‘ALLO, ‘Allo! sitcom star Vicki Michelle will spend her winter being booed at the Grand Opera House, York, even on her birthday.
Fondly remembered for a decade of waitress service as French dish Yvette Carte-Blanche in the BBC wartime comedy from 1982 to 1992, she will play the Wicked Queen in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs from December 12 to January 4 2020.
Her 69th birthday falls on December 14 as she settles into the Three Bears Productions’ pantomime run in a role she knows only too well. “I’ve done lots of wicked queens,” says Vicki, in full regal attire at the panto launch.
“I haven’t counted, but it’s probably 30 years now [in fact Snow White will be 27th panto]. I love it, because panto is magical for children, their parents and their grandparents, and it’s a genre where you think, ‘thank you, we still have this each year’…with people really believing in what they see on stage!”
Vicki relishes the audience interplay. “I’ll stamp my feet, I’ll react to them standing up to the Wicked Queen, not in a comical way, but I make her a bit of fun to play with,” she says
“I have to be evil - and the Wicked Queen is truly evil – but l love doing it. I just love performing. The audience have paid to see the show, they want to see you giving 200 per cent, and I know I’m working with people who can do that.”
Commercial pantomimes are never slow to remind audiences of their stars’ biggest successes. “Probably there’ll be a few lines about ‘Allo, ‘Allo!,” says Vicki, knowingly. “I was in this amazing series that’s still shown on TV and has been sold to 80 countries. South Africa. Bulgaria. Romania. Lithuania. Sweden…”
Even Germany? “The Germans said they would never buy it, but they did!” says Vicki with glee. “How amazing is that! ‘Allo, ‘Allo! Is still funny. It makes you laugh out loud and there aren’t many comedies that do that today.
“That’s the mark of good comedy: if they can make you laugh out loud. That should be revered.”
David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd’s long-running comedy, set in Rene’s Café in a German-occupied small French town, was recorded live to audiences of 200 to 300. “The laugh would come on the second line and grow on the third line. That’s what worked. Like in panto: audiences want the old jokes. I want the old jokes!” says Vicki. “But a lot of shows try to change things, and they don’t work.”
‘Allo, ‘Allo! gave Vicki the chance to say hello, hello to plenty more work. “It didn’t spoil things, because afterwards you’re typecast,” she says. “What I did was loads of theatre: playing Miss Hannigan in Annie; Salad Days; Miss Mona in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas; Don’t Dress For Dinner; loads of Ray Cooney farces.”
You can add to that list Lady Bracknell in The Importance Of Being Earnest, a 2008 tour of ‘Allo, ‘Allo! and more television too, from playing Patricia Foster in the Yorkshire soap Emmerdale to competing in Celebrity Master Chef in 2009 and heading into the Aussie jungle for the 2014 series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!.
Vicki returns to the Grand Opera House after earlier appearances as Jacqueline in Marc Camoletti’s boulevard comedy Don’t Dress For Dinner and, in June this year, the humorous three-hander Hormonal Housewives, a no-holds barred romp through the joys of being a fabulous 21st century woman.
The tour schedule left room for only two days off in a 68-show run, but Vicki loved the script and ended up delighted she said yes to the invitation to join Hormonal Housewives co-writer Julie Coombe and Josephine Partridge on the road.
“It went fabulously well, doing a show, then a four to five-hour drive, but the show was such a joy to be in,” she says. “I’d never heard such howls of laughter.”
There was another benefit from Hormonal Housewives too. “People would come up afterwards and say they’d lost someone, and this was the first show they’d come out to since then as they wanted some laughter,” reveals Vicki.
Returning to York for a wicked winter in pantoland, Vicki has plans for Christmas Day. “I want to get home for Christmas, which is always at my place; three sisters and their families,” says the Essex-born actress, who has Snow White performances on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day either side of that family celebration. “Christmas morning is always something sparkly and a salmon and a smoked cheese bagel.”
What may 2020 bring Vicki? “There are a few things that are bubbling under, but first I’ve got this panto to enjoy,” she says.
Vicki Michelle stars in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Grand Opera House, York, December 12 to January 4 2020. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/York
Charles Hutchinson
Did you know?
Vicki Michelle calls herself “Vix Mix” on her social media.