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Hale is still hearty
The social climbing Hyancinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet!) became an national institution thanks to tv sitcom Keeping Up Appearances – but right up there with her was her slobbish brother-in-law Onslow.
It's a point not lost on Gareth Hale, the former larger half of comedy duo Hale & Pace, who is at the Grand Theatre this week in the stage version of the television hit.
"It's up there on the list of dream roles," says Gareth, " I get to assassinate people verbally and be paid for it. What can be better than that?"
As for the tour he reckons Keeping Up Appearances is "one of those British institutions that crosses different generations."
"The test is the audience reaction and they seem to like it," says Gareth. "People know the characters and they know the show, so it seems to be doing very well on the strength of that."
The stage play has been specially written rather than re-cycling tv material.
"So it's not something they have seen before which is an added attraction," says Gareth. "I'm enjoying it."
He finds it amusing that former comedy partner Norman Pace was actually at the Grand a few weeks ago
"He's making the most of the fact that I'm playing one of television's greatest slobs – whilst he was a bumbling detective," he says.
"He's never given up trying to make up for the fact that it was always Hale & Pace not Pace & Hale – there was nothing he could do about the alphabetical order.
But the split was perfectly amicable and the partnership did, in fact, get back together for an Australian tour last year.
"The timing was right and it was our eighth trip back there," says Gareth. "We love the place and we've made lots of friends out there. It
coincided with us having time to write and it's always a special place to go – there's also more of a tv presence for us over there."
The partnership split had always been on the cards he said.
"We'd both made a tacit agreement that 10 years on television would be good enough so were lucky to be able to get that many It was time to try other things, it was all quite exhausting – six months of writing then six months of performing and filming.
"It's quite pleasant now to be appearing in things that have been written for us!"
He also admits he's glad to be back in Blackpool – having enjoyed a North Pier summer season he and Norman headlined.
"We started on a Wednesday and finished on a Saturday so we could still have a family life as well. We both made good friends and played a lot of golf. I've been back since but not for work. And it's a bonus this time that we are at the Grand. It's one of the top theatres in the UK to work in."
So is there any part he's yearning for? "Not really, I've no burning to desire to do Shakespeare – well not at the moment," says Gareth. "I suppose a comedy drama would be top of the list. It would be nice to get back on television."
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Weather for Blackpool
Saturday 11 February 2012
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Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
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