MUSICALLY MINDED

Mar 21 2010 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

ACTRESS Sheila Hancock, pictured right, has criticised her own profession for turning its nose up at musicals.

Sheila, 77, is a judge on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s search for an unknown to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

She said: “There’s an incredibly grand attitude towards musicals. I don’t understand why my profession is so snooty about it.

“The amount of work that goes into these shows is easily comparable to things I’ve been in at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Why do we think it is less important?”

Sheila said the forthcoming show Over the Rainbow did not set out to make fun of people.

Speaking to the Radio Times, she said: “On The X Factor, they deliberately have people on that are awful just to laugh at them.

“That certainly doesn’t happen here.”

OVER THE RAINBOW, BBC1, Friday, 9pm.