joyce Grenfell”.

Su wrote her first book Hearts and Showers, a light-hearted look at romance, which was published by Headline and made a keep-fit video entitled Sensible Slimming (although she says it's hard practising what she preaches!)

On the recording scene, Su has recorded cast albums of Big Sin City, Carousel, Hi De Hi! And Little Shop Of Horrors, She was also requested by Sir Cameron Mackintosh to record a song from Godspell for a special album tribute to his career. Su’s single Starting Together reached number two in the charts and her first album went silver. One of the highlight’s of Su’s varied career was her debut at the Royal Festival Hall, singing with the 80 -strong BBC Concert Orchestra. The concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 and her performance received great acclaim. Most recently, Su has released a retrospective CD entitled Su Pollard – The Collection.

Stage roles have included a new Jimmy Perry musical That’s Showbiz, a national tour of the farce See How They Run, Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus in the Far East, Angie in Mike Leigh’s seminal comedy Abigail’s Party and Ruth in The Pirates Of Penzance.  In the Summer of 2003 Su enjoyed a tour of Vagina Monologues.

Her recent television credits are as diverse as ever, playing Heidi Honeycomb in Gimme Gimme Gimme opposite Kathy Burke and special edition of Songs Of Praise.  She was also delighted to lend her voice to the role of Noisy in the new animation series The Little Robots for CBeebies and has just taken part in a 1980’s special edition of The Weakest Link and Stars Reunited – Hi De Hi Reunion both recently broadcast on BBC 1.

She has recently completed a tour in a wonderful production of Annie as the wicked Miss Hannigan and playing the Wicked Queen in Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln.  Su is delighted return to the role and terrorise the girls in orphanages up and down the country in the second tour of Annie in the Autumn 2003 for the Theatre Royal, Lincoln.

Su lives in London and enjoys a varied social life. She hopes some of you will keep in touch with her activities via an official web site: www.supollard.org