Sandy Walsh in conversation with Michael Billington

Award winning actress and presenter Sandy Walsh returns with three more shows to inspire, delight, amuse and fire up those brain cells after hibernation. Following sell out performances with A Glamorous Life? What’s It All About? and Something Different, Sandy once again brings you an eclectic mix of songs, words and poems combined with anecdotes from her work as an actor and presenter. These recollections illustrate the highs, the lows and the sheer absurdities of both professions.

In this show, Sandy will talk to Michael Billington (the Guardian theatre critic since 1971) who tells us about his most recent book, Affair of the Heart, a selection of his theatre reviews for The Guardian since 1992.

As well as tunes to get your feet tapping and your heart beating, stories to make you laugh and cry, Sandy will be finding out from Michael what advice he would give to young people who want to follow their dream and enter into an unpredictable profession in an ever changing world.

“Sandy Walsh is a faultless performer with the audience rapport and generosity of
delivery of the greatest of her profession”.
– The Scotsman

Sandy Walsh’s diverse career has ranged from playing the matriarch Francis Marsden in Emmerdale to starring in Blood Brothers in the West End. She has written and performed four one woman shows which have
won her awards and critical acclaim in London and Edinburgh. Sandy played Barbara in Peep Show, Trish in Coronation Street and has had other guest roles in Holby City and Doctors. Her work in the theatre has
been extensive playing leading roles at many of the top theatres in Britain and Europe. She is a familiar voice in plays, documentaries and commercials for both TV and radio. As a Sony Award winning presenter she has interviewed many politicians, writers and artists including Barbara Castle, Terry Waite, and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Michael Billington read English at Oxford, where his contemporaries included Ken Loach, Melvyn Bragg and David Dimbleby. In the mid-1960s, he spent six years working on The Times, reviewing theatre, Film and
television, before joining The Guardian in October 1971. His books include The Modern Actor, studies of Alan Ayckbourn and Tom Stoppard; biographies of Harold Pinter and Peggy Ashcroft; State of the Nation, which was an examination of post-war British theatre; and The 101 Greatest Plays, a highly subjective view of world drama.