00:00I started with the show three and a half years ago now.
00:02So I've been doing it for quite a long time.
00:04I've done UK touring and loads of international touring.
00:07So I've taken it across the world.
00:09I've been from China to India, Singapore and massive European tour.
00:14So it's been amazing.
00:15But to come back to Leeds is always brilliant because it is where I started.
00:20It's where I grew up.
00:21It's where I started performing and where I saw loads of shows when I was a kid.
00:25So being at the Grand is that really kind of special moment of going,
00:30that used to be me out there sat watching and dreaming and thinking
00:33and wishing that I would be able to do it one day as a job.
00:35And now I'm back doing it.
00:37So it's lovely.
00:38Tanya, she is the best role.
00:40I just love playing her.
00:42She's fun and she's vivacious and she's a bit naughty and she's funny.
00:47But she's also loyal.
00:49She is, you know, a rock for her mates.
00:52I think she's a great character to play.
00:55So I have so much fun with that every night.
00:56And that's why I've been doing it for so long.
00:58And I think to be in Mamma Mia is just, it's just wonderful.
01:02You know, those songs, the music of ABBA, people love that.
01:06To watch people stand up every night and dance and forget their sort of troubles for a bit
01:10is really great.
01:12And I think it's also, it's clever because it's got a great story.
01:16It's got characters that people can relate to.
01:19It sort of ticks all the boxes.
01:20And of course, it was the first jukebox musical ever, really.
01:24And so many other things have now followed in its footsteps.
01:27But it's still going after, I think, it's 26 years now.
01:32Like, that is incredible, isn't it?
01:33In the show, I love doing Does Your Mother Know because it's so much fun.
01:37It's just a great number.
01:38I get to sort of have a great time with the ensemble cast as well.
01:42So we have a really good time doing that.
01:43But also, I think, Dancing Queen, Chikatita, those things that we do when we're with Donna,
01:47the three dynamos, they're great.
01:50And the Megamix is amazing.
01:52But I also love something I'm not involved with in the show, Slipping Through My Fingers,
01:56which is a gorgeous, sort of, maybe a bit underrated ABBA song.
02:01And it's a sort of calm ballad.
02:03You get away from all the kind of, like, high-energy, up-tempo stuff.
02:08And that is a real kind of poignant moment in the show.
02:10So I enjoy that as well.
02:11It's just really nice to come home.
02:13And again, like I said, in terms of performing, it's where I started when I was six.
02:17I was doing the Leeds City Varieties Panto when I was six.
02:20And down at the Leeds Playhouse, which was then the West Yorkshire Playhouse,
02:23when I was a kid, I did Gypsy there years ago.
02:27And all the amateur theatre I did when I was in the area and the drama classes and the dance
02:32classes.
02:33And just, you know, God, so much time and effort went into all of that stuff.
02:38And it was all here.
02:40So it is just so nice to come back.
02:42And it's just nice to, you know, walk around Leeds and be back home where I grew up.
02:46And I'm getting the bus down to work.
02:48And there's a bus I used to sit on when I went to school.
02:51So you go, oh, that's, you know, brings back the memories.
02:54I feel so lucky that I've been able to have done this and to do something that I enjoy.
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