An afternoon with Dick and Dom in Spamalot

I’m a MASSIVE Dick and Dom fan – I watched ‘Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow’ as a fully grown man – it is probably one of the best kids TV shows EVER. G although was a bit too young to entirely remember ‘In Da Bungalow’ – she loves their recent work, she’s a BIG fan.

I had contact from a PR team I’d worked with before with the offer of tickets to see Dick and Dom in Spamalot, not only this, an invitation to an afterparty with the two of them. I don’t think I’ve EVER replied so quickly to a PR person – it was a no brainer. Unfortunately though – due to the way the weekends had fallen I could only give Georgia the news the day before, which actually worked out rather well. We devised an interesting way to break the news, with an impromptu game of ‘BOGIES!’ after school on Friday. This is what happened.

She was STUNNED, the look on her face was a picture though, and she continued to spend the rest of Friday evening talking about how great it was going to be. So Saturday morning came, and she decided she ‘MUST’ draw them a picture/note to give to them before we left. I wished I’d photographed it, as it was rather cute. I’d also arranged to get Danny and his kids in on the action, so we made our way off into London for an afternoon with Dick and Dom in Spamalot.

When we got to the Playhouse Theatre we knew the kids (five out of around 150) were going to be filmed for some promo stuff for the show. The filming was a little chaotic, 150 kids, on a busy London road, the competitive nature of the parents was UNBELIEVABLE, we’d told ours to look happy and be loud. The ‘Pushy Mummies’ we’re screaming at their children to look happy, and dragging them near the front of the camera – I was gobsmacked.

After the filming had finished we went to collect our tickets from the box office, and G and I took our seats (in the second row – WOW!) and she was jigging with excitement. she’s seen Pantomimes before, and went to see Brianiac in the summer – but she’s never seen a musical. I was blown away by her reaction, she loved it so much, she was giggling, and cheering and seemingly lost in the music from the colourful company. I think being feet away from Dick and Dom was the icing on the cake too.

As for the show itself – I *loved* it – I’m a Monty Python Fan, so it was pretty much a given that I would. Dick and Dom were FANTASTIC in their roles of Arthur and Patsy, considering they’d been doing it for days, they looked effortless and like they’d been doing the part for years! Dick made a great King Arthur, and Dom really had the fairly ‘non verbal’ part of Patsy nailed too. The entire company were brilliant, and Carly Stenson was sublime as the ‘Lady of the Lake’, who’d have thunk a Hollyoaks actress could actually be TALENTED.

Now, obviously, Monty Python isn’t really ‘Child Friendly’, and I was interested to see how Spamalot would be. I must admit to wincing in places, there is some swearing (on the milder end of the spectrum), and a bit of adult humour (most of which will fly over their heads). So it’s not TOO bad, one of the ‘Sirs’ ‘comes out’ in a sparkly, spandexy, disco number which is wickedly camp, again though, I think the humour flew over the heads of the younger audience. I was howling. I’d say, take your older children to see it, around 8+ years. G knows what the swear words are, I’m not daft, and I’m sure she’s heard them ALL at school, she knows NEVER to say them in my earshot, so I wasn’t too upset by the use in the show. It’s also just about the right length, each half is around an hour, there are some slower bits, but generally it nips along, so quite okay for your tweens and teens!

When the show was over, we made our way downstairs for the After Party, we regrouped with Dan and the clan (who’d my favourite radio laydeh EVER sat next to him – DJ Sara Cox!). There were a few famous faces dotted around, Loose Woman Andrea McLean, Eastenders Actress Nina Wadia and a comedian whose name will come to me at a random time. As a bit of an Eastenders fan, especially of the ‘Masood’ era, I had to say hello and meet Nina for a photo. Dan’s youngest strolled over to us as we spoke, looked up at Nina and said..

“Kip! Who is SHE?!”

Thankfully Nina wasn’t offended, not many seven year olds are Eastenders fans 😉

The moment then arrived for Dick and Dom to arrive fresh from their dressing room, swarms of children flew towards them, and they were BRILLIANT. They made sure they spoke to each one, posed for photos, and were very warm and lovely to the fans young and old. G eventually got to the front of the ‘queue’ to Dom, I smiled at him and his face lit up and he pointed at me..

“Oh you’re Twitter Man!!” he cried.

I must admit I had been tweeting them a fair bit in the week leading up to the show, I smiled and apologised for the number of tweets. I introduced G, and her face lit up when he recognised her ‘Oh I’ve seen your face on Twitter, your dad posted a picture of you looking shocked about coming to meet us’.

(This one!)

She gave Dom her picture that she’d drawn, and had him and Dick sign her program, “I’m going to keep this FOREVER” she declared as she walked away. She also had her picture taken with the two of them.

The crowds seemed to thin out as Dick and Dom had done their signing, I decided I *must* get my photo with them too, so after a lot of photographs and a few press interviews, I grabbed them both for a pose in front of the Spamalot banner. They were so lovely and very down to earth, I heard them talking about how now they were ‘lovies’ they’d had so many bunches of flowers delivered to the dressing room, and admitted they’d much rather it was beer. They are my type of guys 😉

We made our way home, and all the kids seemed to have had an incredible time, I was pretty amazed at how it had panned out, and I was really pleased to share it all with Dan and his kids. It really was one of those rare opportunities that you get when blogging – I cannot thank everyone at Spamalot for their hospitality. If you want to see Dick and Dom in this fantastic show, you really need to be quick, they’re only in it for six weeks!