Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2006/January 2007 | Page 29

JOHN HANNAM
The London Palladium’s 1966/67 Cinderella was
the highlight of Jack’s long pantomime career.
The principal stars were Cliff Richard and the
Shadows, Peter Gilmore, Terry Scott, Hugh Lloyd
and Jack Douglas. It ran for twenty two weeks
and sold out every performance. Ironically, Jack’s
partner, the vivacious Vivienne Russell, actually
went to see it. She hardly noticed Jack – as she
was a Cliff Richard fan.
“Cliff and I really hit it off and before the show
opened he took me out to lunch to find out about
pantomimes because he wanted to play it as it
used to be played,” revealed Jack.
Cliff and Jack played a great finale trick on Terry
Scott – and he didn’t speak to them for a week.
Terry broke a showbiz rule and put his clothes on
under his crinoline dame’s costume so he could
get away quicker to catch his train. With Cliff
and Jack either side, for the curtain calls, they
whipped off Terry’s crinoline and exposed his
street clothes.
The year of 1966 was a vintage year for Jack
and it was long before the Carry On movies. He
spent three months in the resident Palladium
spring show with Russ Conway, Des O’Connor
and Frank Ifield, followed by a Blackpool summer
season. He was back at the Palladium for the
November Royal Variety Show and opened in the
pantomime in December.
During his career Jack appeared in seventeen
productions of Cinderella and five each of Aladdin
and Dick Whittington. The rest were a mixture,
including Annie and Treasure Island.
In 1956 Jack discovered that his good friend
Alma Cogan was also in the same Brixton
pantomime. When he asked her what part she
was playing, she just laughed. She was not in the
actual cast but just before the famous Aladdin
cave scene she came on and performed her
normal stage vocal act. The producers were just
cashing in on her pop success. This still goes on
today but now with personalities from TV reality
shows and soaps. Jack is not too keen on this
idea and rues the loss of so many real pantomime
performers.
When Jack played Long John Silver in the
1984/85 Birmingham production of Treasure
Island he had some unexpected good fortune.
He was not looking forward to having one leg
strapped up for the entire show. A nearby car seat
belt company managed to design one that was just
perfect and amazingly comforta