Switching on the Christmas Lights... (almost)

On the land-train

Off the back of her starring role in Hull Truck's ‘Little Voice’ in the autumn, and my appearances in Coronation Street a considerable while ago, Laureen Hood (Gabriel) and I were chuffed to be asked to represent the company, switching-on the Christmas lights in Hull town centre.


We’d been told that we’d be sharing the honours with the Chuckle Brothers, and imagined that we’d be collectively reaching for a large switch at the allotted moment.


On Thursday after rehearsals we got changed into makeshift costumes and headed to Trinity Church, where a procession was to begin. We were a little surprised to see an assortment of acts from various shows.

I nonetheless bolted a few mince pies and had a plastic beaker of mulled wine, before we were herded onto a land-train that set off for the town square behind a Scots pipe band.

The land-train

On the back seat

Lauren and I were sat at the back with the Chuckle Brothers who were getting a lot of attention from the crowd following the procession, particularly the middle-aged ladies. Lauren was enjoying waving at the kids. At this stage, we were holding onto a belief that we’d be reaching for that collective switch before long.

The Procession

Finally we arrived in the Queen Victoria Square, where an enormous crowd had assembled, including some of our pals from the company. The land-train parked up and we were ushered up the stairs of City Hall and into a council chamber with a set of French windows leading to a balcony.

Queen Victoria Square

Pandemonium is the only way to describe what was going on in the council chamber. There were a couple of presenters who appeared occasionally from the balcony; a crew of stage managers with clipboards and cans, none of whom seem to know what was going on; the lord mayor and his wife, naturally; and, of course, our co-switchers-on, the Chuckle Brothers. But there were lots of other people, including all the acts we spotted at the church, even the ones that didn’t make it onto the land-train.

At City Hall

Lauren and I were busy rehearsing in heads what we’d say when interviewed on the balcony, when the Chuckle Brothers were taken out to do an interview. A band (whom I’d never heard of) then went out to perform one of their numbers. Then a big fuss was made of the mayor going out. It was then that we realised things weren’t going to go quite the way we’d expected.


The next thing we heard was a loud count down coming from outside.

If you watch a recording of the ceremony (if I can source one, I shall put it on this blog), at about "four... three... two", behind the mayor, the Chuckle Brothers and an assortment of acts, you might spot Lauren and I sheepishly stepping through the French windows like intruders. I think we were halfway down the stairs when the lights actually went on.

Nevertheless, we managed to get on the balcony, the crowds below. And very nice it was too. I felt a bit like Eva Peron; Lauren looked like her. Fortuitously, we’d managed to get ourselves right next to a TV camera. Moreover, it was operated by the same the cameraman that had filmed our TV advert on Monday. According to our cast pals, we spent a lot of time on the big screens around the square (and therefore on TV). And so it all came good in the end.