You’re starring in A Grand Music Hall at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre this month. Can you tell us a little bit about what to expect?
The show will be a traditional music hall variety show based on turn-of-the-century music hall songs and acts - a bit like the old TV show, The Good Old Days. We’re encouraging the audience to dress up in period costume and join in the fun. I met Guy Rowland and Keith Minshull, who’re involved in A Grand Music Hall, 20 years ago. It was my company and I was advertising for actors to put on a professional music hall production at a theatre in Rugeley. We’ve been performing together ever since, so this is wonderful because we’re finally able to get onto a big stage and do what we’ve been doing for 20 years. There are a lot of people in the Midlands who know of us.

What’s your earliest theatrical memory?
Doing music hall at the local chapel. My earliest part was in a child’s play called Twigwitch. Victorian theatre has played quite an important part in my life. I ran a company at Blists Hill for 20 years. Guy and Keith still do bits with them now.

What’s the most valuable piece of professional advice you’ve been given?
I’ve been given a lot of advice. I suppose I’d say: to keep true to yourself and to maintain the craft. Remember what you were trained to do and keep that up. Always be on the ball.

What performing arts training, if any, have you received?
I went to Birmingham School of Speech & Drama - the old school, so an old, traditional theatre school - for three years, from 1988 to 1991.

You starred in your first pantomime last Christmas. How was that experience?
It was fantastic. I’m doing it again this year - I’m going back for more!

And do you prefer to perform as yourself or behind a persona?
I never really perform as myself. In A Grand Musical, I’m going to be basing the character I’m playing on a big music hall comedian named Nellie Wallace. I’ll be singing some of her songs.

Which fellow artist has inspired you most?
Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and Woody Allen. If we’re talking from a music hall angle, it would be Marie Lloyd and Nellie Wallace.

You’ve worked with Robert Plant. How was that experience, and are there any other big artists who you’d love to work with?
Working with Robert was just magical. He was so lovely, chatting about times gone by with Led Zeppelin. He was so laid back. The list is very long and varied. I’d love to work with Meryl Streep.

How has your Black Country heritage influenced you as a performer?
At drama school, when they took me to one side and told me it was time to start thinking about doing an RP accent all the time, I told them I wouldn’t be doing that, and that I intended to keep my accent and use RP as an extra accent as and when I needed it. Because I was brought up in a very quirky, funny family - I had parents who were into doing community performance and things like that - it was in me really, the comedy. I didn’t want to lose it; it’s part of the Midlands.

Looking to the future, what would be your ideal role?
Two. I’d like to be in a Woody Allen film and I’d like to play Foster Jenkins.

A Grand Music Hall shows at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre on Wednesday 14 June.

By Lauren Foster