Huw Sanderson

1995 The Pirates of Penzance A Policeman

Huw came late to the seedy world of the society, stumbling into the 1995 "Pirates of Penzance" rehearsals whilst looking for a Newsagents. After learning all of the words to "A Modern Major General" for the auditions, he found he had wiped clean the part of his brain containing his address and phone number, and thus it was a confused and bewildered young man who found himself wandering the streets of Manchester, mumbling about animals, vegetables and minerals.

Not content with being a grunting Pirate or simple Copper, Huw shamelessly exploited his lack of height to become a 'comedy-police-dwarf'. This blatant, and rather pathetic, display of part-building earned him scorn from his vertically challenged friends who later accused him of selling-out to heightist society. His thirst for publicity was not easily quenched however, as Manchester radio-listeners found out when he led a costumed group of chorus desperados in a daring assault on Piccadilly Radio, which culminated in the unleashing of a health-threatening rendition of "Hail Poetry".

However, Huw would prefer to be remembered for the breath-taking ineptitude of his Christmas Ball tin-whistle solo during Alex Hayes' and Penny Richards' romantic rendition of "Fairytale of New York", and also for his sentimental updating of the Sonny + Cher duet "I've Had You Babe", as performed with Josephine 'heaving-bosom' Grace.

Since leaving Manchester for Newcastle, Huw's star-potential was finally spotted when he was given the part of "Eddy, the pill-popping Goonball" in the University of Sunderland's 1997 production of "A Slice of Saturday Night". The show received much critical acclaim, with Eddy's cockney accent being mentioned in the same breath as that of dialect-specialist, Dick Van Dyke.

Eschewing all things worldly, Huw is currently 'working' as a Research Assistant - a thankless task that involves subsidised foreign travel and long coffee breaks. The world of ham and greasepaint awaits his future theatrical endeavours with a studied indifference.