Get ready for some nostalgia and plenty of laughs as versatile entertainer Roy Hudd revives the grand old days of music hall. And he’s the man to do it.

He may be 79 and in his 56th year in the entertainment industry, but there’s no danger of Roy running out of enthusiasm. Rest assured, he is still bursting with it.

His 12 dates around the country with his one-man show about music hall is only that short because he’s squeezing it in before he heads for the TV studios to record his latest TV role, in Broadchurch.

Having toured with the show almost 10 years ago, he decided to revive it due to popular demand.

“People just kept asking me. And doing one night at each venue means it’s like having an opening night every night. I love that. This is the best I’ve ever had. I get to show off, which I love, too!”

With laughs, songs to sing along to and impressions, it’ll also teach you a thing or two about the history of music hall. “You’ll get an education. I’ve always been interested in music hall, it was the marvellous songs and routines. When I started, there were lots of the old music hall performers still around and I loved them.

“I thought it would be a bit of nostalgia – which it is – but the difference now is the audience. I see people in their 30s and 40s. When I first took it out on tour they were all about 138. People are interested because it is a social history. The songs reflected the times.

“I think the music hall songs were the best ever produced in light entertainment in this country. They’re very old, but they’re so easy to learn and they’re lovely. People join in all the time – even when I don’t want them to.”

Brought up by his gran, he visited music halls and variety shows as a child and, as an adult, started collecting old music hall sheet music from second-hand shops.

When he and his wife moved to Suffolk 10 years ago, they converted their garage to house the 70,000 song sheets he now owns.

“People send me them now,” he said. “Some of the songs have been lost in the mists of times, others everyone knows, like Daisy, Daisy and My Old Dutch. Someone sent me a lovely one and I learnt it and really liked it. It’s called While London Sleeps and, you know, if you were walking through London today you might still write the same song. When I was at Bromley someone requested it, which was amazing. It’s a beautiful ballad and I was so thrilled I got to sing it.”

Today’s theatre has changed, but he still loves it and especially being in pantomime. “I got to play a dame in panto last year for the first time in my life. It was brilliant. It was at Wilton’s theatre – the world’s oldest surviving music hall. I loved it there and I’m going back this year.

“I’m only doing 12 dates on my tour because I have a role in Broadchurch to do next. I get offered loads, although they are always the same sort of characters about my age. In my show I get to play loads of different characters. I do some in drag, too.

“I had the same agent for 50 years and he told me I had to act as well. He even made me do Shakespeare. But now I do a lot of television and all sorts. I have had a fantastic career and it isn’t over.”

THE SHOW

Roy Hudd’s Very Own Music Hall is a one-man show devoted to his love of music hall, a subject he has been interested in his whole life. He is even president of the British Music Hall Society.
In just 12 dates around the country – one of which is in Maidstone, which is first visit – he tells the story of music hall as far back as 1750, with tales of some of its greatest stars; he also does impressions and sings and dances.
But his career isn’t just nostalgia. He’s a well-known radio host, clocking up 26 years on BBC Radio 2 with the New Huddlines, and is also a TV actor, appearing in shows from Call the Midwife to Holby City and Coronation Street.

THE DETAILS

Roy Hudd’s Very own Music Hall will be at the Hazlitt Theatre in Earl Street, Maidstone, on Saturday, April 23, at 7.30pm. Tickets at £21.50; click here or call 01622 758611.