Alison Hammond is back dazzling audiences as the Magical Mermaid in Peter Pan at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Here, the much-loved TV presenter chats about her second year in the Birmingham panto, the magic of performing in her hometown and the chaos that often accompanies her larger-than-life presence on stage.
Alison Hammond stars in Peter Pan at Birmingham Hippodrome until Sunday, 2nd February.
Performing in Birmingham Hippodrome’s big Christmas blockbuster, Alison Hammond admits she’s still feeling the excitement – even after being on stage for over four weeks. A seasoned performer with 12 pantos already under her belt, she says with her signature warmth, “It feels so, so good. It feels like I’ve come home, which is basically what I have. I’m from Birmingham. I’ve come home. But not only that, seeing Matt Slatt is lovely, and also Andrew – seeing Andrew Ryan. It just feels like I’ve come home, really. It’s lovely.”
For Alison, taking to the stage for Peter Pan in her hometown is an unparalleled experience. “Last year, that moment where I came out, that warmth that I felt from Birmingham was actually the loveliest thing I’ve ever felt in my life, if I’m honest with you. I’ve never felt that anywhere else. That warmth – I’ve never felt that energy.”
Reflecting on her Hippodrome panto last year, Alison laughs at some of her mishaps. “There were so many moments. I mean, I think there was a time I forgot the dance. On the way out, getting my mobile phone, I think I fell over off stage. There was one moment where I nearly went forward because my wings were so big. You know that moment, the transformation? Yeah. They were so big, they nearly pulled me to the audience and I was like, ‘Oh my God’. But it’s just an array of bad things that normally happen to me.”
This year, her magical mermaid costume comes with its own challenges. “Well, I’ll be honest with you, it’s unique because I can hardly walk in that bloody dress. I should be wearing it for you now but I can’t sit in it. I can’t sit down in it. All I know is, for every show that I do, I will not be sitting down – unless I can take it off! I can’t sit down. I can’t go up steps. I can go down because I can just jump down, but I can’t go up. I’ve got to jump up. It’s a bit weird.”
For someone so well-known for her big, infectious laugh, does she find it hard to keep a straight face during some of the sillier panto moments? “No. If I don’t find something funny, I find it very easy to keep a straight face. You’re only going to get that laugh if you genuinely make me laugh. It’s got to be real, do you know what I mean? Sometimes I’ll go and do an advert, they’re like, ‘oh, we want you to laugh’. I’m like, well, if you make me laugh, then I’ll laugh. If you don’t get the laugh, then you don’t get it.”
The fast-paced panto schedule doesn’t faze her, even with a short rehearsal time. “I think it’s about five days rehearsal and then I think we had about five days on stage. That’s about 10 days in all, isn’t it? And then we’re off.
“By opening night you’re nervous. You are shaking because you don’t know how people are going to react. Things that you think are funny, maybe it’s not going to get a laugh. At least for the first two weeks, you’re kind of finding your feet. And by two weeks, the show’s in – you know where that show is, you know where the laugh is and you know where they’re going to find something funny. I’m lucky, really, because I’m not Matt Slack. I haven’t got to find the funnies. He’s the funny, funny one but I just have to go and be lovely.
“But you don’t want to go into automatic. Because if you do, that’s when you start making mistakes and then you go blank. When you’ve got to be on it, you’ve got to still be alert no matter what. Every single show, you’ve got to think to yourself, ‘right, these people have paid for this show. They need the same show as you gave for the first night’. Every single show, you’ve got to think that. The minute you start going into autopilot and you’re just thinking about shopping or something, suddenly you’ll go ‘I don’t know where I am’ and then you’ll forget your lines.
“Because it’s such a lovely show and you’re doing stuff that you actually enjoy, like the dancing, the singing, it’s actually quite enjoyable. You do maintain it because you enjoy loving it, you enjoy the people. And then someone might say something differently, like one night, and that really tickles you and you think, ‘oh, that’s weird, they just said that differently. Oh, I’m going to say this differently then. Oh, I just got a laugh from that – I’m going to change that’.
“Sometimes you change it, like, should I just do that? Should I just add that little bit here? I think that would be funny. And then Matt might go, ‘oh yeah, why don’t you try this, da-da-da’. And you just hone in, so by the end of it, it’s like the show is so tight, it’s unbelievable.”
She credits the chemistry among the Birmingham cast for creating a magical experience. “Sometimes you’ve got chemistry, sometimes you ain’t got chemistry. I’ve done pantos where it’s been all right, but I haven’t got the chemistry that I’ve got with certain people like I’ve got here, do you know what I mean? Sometimes you just get it or sometimes some people you just don’t gel with, do you? And that’s not a bad thing, it’s just like life, isn’t it? You’re not going to gel with everyone.”
So, if she had Peter Pan’s abilities to fly, where would she go? Alison doesn’t hesitate. “To heaven, to see my mum. I’d check in, see how she’s doing, maybe go for some Chinese food at Heaven’s Gate, and then fly back.”
If she could show her cast the best of Birmingham, Alison has it all planned out. “I’d take them on a canal first because obviously, as you know, we’ve got more canals than Venice. Then we might go down to the Balti area, to Ladypool Road and we’ll have a nice buffet Balti for another two hours.
“So, we’ve had our little canal trip, we’ve had our little Balti we’re full up now, so we’ll go for a nice little drink. We’ll find a nice little bistro or something like that, maybe it’s Sutton Coldfield or Knowle. We’ll go up to Knowle because it’s quite classy up there, and we’ll go to a nice pub, we’ll sit in, we’ll have a couple of drinks. And then on the evening we might go clubbing. We’ll go to Snob’s, or we’ll go to Nightingale’s. Yes. A little karaoke. And then we won’t end it then. At the end of the night, two o’clock, we’ll go, ‘Yeah, kebab!’ And then we’ll go to work!”
When asked where she calls home, Alison keeps it playful. “Everyone’s obsessed with where I live!” she laughs. “Let’s just say I live closer to London, but Birmingham’s my favourite. I see London as work. I don’t see it as home. When I come here, I’m home.”
