Gary Wilmot: ‘I wasn’t ambitious until I was 60!’

Gary Wilmot has returned to playwriting with While They Were Waiting, a London debut staged Upstairs at the Gatehouse in which he stars opposite Steve Furst. When asked if the piece echoed Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, he admits he had never seen it until a West End production but left nonplussed: “I thought, ‘There’s a reason I’ve never seen this.

I haven’t got a clue what’s going on.’” Wilmot’s career has taken many turns — children’s TV presenter, variety host, panto dame, and musical star — and he remains frank about his choices. He tells of a Paddington the Musical workshop where he questioned a grafted-in character: “I’m going to do myself out of a job here but why is my character in this?

He’s just so disjointed from everything else.” The role vanished and he says he has no regrets: it’s about entertainment, not ego. He describes himself as a latecomer to ambition: “I wasn’t ambitious until about 10 years ago,” he says, while also noting a lifelong appetite for new things.

United Kingdom, London

gary wilmot, steve furst, samuel beckett, waiting godot, upstairs gatehouse, paddington musical, panto dame, children's tv, west end, playwriting