Final Bow...

So there we have it - 10.15pm on Saturday the 18th February and it's all over.

It's been a great tour, and I can pretty much say I've loved (nearly!) every minute of it ;-) I've made some great friends in the cast, and considering we were on tour, I think we all managed to get along very well. It's never easy when you are away from home and "stuck" with the same people all the time, but I think we survived without too many casualties.

Obviously, it was hard to say goodbye to "Lady Terry" - the adopted name of my wig... brought about because people thought it made me look a little like Terry Wogan. And clearly the wig had to be female, and as Terry has just been honoured in the New Years Honours, we thought Lady Terry was fitting. Robyn tried, but she knew her wig couldn't compete with mine!

The venues each presented the individual challenges and rewards. Southampton was a great way to start the tour, and we had such an amazing response it really set us up for the remaining 12 weeks. The Alex in Birmingham was, well, a little on the small side for the production - so we had to cut some pieces of set and props, and also that gave us our first taste of the mini-me Christmas Tree!

The long stint in Bristol over Christmas and New Year (7 weeks in total) was very 'settled' - and had less of a feel of touring, but rather of being 'resident' somewhere. There were a couple of people off whilst we were there for various reasons, so gave the a couple of the understudies a chance to get on, and also added some excitement!! Oxford was a little odd to be honest. We didn't seem to get a very good response, and again the theatre was a little smaller, so we had some adjustments to make - but it was good to be close enough to London to get home if needed.

And then finally Liverpool at the Empire theatre. It was my first visit to the City, and I enjoyed being there. The theatre is huge, which is great for the production, but not so good when you have to walk up 5 flights of stairs to get to your dressing room after the show!! Still - it's all good exercise I guess. But being there did give me the chance to get on the "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey" - and yes, they DO play it...

And now it's back to London and to see what else is coming up over the next few months. I will miss the cast and the stage management team from Scrooge as we've had a great time, but I am looking forward to being back home; working with the WestEnders some more; seeing friends and family and all the other things you get used to when you're not touring.

And anyway - I'm pretty sure that Scrooge will be making an appearance again next Christmas. Bah Humbug!