George Logan
Born in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland, George comes from a musical and theatrical background. Among his cousins are sisters Sally Logan and Anne Fields, both still active on the variety stage (Sally is married to folk singer Joe Gordon), and Margo Henderson, a familiar figure on stage and television in the 1950s and 60s both with her impressions at the piano, and alongside her husband, saxophonist Sam Kemp. George’s sister is comedienne and vocalist Jennifer Scott.
George studied music at the Royal Academy in Glasgow, and attended Glasgow University. Later, while working as a computer programmer in London, he moonlighted around the London club and pub scene playing piano and accompanying the acts who performed there. In 1970 he met up with female impersonator Perri St Claire (Patrick Fyffe, the future Dame Hilda Bracket) and they struck up a friendship both personal and professional. It was Patrick who had the initial idea of forming a female impersonation act with a difference, and in 1972, Dame Hilda Bracket and Doctor Evadne Hinge took to the stage for the first time.
Hinge and Bracket really took off when they appeared in their own stage show An Evening of Memories at the 1974 Edinburgh Festival. This show transferred directly to the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and then to the West End’s Mayfair theatre. It was followed by a new late night show Sixty Glorious Minutes at the Ambassador’s theatre, and in 1976 they made the first of five visits to Australia, playing to sold-out houses at the Adelaide Festival, the Theatre Royal, Sydney and major theatres throughout the continent. While continuing to tour extensively in the UK, they also appeared in Bangkok, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Dubai, Qatar, Toronto, Ottawa and most recently Cape Town (1995). They presented new shows in the West End regularly, notably at the Globe (1980) and Comedy (1984) theatres, and appeared at the Whitehall Theatre (1987) in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. This production subsequently toured in the UK (1988) and then in Australia (1989).
Highlights of their thirty year career included two appearances on the Royal Variety show, as well as many other performances attended by members of the Royal family, the last being on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. They appeared at the Royal Opera House on two occasions, first as performers in a gala organised to celebrate the 90th birthday in 1982 of opera legend Dame Eva Turner, and on New Year’s Eve, 1983, in a production of Die Fledermaus alongside Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Placido Domingo. They appeared on numerous occasions in concert with the Band of the Grenadier Guards, and their series of Last Night of the Wimbledon Proms concerts with full orchestra, chorus and guest soloists were always guaranteed to sell out. They also toured with conductor Carl Davis in a concert program A Shot at the Arias, and have appeared in concerts at the Albert and Royal Festival Halls.
They were first heard on radio in their series The Enchanting World of Hinge and Bracket recorded in Manchester, which ran for 40 episodes (1997 – 1999), and later in The Random Jottings of Hinge and Bracket (1982 – 1989) recorded in London. Between the two, they clocked up well over 100 radio episodes. They were regular guests on television, and in the late seventies began a series of orchestral concerts recorded in the Royal Hall, Harrogate and the Opera House, Buxton for the BBC. This led eventually to their comedy series Dear Ladies which ran for three years (20 episodes) on BBC2 from 1981.
From 1989, pantomime at Christmas featured in their schedule up to 2002, the year of Patrick Fyffe’s death. Their last tour was in Peter Schaffer’s Lettice and Lovage playing the parts originated in the West End by Dame Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack.
After the death of his colleague, George Logan retired from the theatre and moved to France, where he currently runs a Bed and Breakfast establishment www.belombrage.net with his partner Louie Perone.
Recently writing has come to occupy a large part of George’s time, and his first book, The Naked Doctor, retailing the early life of his alter ego, Doctor Evadne Hinge, was published by GJB Publishing this year (2014).