Cromer Pier Christmas Show
Cromer Pier’s annual variety show treat
Cromer Pier boasts a very special record – the longest running end of the pier variety show in the UK. Once upon a time, many seaside piers had theatres hosting variety shows of comedians, magicians and conjurors and attracting enthusiastic crowds. But in recent years the number of piers, a Victorian novelty attraction, has dwindled and many of the theatres have closed.
So this is a great time of year to celebrate Cromer’s fantastic achievement, a flourishing pier – Pier of the Year no less in 2024, and the great Pavilion Theatre still filling seats for shows throughout the year.
Pier curtain raiser pulls big crowds to Cromer
Every summer the theatre attracts sell-out crowds wait excitedly for the curtain to raise on the annual variety show with visitors worldwide enjoying a vey special British tradition which has been thrilling crowds for decades.
At Christmas time the variety show takes on a seasonal twist and local star Olly Day hosts an amazing celebration of song, dance, comedy, and festive magic. There’s something extra special about making your way to pier in the darkness, the reflected lights glistening in the water all around. It’s very atmospheric, and you can’t help but imagine the generations of theatre-goers whose footsteps you’re following to the end of the pier.
Special Connection to the host of the show
At this point I have to reveal a special connection with the compere and host of the Christmas show Olly Day. Well, three connections actually. The first is that Olly and I were at the now demolished Earlham School in Norwich together, although I was two years above him. But I do clearly remember that he used to put on magic shows at lunchtimes for a very modest ticket fee and even then he was very popular and funny.
The next connection is we both worked at the BBC local radio station, BBC Radio Norfolk in the 1980’s. I was hosting the evening show: ‘Night Drive‘ and Olly was a regular on the station reviewing all the new movie releases on VHS available to rent and buy. Yes, in the 1980’s people actually used to go out to a hire-shop and choose a video tape movie to take home and watch. I know, it seems hard to believe now in the days of Netflix, Disney and Apple+ beamed direct to your home.
The third connection, which we only discovered by very recently and by accident, when we met for lunch in March at North Cottage Cromer. Olly mentioned it was his birthday the next day, so the delicious lunch Andrea served had been a very nice birthday treat. ‘Really!’ I exclaimed, ‘it’s my birthday tomorrow too!’ And so we went on, with astonishment at having known each other almost 50 years but never noticing the birth date co-incidence. Fortunately Andrea had already baked a special birthday iced fruit cake in the AGA, so slices were cut and candles inserted for the photo above. There may have been some singing too. Olly’s wife Janet can be seen in the mirror capturing the event. 10th March is the date for your diaries next year…
This year’s Cromer Pier Christmas Show
Last year’s Christmas show was a record breaker with more seats sold than ever. This year Olly celebrates his 15th year hosting the show, also an incredible achievement. We love the show, for us it really does kick off the Christmas season. The show opens in late November and runs on until just after Christmas, with the cast and crew taking Christmas Day off – quite right too. There’s a trailer for the show on Cromer Pier’s YouTube channel and you can buy your tickets from the box office in person, or by phone or book online. If you’re in Cromer, going to the box office saves paying the online booking fee. We highly recommend the show to all our Christmas guests. We’ve got our tickets – have you got yours yet?
Here’s your link to buy tickets for this season’s Cromer Pier Christmas Show with Olly Day as host. Enjoy!
