Back Stages

by Michael Kilgarriff

Elation, exhaustion, panic, despair, triumph, all spring from the pages of Back Stages with a gamey

whiff of actualité. For anyone with an interest in theatre history this book offers a unique snapshot

into the attitudes and processes of 1960s and 1970s show-business.



Starting with an epic seven-month cruise around the Pacific with his own company, the author takes

us on a vivid and exhilarating ride through rehearsals and performances of five engagements in the company of such stars as Stanley Baxter, Danny La Rue, Brian Rix and Tom Conti. Back Stages is a

record of what happened, when it happened and how it happened, related not through a fanciful

mist of nostalgia but taken down in the white heat of immediacy.

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2010

About the author

Michael Kilgarriff is a British actor from Brighton. As an actor he is well known for two things: his rich voice--leading to much radio and voice over work--and his height. At six feet seven inches (2.01 metres) tall, he is sought for certain roles, the most notable of which has been The Cyber Controller in Doctor Who, a role he played in 1967 and 1985. He also appeared in the series as an Ogron (1973) and as the eponymous K1 Robot in the story Robot in 1974. He returned to play the K1 Robot in the Big Finish Productions Bernice Summerfield audio adventure The Relics of Jegg-Sau. He also did voice work for the Jim Henson movie The Dark Crystal in 1982 as SkekUng, the Garthim master (Named "The General" in the movie), and played the part of the Green King in the 1970s serial The Moon Stallion.

Kilgarriff is a music hall enthusiast, and wrote what is considered the definitive guide to music hall songs: Sing Us One of the Old Songs: A Guide to Popular Song from 1860-1920 (Oxford University Press, 1998). This work lists thousands of influential songs by singer, lyricist and composer.

He is also the author of a series of children's joke books.