Aladdin 2001

At the Theatre Royal, Nottingham.

Programme

Write-ups of the cast from the programme are on a separate page.

BBC Interview

The following interview appeared on the BBC Nottingham Website.

This year Cannon and Ball are performing in the East Midland's biggest pantomime - at Nottingham's Theatre Royal. They took time out from their hectic schedule to meet the online team and tell us about their lives, their faith ... and what they think about the rest of the pantomime's cast.

Bobby Ball said: "Oh it’s great we’ve worked with them all before, they’re all friends. We’ve got Peter Piper who plays a genie, Maurice Thorogood, who’s been with us for years, he plays the baddy".

"He’s brilliant Maurice", adds Tommy Cannon.

Bobby : "And there’s Tricia Penrose (from Heartbeat), she was with us last year and played the Princess, she’s playing Aladdin this year. So I think that she has had a bit of a shock I don’t think that she realised how much she had too do."

Look out too for a special guest appearance from Sooty.

How did you get your name?
Bobby : "Tommy actually took his name from an old rock and roller"

Tommy "I did, Freddie Cannon, 'Tallahassee Lassie', yeah I loved him. So I said I'll be called Cannon. And that’s how we started to formulate the name. It took us a long time to get Ball though"

Bobby : "Me and Tommy before we made it were 15 years going around, and really had nothing, and when you make it suddenly you have got everything. You’ve got a lot of people telling you how good you are, and your ego just takes over.

Falling Out
We fell out because Tommy thought that he was the main one of the act, and I thought that I was the main one of the act. And he should have known that it was me!"

Tommy: "And he should have know that it was me!"...laughs

Bobby: "It was a strain. For 4 years we hadn’t really got on, and spoke proper, and every time we finished the show we never walked out of the stage door together, always separate. And imagine after 4 years coming to me one morning just before the afternoon performance and saying Tommy I hope that you don’t mind me saying this to you but I’ve now got Jesus in my life."

Faith
Bobby : "I had everything and it were a guy who just came and spoke to me really, and he made a lot of sense and this fellow had a lot of peace that I didn’t have, because I was very ambitious and drinking a lot and all this caper and I wanted what he had. And I started thinking about it and I got a faith.

"It did change my life totally and I started to look at Tommy in a different way, and instead of seeing his bad points I started to see his good points. And my attitude changed towards him and slowly we got friendlier and friendlier again and 7 years later Tommy got a faith, and now we are just closer than ever.

"The only thing is Tommy keeps asking me questions, cos I’ve been a Christian longer than him. He asked me the other day "are the Epistles the wife of the apostles?" which I found very difficult to answer.

"Then the other one was ‘Was Joan of Arc, Noah’s wife?’...Laughs.

"When you come to the pantomime we won’t be singing any hymns you’ll be all right."

Tommy : "and you won’t have to sit in a pew."...Laughs.

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