Gary Wilmot

Harold Owen "Gary" Wilmot, MBE (born 8 May 1954) is a British singer, actor, comedian, presenter, writer and director who rose to fame as a contestant on New Faces.^[1] As a television presenter, he is best known as the host of You and Me, So You Want To Be Top and Showstoppers. His West End credits include Me and My Girl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Prince of Egypt, and Wicked.

Gary Wilmot MBE
Born	Harold Owen Wilmot (1954-05-08) 8 May 1954 (age 70) Lambeth, London, England
Occupation(s)	Singer, presenter, actor, comedian, writer, director
Years active	1978-present
Children	2
Website	garywilmot.co.uk

Wilmot was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.^[2]

Early life

Wilmot was born in Lambeth, London, into a mixed-race household; his mother was English, and his father, Harry, was Jamaican and arrived in Britain on the Empire Windrush in 1948. Harry was a member of vocal harmony group The Southlanders,^[3] but died of a brain tumour in 1961, when his sons were still young.^[3][4] Despite these show business roots, Wilmot's upbringing was outside of the limelight. He worked on building sites and in factories, but soon realised manual labour was not a career he wished to pursue.^[5]

Television

Wilmot started his career in entertainment after a friend informed an agent of his talent, and soon began to perform as part of the variety circuit. However, his big break came in 1978, when he featured as part of a comedy double act with Judy McPhee on New Faces; the pair were later finalists. This would lead to numerous television appearances on Copy Cats, Knees Ups, Cue Gary!, and The Keith Harris Show. One of his most notable television roles was with the BBC children's quiz show So You Want To Be Top, which he co-presented with Leni Harper.^[6]

In 1994, Wilmot hosted Showstoppers, a programme which featured him performing songs from musicals alongside special guests.^[7] Originally commissioned as a one-off series in which celebrities were given ten days to learn and perform a song, Wilmot was asked to record a further series of six spectaculars due to popular demand. He also starred in and directed a tour of Showstoppers which proved so popular that its original sixty dates were increased to one hundred and sixty.^[8]

Theatre

In 1989, Wilmot made a move into musical theatre debuting in the West End production of Me and My Girl, playing the role of Bill Snibson at the Adelphi Theatre.^[4] He played the role to critical acclaim for two years, with Jack Tinker describing him as a "Musical Talent of the Highest Order". Wilmot was subsequently nominated in the "Best Actor" category at the Olivier Awards, and theatre tour of a new comedy, Teething Troubles followed. He was also cast as Joe in Carmen Jones at the Old Vic before starring in the world premiere of the Barry Manilow musical Copacabana at London's Prince of Wales Theatre.

In 2001, Wilmot joined The New Shakespeare Company to play Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, and the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance national tour with Sue Pollard as Ruth, in 2001–2002. The national tour of Giles Havergal's adaptation of the Graham Greene novel Travels with My Aunt followed. In 2003, he was Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, taking over from Michael Ball,^[9] and returning in 2006 and 2007 on the UK tour. Wilmot also played Billy Flynn in the national touring company of Chicago.^[10]

Other stage productions Wilmot has appeared in include H.M.S. Pinafore, Santa Claus the Musical,^[11] Oliver!,^[12] Half a Sixpence, The Wizard of Oz,^{[citation needed]} The Goodbye Girl, One for the Road, Confusions, Lord Arthur Saville's Crime, and a national tour of the successful Watermill Newbury Theatre production of Radio Times.^[13]

Wilmot has recently appeared in Flowers for Mrs Harris at Chichester Festival Theatre, Little Miss Sunshine at the Arcola Theatre, Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear - the Musical! at the National Theatre, London, Jethro in The Prince of Egypt at the Dominion Theatre, The Wizard in Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre and Elisha J. Whitney in Anything Goes at the Barbican Centre in the West End.

Wilmot has also appeared in many pantomimes since 1986. Most recently he has appeared as the dame in the London Palladium pantomimes for Qdos Entertainment such as Dick Whittington (2017), Snow White (2018) and Goldilocks and the Three Bears (2019) co-starring Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin and Nigel Havers.^[14]

Music

Wilmot's solo albums include Love Situation, The Album, and Double Standards.^[15]

In 1991, Wilmot teamed up with record producer Nigel Wright to record a medley featuring songs from Walt Disney film The Jungle Book. "The Bare Necessities Megamix"^[16] was a medley of "I Wanna Be Like You" and "The Bare Necessities", released under Wright's UK Mixmasters name. The record, executive produced by Simon Cowell, reached the top 20, ultimately peaking at number 14. This chart success gave the record a slot on BBC One's Top Of The Pops, with Wilmot featuring in the clip used for the video breakers on the programme originally broadcast on 12 December 1991^[17] but Gary Martin appearing as the vocalist instead of Wilmot, in the studio a week later. In 2004, Wilmot embarked on his own national concert tour My Kind of Music taking him to many major concert venues throughout the country.^[18]

Stage credits

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Director	Theatre
1989–91	Me and My Girl	Bill Snibson	Mike Ockrent	Adelphi Theatre, London[19]
1991	Carmen Jones	Joe	Simon Callow	The Old Vic, London[19]
1991	Teething Troubles			UK Tour
1993	Me and My Girl	Bill Snibson	Mike Ockrent	UK Tour
1994	Copacabana	Stephen / Tony		[20]
1995	Me and My Girl	Bill Snibson		UK Tour
1997	The Goodbye Girl	Elliot Garfield		Albery Theatre, London[21]
1997–98	The Goodbye Girl	Elliot Garfield		UK Tour[19]
1998–99	Oliver!	Fagin		UK Tour[19]
1999–2000	One for the Road		Andy Hay	Bristol Old Vic[19]
2000	One for the Road			UK Tour[19]
2001	Confusions			UK Tour [22]
2001	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Bottom		Regents Park Open Air Theatre[23]
2001	Pirates of Penzance	The Pirate King		Regents Park Open Air Theatre[24]
2002	Travels with my Aunt	Henry		UK Tour[25]
2003–04	Chitty Chitty Bang Bang	Caracticus Potts	Adrian Noble	London Palladium[26]
2004–05	Cinderella	Buttons		Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton
2005	HMS Pinafore	Dick Deadeye		Regents Park Open Air Theatre[27]
2005–06	Santa Claus the Musical			Southampton Mayflower[28]
2006	Chitty Chitty Bang Bang	Caracticus Potts	Adrian Noble	Birmingham Hippodrome[29]
2006–07	Peter Pan	Captain Hook		Grimsby Auditorium[19]
2007–08	Half a Sixpence	Arthur Kipps		UK Tour[30]
2007–08	The Wizard of Oz	Hunk / The Scarecrow		Southampton Mayflower[31]
2008		Zeke / The Cowardly Lion	Jude Kelly	Royal Festival Hall[32]
2009	Chicago	Billy Flynn	Walter Bobbie	UK Tour[33]
2010	Lord Arthur Savile's Crime	Septimus Podgers	Christopher Luscombe	UK Tour[34]
2010–11	The Invisible Man	Thomas Marvel	Ian Talbot	Menier Chocolate Factory[35]
2011	Radio Times	Sammy Shaw	Caroline Leslie	Watermill Theatre[36]
2011–12	Cinderella	Buttons	Christoper Dunham	Richmond Theatre
2012	Radio Times	Sammy Shaw	Caroline Leslie	UK Tour[37]
2012	Bowl of Cherries	Various	Andrew C Wadsworth	Charing Cross Theatre[38]
2013–14	Snow White	Nora Crumble	Michael Harrison	Birmingham Hippodrome
2014	The Pajama Game	Vernon Hines	Richard Eyre	Shaftesbury Theatre, London[39]
2014	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels	Andre	Jerry Mitchell	Savoy Theatre, London[40]
2014–15	Jack and the Beanstalk	Dame Trot	Michael Harrison	Birmingham Hippodrome
2015	Oklahoma!	Ali Hakim	Rachel Kavanaugh	UK Tour[41]
2015	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels	Andre	Jerry Mitchell	UK Tour[42]
2015–16	Aladdin	Widow Twankey	Russell Labey	Milton Keynes Theatre
2017	The Wind in the Willows	Badger	Rachel Kavanaugh	London Palladium[43]
2016	End of the Rainbow	Anthony	Daniel Buckroyd	UK Tour[44]
2016	Big The Musical	George McMillan	Morgan Young	Theatre Royal[45]
2017–2018	Dick Whittington	Sarah the Cook	Michael Harrison	London Palladium
2018	Flowers for Mrs Harris	Major / Monsieur Armande	Daniel Evans	Chichester Festival Theatre[46]
2018	Sweet Lorraine	—	Writer, Director	Regis Centre[47]
2018–2019	Snow White	Mrs Crumble	Michael Harrison	London Palladium
2019	Little Miss Sunshine	Grandpa	Mehmet Ergen	Arcola Theatre[48]
2019	Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear	Jonathan Ripples	Amy Hodge	The Royal National Theatre[49]
2019–20	Goldilocks and the Three Bears	Dame Betty Barnum	Michael Harrison	London Palladium
2020	The Prince of Egypt	Jethro	Scott Schwartz	Dominion Theatre[50]
2020	Pantoland at the Palladium	Dame	Michael Harrison	London Palladium
2021	Anything Goes	Elisha Whitney	Kathleen Marshall	Barbican Theatre, London
2022	Wicked	The Wizard of Oz		Apollo Victoria Theatre
2022–23	Jack and the Beanstalk	Queen Nigella	Michael Harrison	London Palladium
2023–24	The Wizard of Oz	The Wizard of Oz / Professor Marvel	Nikolai Foster	London Palladium[51]
				UK & Ireland Tour
2023–24	Peter Pan	Mrs Henrietta Hook	Michael Harrison	London Palladium
2024	Something Rotten!	Nostradamus	Tim Jackson	Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Channel / Production	Notes
1970s	New Faces	Himself
1983–85	So you want to be Top	Presenter	BBC
1983	Chas & Dave's Knees-Up		LWT
1984	Mike Reid's Mates and Music	Himself	ITV
1984	You and Me	Presenter	BBC
1985	The Bob Monkhouse Show	Himself	BBC
1985–86	Copy Cats	Himself	LWT
1985	The Keith Harris Show	Himself	BBC
1986	Saturday Gang	Himself	LWT	Writer[52]
1986	This is Your Life[citation needed]	Himself	ITV
1987	Aspel & Company	Himself	LWT
1987–88	Cue Gary	Himself	ITV	Writer[53]
1989	The Book Tower	Presenter	Yorkshire Television
1989	Fun with Numbers	Presenter	Carlton Home Entertainment	VHS only
1992–93	Junglies	Various Characters (Voice)	ITV
1994–95	Showstoppers	Presenter	BBC
1999	Hetty Wainthropp Investigates	Guest Appearance	BBC	Comic Relief Special
2001	An Audience with Des O'Connor	Himself	LWT
2003	Never Mind the Buzzcocks	Himself	BBC	Series 13, Episode 8
2017	The Keith & Paddy Picture Show	Winston Zeddmore	BBC	Series 1, Episode 2: 'Ghostbusters'
2020	Dr Seuss' The Grinch Musical!	Grandpa Who	NBC	[54]
2020	Jane McDonald and friends	Himself	Channel 5	[54]
2021	Fireman Sam	Trevor Evans	Cartoonito

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Lollipop Dragon: The Great Christmas Race	Lollipop Dragon / Hairy Troll (Voice)	Television film[55]
1986	Lollipop Dragon: The Magic Lollipop Adventure	Lollipop Dragon (Voice)	Television film[56]
1994–95	Lazarus		[57]
1997	The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon	Himself	Television film

References

1. "Stage Star Gary Wilmot Has Come a Long Way Since Talent Show Days".
2. "The Queen's Birthday Honours List 2018". GOV.UK. 8 June 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
3. "Gary Wilmot talks Chicago". Nottingham Evening Post. 26 June 2009. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
4. "Biography". Gary Wilmot official site. Archived from the original on 22 April 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
5. "Revelations: Gary Wilmot - Goodbye Dad, hello showbiz". The Independent. 28 April 1997.
6. "Gary Wilmot: A fruitful career - Features". The Stage. 1 March 2012.
7. "Gary Wilmot Talks Chicago".
8. "West End star Gary tunes in as Radio Times hits city stage".
9. "Wilmot Takes Over from Ball as Chitty's Caractacus".
10. "Aberdeen, North & Tayside". STV News.
11. "Santa Claus The Musical".
12. "Birmingham - Entertainment - Gary Wilmot takes control of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". BBC.
13. "Gary Wilmot Credits". Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
14. "Pantomime Archive Hall of Fame Gary Wilmot". pantoarchive. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
15. "gary wilmot". eastside.org.uk.
16. UK Mixmasters - "The Bare Necessities Megamix", produced by Nigel Wright for Skratch Music Productions, Executive Producer: Simon Cowell, 1991 Connect Records, licensed to BMG (UK) Ltd. catalogue number: ZB 45135
17. "Top of the Pops". BBC One. 12 December 1991.
18. "Archive news from the York Press". York Press.
19. "Gary Wilmot".
20. "Barry Manilow Copacabana in London starring Darren Day". This Is Theatre. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
21. "The Goodbye Girl on stage in London - the musical comedy starring Gary Wilmot and Ann Crumb". This Is Theatre. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
22. "Artistes Index". Performing Artistes.
23. "A Midsummer Night's Dream (2001) | Our Heritage | Open Air Theatre".
24. "The Pirates of Penzance (2001) | Our Heritage | Open Air Theatre".
25. "| Cambridge Network".
26. "Gary Wilmot will star as 'Caractacus Potts' in Chitty from 21 July 03". 8 June 2016.
27. "Casting confirmed for Open Air Theatre Regent's Park 2005 Season". 8 June 2016.
28. "Santa Clause - the Musical (Musical) archive [MUSICAL]".
29. "Birmingham - Entertainment - Gary Wilmot takes control of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". BBC.
30. "Tour archive for Half a Sixpence (Musical). 15th August 2007-10th May 2008 [TOUR]".
31. "We're off to see the Wizard!".
32. "The Wizard of Oz, Royal Festival Hall, London". The Guardian. 29 July 2008.
33. "Gary Wilmot Joins Cast of CHICAGO UK National Tour as 'Billy Flynn' 6/15-11/21".
34. "Lee Mead .. Timeline - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime UK tour, 2010".
35. "Cast update for the Invisible Man at Menier Chocolate". 8 June 2016.
36. "The Watermill Theatre - RADIO TIMES".
37. "The Watermill Theatre - RADIO TIMES - September 2012".
38. "Photos: A Bowl of Cherries at the Charing Cross Theatre". West End Theatre. 11 March 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
39. "The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury Theatre) | WhatsOnStage". 14 May 2014.
40. "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Bonnie Langford and Gary Wilmot to join cast". West End Theatre. 8 September 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
41. "Oklahoma! UK and Irish tour – full cast announced". Musical Theatre Review. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
42. "Gary Wilmot joins Dirty Rotten Scoundrels tour | WhatsOnStage". 5 June 2015.
43. "Stream the Film | Wind in the Willows the Musical". Willows. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
44. "End Of The Rainbow UK Tour". British Theatre. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
45. "Casting announced for Big the Musical | WhatsOnStage". 3 June 2016.
46. "Flowers for MRS Harris". 22 November 2021.
47. "Gary Wilmot's romantic thriller Sweet Lorraine premieres in Bognor Regis". 18 October 2018.
48. "Little Miss Sunshine". 25 April 2019.
49. "Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear the Musical". 18 March 2019.
50. "About the Show - the Prince of Egypt Musical Official Site".
51. "Gary Wilmot joins THE WIZARD OF OZ revival". 17 March 2023.
52. "Saturday Gang". IMDb.^{[unreliable source?]}
53. "Cue Gary". IMDb.^{[unreliable source?]}
54. "The Grinch musical broadcast further casting and creative team confirmed | WhatsOnStage". 11 November 2020.
55. "Lollipop Dragon: The Great Christmas Race". IMDb.^{[unreliable source?]}
56. "Lollipop Dragon: The Magic Lollipop Adventure (1986)".
57. "Lazarus (1994)". Archived from the original on 17 May 2017.

External links

• Official website
• Gary Wilmot at IMDb
• "BBC Comedy Guide: Gary Wilmot". Archived from the original on 23 February 2007.