Amanda and Graham's Great Pig Adventure

In the Beginning

The adventure began way back in April 2025 when Amanda had a phone call out of the blue from Andy Booth. We had worked together on numerous occasions over the years and Amanda had booked players for him for various projects, including Chorus! (large concerts with choir and orchestra); a Christmas Carol TV programme with Aled Jones; and an opera scene with Bryn Terfel in the film of Billionaire Boy.

Andy already works as Musical Director on another Peppa Pig show so when the company asked him to bring together an orchestra for this project, he rang Amanda!

After some trial and error, the required 12 players were found – it was a tall order to find people who could make themselves available for three months. The orchestra consists of two violins, viola, cello, bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, harp and percussion. Sadly two players had to drop out and it was too late to start the VISA process with new players, so we will be joined in the USA by an oboist and a clarinetist.

Next came a period of sorting out contracts, details and logistics which seemed to go on for ever. It didn’t feel real for a long time. There was a long and difficult VISA application process culminating in interviews at the US Embassy in London which was quite an experience.

We had to queue up outside first and give our information to get into the first building. Next we went through an airport style scanner and were told we couldn’t take in our weapons!! Across a courtyard we came to the main building and as we queued again to get through the main reception, we were stared at by an enormous photo of Trump which was rather unsettling! There were three stages to get through, the last one being the dreaded interview, but this turned out to be all of two minutes long and we were easily approved. After a well-deserved drink we headed to the Battersea Power Station shopping centre just along the river and spent too much money in the huge Peppa Pig store! This became the pattern for everybody after their VISA interviews, which were spread out over several weeks.

Gradually we were given details of the extent of the tour and venues which was very exciting and only in January did we hear that all the VISAs had been approved. It is really happening! Dress shopping suddenly became an important factor!

The fun begins

Finally at the end of January we had our first rehearsals in Sheffield. We spent two days together with the four Peppa Pig characters – two inside Daddy and Mummy models and two wheeling the smaller Peppa and George models around – and the narrator who introduces the show and engages with the children in the audience. Also present were Richard the Director, Martin the Executive Producer and Jacqui the Production Coordinator who we had been bombarding with emails for months!

Rehearsals were great fun. We all feel confident about the show and can’t wait to get going! Not long now…

Now we are frantically trying to get everything done at home before we go. Then to try to tackle the packing – a tricky job. We only have the usual 23kg allowance to pack for three months, including concert wear and with a huge variety of weather. We start in Seattle (cold) and finish in Florida (hot, I hope!) with ups and downs in between. Our instruments will be our hand baggage in the overhead locker (apart from cello which has its own seat) so that limits what we can take onboard too. Wish us luck…