Legendary Edinburgh panto dame, Allan Stewart exclusively reveals new starring role in smash hit musical

The ever youthful entertainer, who is also celebrating 60 years in show business, having first taken to the stage as singer at the age of 10, could easily pass for a decade younger.

“I’m 70 on the 30th July,” he says, proudly, confessing that in his head he is still just 18. He credits his “stupid humour” and the energy of his children, David, 30, and Kate, 25, both musicians in their own right, for keeping him young at heart.

We meet in the King’s Theatre, where he returns with his Big, Big Variety Show from 10-14 March. The sad news is that this will be the last of his musical hall-style spectaculars.

Allan Stewart as Mother Superior in Sister Act

“That format has been going for six years and I’d like to find another format, I just don’t know what yet...” he explains.

As one door closes, another opens, or so they say, and that definitely seems to the case for Allan, who has an exclusive to share with the Evening News. From 20 April to 1 May 2021, he will be starring as the Mother Superior in the smash hit musical Sister Act, when it tours to the Festival Theatre.

“Now that I’m Mother Superior I will have to get rid of all my dirty habits,” he laughs. “It’s the part I’ve been praying for, so buy a ticket to see me in Sister Act... or forever be damned.”

It’s the latest role in a long and varied career that began with the 10-year-old Allan making his debut at Glasgow’s Barrowland, although before that, his talent had been spotted at school.

“Somewhere, I have a programme from a primary school concert in which I sang with my guitar - they called me King Rocker and made me the star of the show,” he remembers.

Guitar wasn’t his first instrument, however, a snare drum and a high hat first brought out his musical ability, followed by a ukulele and then, at the age of nine, his first “big guitar”.

“My mum bought me a ukulele and my dad taught me some chords, he then went into the loft and found a guitar that had been up there for 20 years, cleaned it up and put new strings on it for me. Then they got me an electric guitar and that was when I started performing.”

That first Barrowland gig was the one that got his dad Alex, a GPO worker, thinking Allan might have a “special talent that could be nurtured.” Nurture it he did and by 12, his boy had been signed to support an up-and-coming band called The Rolling Stones, although on the night, it was Allan who could get no satisfaction.

12 year old Allan Stewart with Mick Jagger

“It was in The Chanting Hall, a hotel in Hamilton that held 1,000 people, but 3,000 people turned up with fraudulent tickets. You couldn’t move. They had to put wire netting up in front of the stage to stop people clambering up. It was so packed that, when my dad walked onto the stage, his glasses steamed up. It was absolute pandemonium. When the police arrived they told him, ‘Your son can’t go on,’ and they wouldn’t let me perform. That was a big disappointment.”

Painfully shy as a child, performing offered Allan a means of expressing himself.

“I was completely and utterly shy. Couldn’t speak to people I didn’t know. Didn’t speak on stage, just played song after song after song,” he recalls. Performing was an escape. I didn’t like sports so would come home every day, go straight into the lounge, put my guitar on and play along to The Shadows’ record I’d bought on the Friday - I have it learned by the Saturday.”

Shy or not, one thing Allan knew even then was that he didn’t want to be another Andy Stewart.

Allan Stewart meets the Queen at Royal Variety Performance

“I was determined to be a pop star and not to wear a kilt,” he insists, “Although, when I was 14 they forced me to wear one for a Royal show for Princess Alexandra. So I hid in the dressing room until it was time, ran on, did my song, then ran back to the dressing room and took the kilt off. That was how much I hated wearing it.”

He laughs, “I have never worn a kilt since, many tartan skirts, but never a kilt.”

Established as a singer, one of Allan’s early singles was Brain Beat, recorded at Abbey Road with Beatles’ producer George Martin, it was a light bulb moment while watching impressionist Johnny More that took Allan’s career in a different direction.

“As soon as I started doing impressions, things opened up for me,” he remembers. "Danny La Rue saw me, thought I was very funny and invited me onto his show. He also invited people from London to see me and that got me my first TV show, Studio A Startime, which was networked by ATV. Then he got me on to Sunday Night At The London Palladium, that changed my life.”

The 70s were good to Allan. He did four series of the STV sketch show Hello Good Evening, Welcome, followed by one series of The Allan Stewart Tapes, in which Carry On star Jack Douglas was his butler. Next came The Allan Stewart Show, the only series to survive - you’ll find it on YouTube. Filmed at STV’s Gateway Studio on Leith Walk, it took Allan back to his cabaret roots. After a couple of lean TV years, five series of the comedy show Copycats brought Allan back to network television in the 80s.

The show saw him starring alongside Bobby Davro, Gary Wilmot and Andrew O’Connor, who he would later replace as the presenter of the ITV game show, Chain Letters. Candidly, he admits, “Not a medium I particularly enjoyed was the Quiz Show. We were cramming in five shows a day and it became a chore that I didn’t enjoy. It’s a means to an end, a quiz show.”

Today, of course, Edinburgh audiences know Allan best as Aunty May, his dame in The King’s panto. It’s a character based on the wife of one of his musical director back in the day, and one now loved by generations of Capital theatre-goers.

“I put off doing dame because I knew that when I eventually put a frock on, that would be me for the rest of my life,” he admits. “There would be no going back.”

Wryly, he recalls, “When I did my first dame in 1997, I said, ‘I’m not going to be like other dames, I’m having one costume in the first half, one in the second and one for the finale - I’m not doing all the changes...’ and here we are, further down the line with up 20 changes a performance.”

The good news for fans of Aunty May is that Allan has just signed a new three year deal that will see him back at The King’s in December, after which he will decamp with the rest of his gang to the Festival Theatre for two years, while The King’s undergoes refurbishment.

“I’m really looking forward to that because it’s a much bigger stage and will be a whole new ball game.” He pauses thoughtfully before adding, “And then, of course, will we still be around the following year to come back to The King’s when it’s redone? One of my ambitions would be to come back to do the reopening year. That would be fantastic.”

Looking back, Allan credits two people above all others for his success, Jane, his wife of 32 years, who “calmed him down” and his dad, Alex. Together they did a good job, one that’s not finished yet. At a time in life when most are slowing down, Allan’s looking ahead, and admits he has no intention of retiring.

“I’m going to slide down the curtain like Tommy Cooper - get a big laugh and slide down the curtain.”

It better not be during a panto, I suggest.

“It might be,” he chuckles, recalling his famous catchphrase, “He’s laughing, but he’s no happy... bang!”