Join host Andrew Keates for The Show People Podcast, recorded live from the Two Brewers in Clapham. In this second half of an extraordinary conversation, Sir Ian McKellen reflects on some of the most iconic roles of his career; from Richard III to Gods and Monsters, Gandalf, Magneto, and his legendary collaborations with Patrick Stewart. He also dives into grassroots theatre, sitcoms, Shakespeare, queer representation, and the roles he still hopes to play. Essential listening for fans of The Lo...
Nov 15, 2025•Season 4Ep. 53
Join host Andrew Keates for The Show People Podcast, recorded live from The Two Brewers in Clapham. This episode features an extraordinary conversation with one of the world’s most celebrated actors: Sir Ian McKellen, a performer whose career spans over six decades, with more than sixty major awards across stage, screen and television, and whose voice in LGBTQ+ equality has inspired millions around the world. Episode Highlights Include: • Growing up in Burnley and Wigan during wartime Britain,...
Oct 30, 2025•Season 4Ep. 52
Join host Andrew Keates for The Show People Podcast, recorded live from The Two Brewers in Clapham. In Part Two of this unmissable conversation, Andrew welcomes back JP McCue – better known as Mary Mac – one of the UK’s most beloved drag performers, celebrated for her tartan, powerhouse vocals, and infamous Mary Mac medley across theatres, cruise ships, and queer venues worldwide. Episode Highlights Include: • Touring in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – backstage antics, challenges, and why i...
Oct 13, 2025•Season 4Ep. 51
Join host Andrew Keates for The Show People Podcast, recorded live from The Two Brewers in Clapham. This episode features an unmissable conversation with JP McCue, better known as Mary Mac - one of the UK’s most loved drag performers, famous for her tartan, powerhouse vocals, and infamous Mary Mac medley across theatres, cruise ships, and Queer venues worldwide. Episode Highlights Include: • How long it takes Mary Mac to get ready? • First memories of The Two Brewers and why LGBTQ+ spaces matt...
Sep 24, 2025•Season 4Ep. 50
Join host Andrew Keates for the second part of a very special relaunch of The Show People Podcast, recorded live from The Two Brewers in Clapham. This episode features an intimate, wide-ranging conversation with national treasure, Sir Stephen Fry, celebrated writer, actor, comedian, broadcaster, and recent knight for his contributions to mental health awareness and environmental causes. Episode Highlights Include: - Views on JK Rowling and radicalised she has become and his current relatioship w...
Jul 03, 2025•Season 4Ep. 49
The Show People Podcast is back! Join host Andrew Keates for a very special relaunch of The Show People Podcast, recorded live from The Two Brewers in Clapham. This episode features an intimate, wide-ranging conversation with national treasure, Sir Stephen Fry, celebrated writer, actor, comedian, broadcaster, and recent knight for his contributions to mental health awareness and environmental causes. Episode Highlights Include: - Has Stephen ever been to the Two Brewers before? - Stephen’s forma...
Jun 21, 2025•Season 4Ep. 48
This episode was recorded in January 2020 - before Covid-19 changed everything. Andrew shares an explanation about where The Show People Podcast has been for most of 2020 and celebrates the podcast’s fourth anniversary. Andrew and Peter Polycarpou two discuss Peter’s childhood, his relationship with his sister Eve Polycarpou and their Greek heritage and representation within the industry. Peter explains his passion for teaching (including teaching Andrew when he was a teenager!) and playing his ...
Sep 20, 2020•Season 3Ep. 47
Trigger Warning: this episode includes discussions about mental health struggles, suicide and death. If you find yourself becoming upset during the episode, please contact the organisation or person you rely upon for support. Andrew Keates chats with journalist, broadcaster and presenter Matthew Wright about his controversial comments about using outside spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic, the last two years of coping with multiple bereavements and PTSD and what it’s like to be second to Nick K...
May 31, 2020•Season 3Ep. 46
Andrew chats with Alex Dyer, who runs Theataccounts - a specialist accountancy firm looking after performers and theatremakers in the performing arts industry and advising them on tax and their accounts. In this special episode, Alex takes Andrew through all of the various financial measures and schemes created by the government open to theatremakers during these unprecedented times in a simple and understandable way, including the grants for self-employed people, universal credit, VAT and many ...
May 17, 2020•Season 3Ep. 45
Andrew chats with Owen Farrow aka Divina De Campo about life post RuPaul’s Drag Race, whether they admire Geri Halliwell and finds out how the drag scene has been affected by Coronavirus. He speaks transatlantically with Robi Hager, writer of Basic Witches, which was a musical due to open in Philadelphia and Robi is now using his drag musical to raise funds for his cast (who we also hear perform a song from the show at the end of the episode). And we open up the Show People Podcast answering mac...
May 03, 2020•Season 3Ep. 44
We open up the Show People Podcast answering machine and we hear from and AJ O’Neill and Emily Clare about what they’re doing to use their craft to benefit the theatre industry. Andrew chats with West End leading man and teacher George Ure about what it’s like swapping the West End for Tesco Express and we hear a song by Flloyd Kennedy all about social distancing.
Apr 19, 2020•Season 3Ep. 43
Andrew Keates explains how The Show People Podcast is responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apr 05, 2020•Season 3Ep. 42
Merry Christmas from The Show People Podcast! Listen to our Christmas special and last episode of 2019 with actor and author Pauline Mclynn. We make fun listening whilst stuffing a turkey, or of course, if you're having a nice cup of tea. Pauline is best known for playing Mrs. Doyle in the iconic sitcom Father Ted, not to mention roles in Shameless, EastEnders and the acclaimed film Gyypo, of which she was nominated as Best Actress in the Irish Film And Television Awards. She’s recently graced o...
Dec 22, 2019•Season 3Ep. 41
Director, Andrew Keates is joined by actor, singer, composer, writer and musician Kurt Kansley. Kurt was born in Cape Town, South Africa and due to apartheid fled to Australia with his family. He’s had a career that’s taken him all over the world playing roles in Ragtime, Show Boat, Evita, Naked Boys Singing and later would find himself becoming a British citizen when he joined the West End production of The Lion King and go on to other productions including Miss Saigon, Hair and Sweet Bird Of Y...
Dec 15, 2019•Season 3Ep. 40
Andrew is joined by Rosalind James just before she performs a showcase of her new musical Stigma – a piece about HIV/AIDS. In one of the most emotional episodes we’ve ever produced, Rosalind discusses some very difficult times in her life as well as her experiences training at Sylvia Young Theatre School and performing in shows such as Les Miserables (where she was the first black Eponine), Hair, Ragtime, Little Shop Of Horrors and more. Rosalind split one of her vocal chord whilst working on a ...
Dec 01, 2019•Season 3Ep. 39
Andrew is joined by actor, writer, director and musician Daniel York Loh. The two discuss how their friendship was forged during a protest against The Print Room production of In The Depths of Dead Love and their shared passion for the fair representation of BAME artists in the performing arts, the boys discuss Daniel’s career that has taken him from fringe theatres to Hollywood movies, the RSC and the Royal Court and so much more. Act Hacks It’s national HIV testing week. Visit www.startswithme...
Nov 17, 2019•Season 3Ep. 38
Happy Halloween from The Show People Podcast! Today’s guest may be best known for being the Marmite judge on the BBC reality series All Together Now – however there’s more to judge Paulus than meets the eye. We discover the truth about the man behind the mascara, including his upbringing in Kent, his 30 year career in cabaret and why Paul L. Martin is a very different person to who you may have watched on television. Act Hacks: Andrew delivers another ‘Act Hack’ to help you look after the pennie...
Nov 03, 2019•Season 3Ep. 37
The Show People Podcast welcomes world renowned and Olivier Award winning choreographer Stephen Mear as our special guest between rehearsing for both the new West End production of Mary Poppins and an upcoming production of Funny Girl in Paris. Stephen shares his journey from being a West End dancer to one of the most respected names in the West End as a choreographer and director. Just some of the shows discussed include Acorn Antiques, Tonight’s The Night, The Witches Of Eastwick, The Little M...
Oct 20, 2019•Season 3Ep. 36
We’re back for series three of The Show People Podcast! Andrew sits down with actor Danny-Boy Hatchard and the two discuss Danny-Boy’s working class upbringing and those that gave him opportunities and the obstacles he faced, his time in training at ArtsEd, appearing in Beautiful Thing at the Arts Theatre and working with his favourite director Nikolai Fosterh on that production and a number of other productions. They also discuss ow his life changed when he was cast in EastEnders working with D...
Sep 15, 2019•Season 3Ep. 35
It’s Christmaaaaas! And The Show People Podcast has teamed up with Alexa Morden and Katie Elin-Salt of The 98% Podcast to bring you a very special Christmas crossover episode. The 98% takes a comedic, brutally honest look at all things within the performing arts industry and lifts the curtain on the real life #actorslife whilst knee deep in the daily grind themselves. The three podcasters chat about podcasting, surviving the industry, the worst jobs they’ve ever done, give gifts and undertake Th...
Dec 16, 2018•Season 2Ep. 34
Andrew is joined by Choreographer and former Head of Dance at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts – Sam Spencer-Lane. Just some of Sam’s credits include working on FLIGHT for the Scottish Opera (Theatre Royal, Glasgow), West Side Story and Kiss me Kate (Kilworth House Theatre), The UK Premiere of Death Takes a Holiday at The Charing Cross Theatre, Pageant with the writer and Director, Bill Russell for the Camden Festival. She created the choreography for the European premier of Dessa Rose at t...
Dec 02, 2018•Season 2Ep. 33
Theatre Director and host of The Show People Podcast, Andrew Keates interviews Producer Jamie Chapman Dixon all about his life and career, including being the in-house executive producer of the Barn Theatre, Cirencester and their productions of The Hound of the Baskervilles and Just So. Jamie is the proud owner of Rigmarole Productions, who focus on new writing, commercial theatre and their boutique agency. His credits include; Madagascar (UK and International Tour), Spamalot (UK Tour, Dubai &am...
Nov 25, 2018•Season 2Ep. 32
In memory of Daniel ‘Dani’ Bolton (1990 – 2018) To donate to the Daniel Bolton Memorial Fund, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/raising-funds-for-dani-bolton . Thank you.
Oct 06, 2018•Season 2Ep. 31
Our special guest has been top of our wish list since we started and we’ve finally managed to have him – the one and only Simon Lipkin! Our intrepid host, Andrew Keates interviewed Simon just before he went into rehearsal for Nativity – The Musical at the Eventim Apollo – a show that is lead by improvisation and Simon revealed the challenges and freedoms that method of performing can present. They also discussed why Simon has been so committed to comedy and his views and inspirations for the gen...
Sep 09, 2018•Season 2Ep. 30
We’re one years old! That’s right The Show People Podcast celebrates one year of bringing you special theatre guests every fortnight and shining a spotlight on the UK performing arts and today’s guest is Scott Garnham. Scott is both a performer and an entrepreneur. He along with his business partner Simon Schofield formed Sisco Entertainment to supply elite, creative and original entertainment for the professional theatre industry and corporate market. Their shows take West End performers all ar...
Sep 09, 2018•Season 2Ep. 29
Oliver Savile may be best recognised for playing Fiyero in the West End production of Wicked. He speaks with Director Andrew Keates all about his life and career, including growing up in Buxton and failing all of his GCSEs at school, his struggles with Dyslexia and how he discovered the performing arts and forged his career as a leading man. Ollie talks about his time at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, discovering his long-time agent Shane Collins, going straight into the UK tour of Josep...
Aug 26, 2018•Season 2Ep. 28
Frances Ruffelle is a Tony Award winning actor and recording artist. She caught up with Andrew Keates to discuss growing up as the daughter of Sylvia Young, the formation of her mother’s famous theatre school, her early influences and her remarkable family. The two chatted about her early work, including playing the Narrator in Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, being fired from that production and her delight going on to originate the roles of Dinah in the original West End producti...
Aug 12, 2018•Season 2Ep. 27
Today’s guest is Josh Boyd-Rochford, Chief Operating Officer and an agent at Simon and How Associates, who also teaches, produces and is forever generating opportunities for theatremakers. Josh has had one heck of a journey to arrive where he is today as a sober, married and respected agent with an enviable client list. He’s been had highs and lows, from being a struggling actor to appearing in the film Pride (as well as many other productions both big and small), he’s helped Pippa Ailion with h...
Jul 29, 2018•Season 2Ep. 26
Our special guest on the Show People Podcast is Marie McCarthy – Artistic Director of the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham. Marie goes into great detail about her multi-award-winning theatre, its history, her vision and the many ways that theatre-makers can work with them as well as outlining their exciting upcoming season too. Marie talks about growing up a Catholic and her early theatre experiences, her time training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts as an actor and her journey to becoming a di...
Jul 15, 2018•Season 2Ep. 25
Cassie Compton talks with director Andrew Keates about growing up in Crouch End, London in a home filled with music and her supportive teachers during education and her early experiences in the West End as a child actor in productions such Whistle Down The Wind and The Secret Garden at the Aldwych Theatre. She also reveals her extraordinary relationship with fellow musician and mother Terri Christopher and tells us about her rebellious teenage years and how one day her mum handed her an applicat...
Jul 01, 2018•Season 2Ep. 24
