The Hour

A natural performer, Su Pollard knew from the tender age of six that she belonged on the stage, after playing an angel in her school nativity play, falling through a box, and cracking the entire audience up.

From that moment she was hooked and it was clear her future lay in performing.

Su tried to get her big break with an appearance on the TV show, Opportunity Knocks in 1974, singing I Can’t Say No from Oklahoma – but finished second behind a singing Jack Russell terrier.

But she didn’t let that stop her from pursuing her dream, going on to appear in shows including Hi De Hi, You Rang M’Lord? and Oh, Doctor Beeching!, as well as a number on stage roles.

Now she’s appearing in a new production of Annie, which is touring around the UK.

Speaking about playing the part of the bullying, heavy-drinking owner of the orphanage, Miss Hannigan, Su said: “Miss Hannigan, although she’s obviously a lover of the bottle - she adores Jack Daniels and that’s the basis of her existence – (it’s) because she’s had a terrible life, she wanted all sorts of things that she was aspiring to be, probably even a Broadway star, but she’s ended up in an orphanage looking after these dreadful, snotty, terrible kids that give her the run-around, so that is her solace, in drink.”

Su added: “She wears no make-up, it’s fantastic for me, she has a terrible wig with an awful pink chiffon scarf, she’s trying to make the effort because she still flirts but of course she never gets anywhere because she smells! And she’s got fleas…but I like to think you can empathise with her because so many people aspire to things.”

Annie is showing at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal from August 4-8 and at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness from July 20-25.