Feature by Heather Kincaid

Fast becoming a staple feature of Birmingham's festive offering, Barbara Nice is back again with a brand new, bumper Christmas show for the fifth year running. As December descends upon us, we caught up with the much-loved King's Heath housewife - played by local legend Janice Connolly - to find out what we can expect from this year's Christmas Cracker...

“It's going to be a really good night out,” Connolly assures. “You name it, I've got it! I've got a ukulele band, mince pies and Barbara's famous raffle. I've got special guests including Lorraine Bowen, who was a semi-finalist on Britain's Got Talent last year. It's great fun and a brilliant thing to do with friends. People always come out saying it's put them right in the mood for Christmas!”

The continued success of Barbara's annual Christmas show in the city has surprised Connolly, but she's pleased as a festive spiced punch that people are still turning out in their droves to share an evening of silliness with her - and there'll be more of them this year than ever! 

“It was only supposed to be a one-off really, but people enjoyed it so much that I think it's become part of people's tradition now - it's as traditional as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! It started off as just the one night at mac, and now it's grown into a kind of little tour. I'm doing a few dates at mac and also one at the Artrix in Bromsgrove, and then there are shows in Manchester, Clitheroe and Brighton.”
Naturally, Barbara is pretty big on Christmas, but for Connolly herself, it's the quiet time that comes just after the big day that's the real joy of the holiday season.

“I don't mean to be miserable, but I do sometimes find Christmas Day itself can be a bit much. It's lovely when people get together and enjoy themselves, but there's such a lot to do, isn't there? I much prefer those days in between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve - those kind of lost days where you haven't got to do anything, but your house looks great because your Christmas tree's up, and you can watch all the stuff on telly that you've been wanting to see on catch-up, and you can just kind of breathe a bit. That's my favourite.”

Of course, a Barbara is for life and not just for Christmas, and 2016 has definitely been a brilliant year for the King's Heath comic. As well as taking home the title of Best Midlands Comedian in our own What's On Readers' Awards, she was also named as runner-up in the Midlands Comedy Awards, and has been busy in Birmingham and Salford recording a new sitcom set to air on BBC Radio Two in March.

“Barbara was never one for rushing - she's been taking it very slowly, but I do think she's finally starting to get the recognition she deserves. The sitcom is about Barbara's life at home with her husband and her best friend, Mary. She and her husband Ken have both got a lot of time on their hands, but Barbara's a get-up-and-doer while Ken just wants to stay at home watching quiz shows, so it's about her sort of putting a firework under him! We recorded four episodes to capacity audiences that really, really liked it, so I'm hoping people will listen in and say to the BBC, 'More of this please! More Barbara Nice!'”

It's now several years since Connolly came to Birmingham, but to this day she still nods to her northern origins in performances outside the city. She’s Barbara from Stockport in some shows, Barbara from King's Heath in others.

“I don't change a thing really, apart from the bus - it's a number 50 bus when I'm doing King's Heath Barbara and a 192 if I'm doing Stockport Barbara. That's the only change. But she travels very well. Wherever I go, people come and tell me that I'm just like their auntie or their mum - it's the same down south as well.”

In the past, Connolly has commented on the negative attitudes towards Birmingham that are present in much of the rest of the country, both in the north and the south. In recent years, however, huge redevelopment and investment in the city, as well as a growing cultural output, has helped to really challenge those perceptions.

“I was working with an actor from Walsall on a radio play recently, and he said he's noticed that a lot more people are asking for his proper accent now - it's something people are seeking out and enjoying, perhaps partly because of things like Peaky Blinders. Anybody that comes to Birmingham for the first time immediately changes their mind about it, and a lot of that is to do with what the powers-that-be are providing for people. It looks a lot better now, and there’s genuinely more to do. I went to the Royal Television Society Awards at the Motorcycle Museum, and Steven Knight, who made Peaky Blinders, was there. Now he's a great fella! And he said that, I think within the next two years, they're looking to open a film studio at the NEC, so hopefully there should be more and more really good stuff coming this way.”

Outside of being Barbara, Connolly also has a career as a theatre-maker, having run the well-regarded company Women In Theatre for an impressive 33 years. Their latest project, Starting Out, premiered at Birmingham REP in October, and was highly praised for its portrayal of the difficulties faced by young women entering the world of work today.

“About three years ago, to celebrate our 30th anniversary, we talked to women in Birmingham who’d also been doing their jobs for 30 years, and we created a set of monologues based on those conversations. So this year, I thought it'd be really good to talk to young women about their experiences of getting onto the career ladder, because I think it's really tough for young people now. We got great feedback at The REP, and also when we took the show to London, which is great because we're not particularly well known there.”

Nevertheless, Women In Theatre isn't, as the name might suggest, a project exclusively by and for women. Over the years, they've worked with many men, and even addressed important male issues such as mental health and testicular cancer. But at its heart is a commitment to improving diversity in our theatres, providing a platform for those whose voices might not otherwise be heard.

With her theatre company known for taking on weighty issues, Connolly is acutely aware of the many pressing problems in our society today. From the outside, the increasing hardship and division in our world might make a comedian's job seem like a tough one, but for her, the difficulties that we're facing only serve to make laughter more important than ever.

“I'm a big believer in comedy running side by side with serious issues because I think that, in life, often the times you laugh the most are after big, terrible events. I also think the working class are really good at laughing, and I think we should continue to do that. A lot of that is maybe because people have had harder lives and they know how to make the most of it when they're in a bad situation. In the north particularly you get a lot of comedy coming out of women working in the mills and shouting to each other and becoming these big, matriarchal characters - that's part of what's made things like Coronation Street so successful. And I think it's important. I think we've got to keep laughing because it gives us strength, and also it's a way of connecting with people and making them feel less powerless.”

Barbara Nice’s Christmas Cracker shows at Artrix, Bromsgrove, on Monday 12 December and mac birmingham on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 December.

Barbara also headlines LOL Comedy Stoke at the Regent Theatre 23 December