Su
Pollard
Although she doesn't like to admit it often,
Susan Georgina Pollard was born on
7th November 1949 in Nottingham, England.
The eldest daughter to Don and
Hilda Pollard (they were in shock for
so long that it took them another seven
years before they came up with a sister
for Su, in the shape of the lovely Jean).
Su's interest in the stage began when at
the age of six she played an angel in
the
school nativity play. Whilst standing
on a box announcing the arrival of the
angel
Gabriel, she fell through the lid. Everyone
roared with laughter and she loved it
from
that moment. At sixteen she began singing
in charity shows and at working men's
clubs
and pubs whilst working as a secretary
and her claim to fame from that time was
that
she was the first woman to sing Ave Maria
in hotpants in a working men's club!
After an apprenticeship at the Arts Theatre
in Nottingham Su made her television
debut in 1974 on the enormously popular
talent show hosted by Hughie Green,
Opportunity Knocks, where her rendition
of "I'm Just A Girl Who Can't Say
No"
from Oklahoma saw her come second to a
singing Jack Russell dog... Undeterred,
she went on to play in the musicals The
Desert Song and Rose Marie with John
Hanson, starred in Cameron Mackintosh's
West End production of Godspell,
played opposite Jack Wild in Big Sin City
at the Roundhouse, toured in the musical
Grease in a company that also included
Tracey Ullman, had them rocking in the
aisles with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Hugh
Paddick in the farce Not Now Darling,
won
a role in Andrew Sach's play Philately
Will Get You Nowhere and appeared at the
Mermaid Theatre in a celebration of the
music of Cole Porter called Oh Mr. Porter.
Su's first comedy role was in a BBC series
screened in 1978 entitled Two Up, Two
Down in which she played a hippy named
Flo with Paul Nicholas playing her partner,
both of whom were squatting in the house
of a nice middle class couple. It only
lasted
one series but then in 1979 came the pilot
programme for a new BBC comedy written
by Jimmy Perry and David Croft set in
a holiday camp. It was of course Hi De
Hi!
The role of Peggy Ollerenshaw was to make
Su a household name and the title of the
series became a catchphrase echoed through
the land. Hi De Hi! has now gone onto
achieve almost legendary status in the
annals of British comedy and ran until
1988,
notching up some 58 episodes which regularly
attracted audiences of over 15 million.
As a result of rave reviews Su was offered
the role of Sally in the West End production
of Me And My Girl at the Adelphi Theatre
which she played for over a year. Then
came
roles in a national tour of Rodgers and
Hart's Babes In Arms playing Bunny Byron
opposite
Matthew Kelly, the title in Sweet Charity
during a record breaking season at the
Connaught
Theatre, Worthing and the stage production
of Hi De Hi! - The Holiday Musical, which
along with all the gang from the television
series played sell out seasons in Bournemouth
(Summer 1983), The Victoria Palace (Winter
Season 1983/84) and finally The Opera
House
in Blackpool (Summer 1984).
Website: http://supollard.org
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