There’s no business, like show business.

Every month, the Queens Hotel welcomes the Portsmouth Women’s Lunch Club and at a recent gathering they were lucky enough to find out more about the exciting former life of our very own Events Co-ordinator Amanda Gilmore, when she was the guest speaker.

Before her career in hospitality, Amanda enjoyed performing on some of the greatest stages across the UK and in the West End, including a Royal Variety Show in front of the Queen Mother at the London Palladium.

“There is something about doing a Royal Show and, of course, the Palladium is the home of variety. I ended up playing the Palladium twice in one week – it was my first time in the West End. I performed in the last night of Sacha Distel’s show and then it was back to the Palladium for the Queen Mum,” recalled Amanda when we sat down to talk about her career as a singer, dancer and actor.

Her first taste of theatre at the age of 12, was in an amateur dramatic production of the Sound of Music at the Golders Green Odeon.

“I absolutely loved everything about it.

“When I was 9 years old, I announced to my Mum and Dad that I wanted to go on the stage. They thought it would be good for me to follow the normal schooling route, which I did, and all the time they were squirreling money away so we could revisit the idea of stage school when I was older,” said Amanda.

After her O’ levels, Amanda auditioned for the Italia Conti stage school which produced big names such as Lena Zavaroni and Bonnie Langford back in the 1970s and more recently Pixie Lott and Layton Williams.

“Lesley Ash was there when I was at Italia Conti and I used to do ballet classes with Tracey Ullman. She was a fantastic mimic and she’d have us all in stitches,” she said.

After a year, choreographer Samantha Stevens spotted Amanda’s potential and chose her to be part of her dance groups.

“We worked in the provinces and it all counted towards us getting our Equity cards, which allowed us to perform on the stage,” she said.

A tour with French singing heartthrob Sacha Distel followed and in 1980 to 1982, Amanda was picked as one of the dancers for the Paul Daniels Show, at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London. An audition followed for his television show and Amanda was picked as his assistant.

“It was such good fun being Paul’s assistant and I also appeared in the Good Old Days which was a much loved television show in the mid 1980s.

“Then I auditioned and got a part in Barnum. Michael Crawford was the most professional artist I ever worked with. I have huge respect for him and we have cast reunions still to this day,” she said.

Looking back on her life on the stage, Amanda is clearly exhilarated by the memories of a life lived centre stage.

“It was a different life and seems like a lifetime away. I went on to be a Mum and I’m now a Nanna. I’ve had a fulfilling career in hospitality but inside I’m still the jazz hands girl,” said Amanda.

20th August 2026