Intro: Paul Hunter
Hello and welcome to Regrets, I've Had A Few. I'm Paul Hunter, Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot, and this is a podcast where I talk to friends and colleagues delving into what made them the person they are today.

Paul Hunter
Hello and welcome to Regrets, I've Had A Few. This week. I'm chatting to an amazing young actor I've been lucky enough to work with twice now, and I think he is really gifted. He's going on to do extraordinary things as I knew he would. It's Omari Douglas Omari, welcome.

Omari Douglas
Hi, Paul. Thank you for the lovely words. It's very kind of you.

Paul Hunter
Well, it's well, it's well deserved. And the first thing I have to say is obviously we chatted about this before, but we are from the same part of the country.

Omari Douglas
We are.

Paul Hunter
We are both from the Midlands. I'm from Birmingham and you're from

Omari Douglas
Wolverhampton.

Paul Hunter
Excellent. So that felt like when we first met three years ago doing Wise Children for Emma Rice, that felt like a connection

Omari Douglas
Yeah for sure

Paul Hunter
Because, I don't know about you. I still find over the years there's not often when I end up in a show with people from my hometown or nearby.

Omari Douglas
I was literally just about to say exactly the same thing. I kind of I don't know, I just got really excited by the camaraderie of just sort of like meeting people from the area, because especially when I was young and I was kind of doing youth theatre. Like initially when I first moved to London, the only people that I knew that were from that area were people who'd also moved to London, who I did youth theatre with. So then like gradually you start to meet more and more people and it's like, oh, it's not just this like tiny little pool of people that you think, which is sort of like running around with it, like your youth there. But now it's all good. It's it's fab.

Paul Hunter
It's interesting, isn't it? Because I also obviously being a little bit older than yourself. I spent a lot of time touring in theatre for many years and for a long time I never went to Birmingham. For some reason I on the touring circuit, I it never happened. And then about I don't know, maybe ten years ago I finally went back to the Rep, Birmingham Rep, where I used to go as a kid and really enjoyed it. Going home felt slightly... I have to ask you, have you ever played a part where you've had to do a Wolverhampton accent?

Omari Douglas
Uh, no, I haven't yet. I would like to, although I say that actually. And I mean, so many people do say to me, they're like, oh, you haven't really got much of an accent, which which I do hear myself. But I you know, when you sort of, like, are assimilating in new circles, when you move to London and stuff, it kind of fizzles away. But I feel like that that would actually be a challenge in like trying to find it again, which is so interesting, I think, because

Paul Hunter
it's a very particular accent isn't it, because I did, I was in a production of Tartuffe at Birmingham Rep that Roxana Silbert directed, and it was really great because she created the family of the show were all Brummies. So there was a lot of us were from Birmingham. And at the end of the play, there's a messenger who comes on stage from the king and she cast this guy from Wolverhampton. And it was kind of brilliant that at the end the messenger had a big speech and the audience in Birmingham loved the fact that he had this Wolverhampton accent. Now, you and I both know I think sometimes people not from the area confuse these accents, whereas I think, Wolverhampton and Birmingham is very different.

Omari Douglas
Oh, so, so, so, so different. But yeah, I think people kind of like just club it together as one sound don't they. But the black country sound is very different to the Birmingham sound. They're like really, really, really distinctive.

Paul Hunter
Definitely. You mentioned kind of growing up and stuff. And if I could take you back a little bit, do you have any recollection of your first, when you first kind of got the theatrical bug or was it a school play or how did it happen?

Omari Douglas
Erm that that the first moment that I remember at primary school was, I can't remember what year I was in, but we did a musical nativity called Stable Manners. And yes. And I played I played a camel called Claude, who was French. And it was sort of like a double act with with another boy, I think it was Anthony or something like that. And I remember my, because we didn't have sort of like allocated drama classes. It was kind of like Extra-Curricular when I was at primary school. And it was one of the English teachers who sort of took this extracurricular drama sort of activity after school. And I remember her saying to my mum at one point, you know, you should really, like, let him go ahead and sort of pursue all of this stuff. And I at the time, like, I knew that I loved it, but I was definitely sort of like dabbling in lots of other bits and bobs, like I used to do karate and I even tried football at one point, which is a memory that I'm more than happy to erase from my mind. But yeah, and then when I got to secondary school, again, I just started like jumping into school plays and productions and things. And I remember we did, they did a production of Jesus Christ Superstar when I was in year seven, actually. And I was like kind of overly keen and enthusiastic about just like mucking in for this production. I remember the head of performing arts saying, you know, if anyone could help out with props, then that would be really fantastic. And I remember going to like every off licence possible, like getting my mum to drive me there to get all these sort of like wooden crates for like fruit and vegetables so that I could help out for, like, the temple scene. And I think I kind of maybe annoyed the head of performing arts a little bit because I was so keen to just kind of muck in, but yeah, just kind of spun out from there. And like you were talking about the Rep and I was really lucky that I got to do my, like, work experience placement there.

Paul Hunter
Oh, wow

Omari Douglas
When I was I think I was 14 or 15 and I remember sort of careers advisers and that kind of thing saying, you know. Right. So you want to do performing arts. They were like, oh, you're going to have a bit of trouble being able to find like a work experience placement, that kind of thing, because most people doing that work placements that like supermarkets or like banks and that kind of thing. But at the time, the Rep was doing like an allocated programme for young people for work experience placements, which was incredible. And I remember being so excited because you had to apply and they only had about five or six places and they took you in a week around every single department in the theatre. And I remember they would just, I think they'd taken Our House on tour, the musical, the Madness musical. And I remember going into the auditorium because at this point I don't think I'd seen anything at the theatre, but they still had the set in the auditorium. And I was just like completely like blown away by just being on stage, getting on there. I think they took us up to the flies as well. And then we went to we went into makeup. We went into prosthetics. Like I just remember them telling us these really incredible stories. And yeah, I just feel really, really, really fortunate to have had been to have had a work placement in like an institution of that calibre. So young. Because I also did a work placement at Central Youth Theatre as well, which is a, do you know Central Youth Theatre?

Paul Hunter
Yes, I heard of it.

Omari Douglas
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I did a placement there too, which was really amazing. And then funnily enough, I did I wasn't actually a part of that youth group.

Paul Hunter
Where was your youth theatre group?

Omari Douglas
It was Wolverhampton Youth Music Theatre. So they produced a lot of musicals, of course, then and I think the funding for that has changed now. But it was funded by like Wolverhampton Music Service, who provided like musical instrumental tuition to to kids and stuff like that. And that is kind of where the pool of actors who I was working with, who I sort of are my London buddies now or were initially until I sort of like met more people from the Midlands, like yourself. But, yeah, it was just it was a really exciting time when I think about it, because with Wolverhampton Youth Music Theatre, they used to do like summer intensives. So you basically spent, you spent your whole summer holiday kind of like putting on a production. And all the productions that I did were at the Arena Theatre, which is University of Wolverhampton, sort of like allocated theatre spaces. Tiny sort of like little intimate space. And I, I was also a part of another amateur theatre group called Impulse Productions, which was run by a couple of guys who were actually at drama school at the time it was Luke and John Dudley and Luke was that Guildford School of Acting and John was at Mountview. And when I think about it, having gone through the drama school process, what they did was actually like, I don't know how they did it. They used to finish drama school on a Friday drive back to the Midlands on a weekend. Do the rehearsals produce the show, put it on. We did like I did some shows at the arena. I did some. What's that theatre in Cannock? It's in kind of Cannock Chase, they've got like a civic theatre space. I can't remember what it's called actually.

Paul Hunter
We shall research that and we can put that out with the podcast and give them a plug.

Omari Douglas
Yes.

Paul Hunter
But Omari, that sounds amazing. So was it the guy who was coming to work with you that introduced the idea of going to Mountview, or was that the or was that just a

Omari Douglas
So Luke actually was in 6th form when I was sort of in the lower years in secondary school, so that's how I got to know him and then I just sort of heard because I, I always admired those kind of like older people at school and I mean, my secondary school isn't a performing arts specialist school at all, but just had a very, very, very strong department. And a lot of those 6th form students who would do like a BTEC performing arts, they'd go on and do like they'd go to drama schools and stuff like that. But I, I mean, I was sort of toying with the idea of doing a BTEC. And then eventually I ended up just sort of doing like a very sort of like traditional set of A-levels. But I just got along with that crowd really well. So I hung out with them. So I was definitely like straddling both worlds because, I mean, I was very academic and I wanted to go to university and I was sort of proud of being really geeky. And like I did, I did the like Oxbridge open days and that kind of thing. But I was just kind of going, I'm going to do this with the same view to want to be an actor. So I may as well just like go to drama school anyway. And there were a couple of people who went to ArtsEd, I think and that was how I then heard about it. And then I ended up auditioning there and I got in. And I mean, I was really happy when I got in because I remember my head of performing arts telling me that it was kind of like I mean, as any drama school is, but ArtsEd being sort of like notoriously difficult to get in because it's such a select number of places and that kind of thing. And she hadn't had many people actually go off and do that course, so, yeah, I was really lucky and. Well, that's yeah.

Paul Hunter
It's an interesting thing that you say that thing about thinking about university and then realising actually I'm going to be an actor anyway, because I remember having a similar conversation earlier than you with my parents who were trying to encourage me to to go to university. And they often said, oh, well, you'll have something to fall back on. And I remember saying, well, if I have something to fall back on, I'm going to fall back on it. So I kind of thought I just need to give it a go, you know, because I'm assuming there's no theatrical kind of people in your family? There was no one already in show biz or?

Omari Douglas
No. I mean. Well, actually, I had a cousin that went to the Italia Conti for a little while. Yeah, I had a cousin that went to Italia Conti for a while. And all my cousins are older than me, like I'm sort of the youngest of that generation. So that was one of my early memories of sort of knowing what a drama school was and that kind of thing. And then apart from that, there isn't any kind of like theatrical connections. I mean, my uncle is a musician and he sort of had a very successful band, like in the sort of late 90s.

Paul Hunter
Who were they?

Omari Douglas
It's like they were called the first group that he was in was called Angry Mexican Djs. And they were like a house collective. And and then he was in like a ska, revival band called Stateside Hombres. And they toured with like they supported James Brown. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.So, yes,

Paul Hunter
I'm going I'm going to look up angry Mexican DJs after this. Yes. That sounds very interesting. So when you got to ArtsEd you were doing what, the musical theatre course or?

Omari Douglas
Yea I was doing the musical theatre degree. And so there's like two degree programmes there, the musical theatre, and the sort of acting for screen and for film and television. I think it's got a very specific title. And yeah, there was about forty five people in my year. And strangely, despite the fact that there's only sort of like forty five in the musical theatre school and probably a bit less on the sort of like straight acting course or sort of however you want to refer to it. And they, we never really crossed paths with each other. It was quite like, and I was I was head of the student union with my best friend when I was in my third year. And we made this, like, really concerted effort to try and like integrate like the two schools together. But it just was like it just never really seemed to happen. And I mean, I knew I knew people that were on the other course as well. And actually a really good friend of mine who I did youth theatre with and also went to secondary school with, she did the acting course there. But yeah, my course was very sort of like split. I mean, on paper they say it's like 33 percent dance, thirty three percent acting and 33 percent vocal tuition. So it was very regimented, very strict. I mean, the biggest thing I would say that I took away from there is like discipline and sort of like being able to form a sense of, like, self discipline for for those moments where you're kind of like, are quiet and aren't doing anything and you want to be able to sort of like motivate yourself to do something

Paul Hunter
That's important.

Omari Douglas
Yeah, it is.

Paul Hunter
And what sort of roles were you cast in? I'm always interested what people played at drama school.

Omari Douglas
You know what's really interesting? I always played authority, high status figures,

Paul Hunter
Did you, I don't know why that surprises me

Omari Douglas
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised by it as well. So I I remember in so in my second year, I did we did like a Gilbert and, Gilbert and Sullivan project. I'm not sure whether they still do that now, but you perform extracts from like one particular operetta. And we did I think we did Ruddigore. And I played a sort of, because Ruddigore is about kind of like ancestry and there's all these kind of like ghosts in it and that kind of thing. And I played yeah, I played like a very high status figure in that. Well, actually, we also did Assassins' when I was in my second year, I played Leon and I played Leon Czolgosz in that actually and I, I, I actually remember getting really bad feedback for it. And then when I was in my third year, I was cast as Carl Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can, which is the role that Tom Hanks played in the film.

Paul Hunter
Wow, so was that a musical first or?

Omari Douglas
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, it wasn't a musical first. They, they adapted it from that, that the film and like the real life story. Yeah. It was like it was written by the same team that did the adaptation of Hairspray.

Paul Hunter
OK, yeah. You played the Tom Hanks role

Omari Douglas
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that was again I sort of, I sort of think back to that time actually I kind of go I mean it was quite scary because actually particularly with musical theatre and we had we were so exposed to the industry, in our third year we had a lot of people that would come and watch our shows. And interestingly, like a lot of people like myself, like a lot of people had interest in us when we weren't actually playing principal roles interest.

Paul Hunter
Ah interesting

Omari Douglas
I mean, interestingly, for me, I sort of a lot more interest came when I was doing something less. I mean, I played Lurch in The Addams Family, which is which was really fun and really physical as well. So, yeah, I think maybe there was like a sense of them sort of people thinking, oh, maybe he's a bit too old for that, or maybe I just wasn't that good. So I don't know. It's interesting.

Paul Hunter
But I'm also interested that that moment when you leave drama school or one of these roles and then you you go out into the professional world. And I remember the first play I was in when I left college, I was terribly miscast and I was absolutely dreadful in this play that went to the Edinburgh Festival with a company that was the year above me. And it was very serious and very earnest. And I was cast as a Chilean political prisoner of

Omari Douglas
Yes, I remember you telling me

Paul Hunter
It was dreadful. So in some ways I, I regret that and I don't regret it. Is there anything you did after drama school? You look back and regret that job or not at all that you think like that?

Omari Douglas
No, I. I don't regret any of my jobs at all. I think maybe what I sort of I mean, it's hard to even say regret because, you know, I yeah, I'm sort of I'm learning that you go on the journey that you go on and because it gets you to where you are now. But I sort of really struggled with just sort of like taking ownership of like sort of the those initial opportunities that come to you. And still I mean I mean, at least I felt like I was anyway.

Omari Douglas
Like, I was just so sort of like wide-eyed and Green kind of like going into the industry for the first time. And I, I mean, I did my first show because the director actually saw one of my third year shows and which was which was High Society at the Old Vic. Yeah. Maria Friedman directed that and the choreographer of the Addams Family, was working on that particular production, and she came in to watch the show at ArtsEd, and she was like, Oh, I'd like him to come in and audition. And I just I think of I mean, I don't know how you felt like sort of in your early days of, like, auditioning and stuff, but I just remember being like an absolute quivering mess. To the point where I was just like, I can't believe that I even got the job because I was in the I remember being in the final audition, being surrounded by people who I'd seen in so many shows. I was like, oh, my God, I remember you from that show and I remember you from that show. But I think the saving grace actually was that I actually then ended up doing the show with one of my really, really, really close friends who was also in the same year as me. And we yeah, we actually followed each other for a couple of years because we then did our first tour together as well, which then also had like an extra two people from my year in it as well.

Paul Hunter
So you had like you had buddies, which is good.

Omari Douglas
Yea, I had buddies

Paul Hunter
You mentioned the Old Vic Omari. And that brings me to the first time we worked together when we were both in Emma Rice's first production with her new company, Wise Children of the novel Wise Children. And I remember us rehearsing in in Bristol and then in London. And I thought Emma did such a brilliant job of casting that particular novel and adapting it, you know, the way in which the central characters, the central relationship of the twins changed throughout the play was so amazing. And particularly when I think the best transition of that is when it transitions from when they're little to when they're a bit older. And you are dancing, which I always I was always I think I was in the audience taking photos as a kind of press man. And I was always able to look at the audience when they couldn't quite believe that this audacious swap had happened. And I remember thinking sometimes in that show because I think we were all right for what we played, you know, me playing Gorgeous George was a good fit and and everybody was. But I, I sometimes think this when I watched you dancing in particular, it's such a tangible skill. I mean, it's something where you go you've obviously practised for a long time to be able to do that. And I think audiences really love that. They love it when they see skill, do you know what I mean you go, wow, that's a really skilful and I suppose you don't think about it, but the hours and hours you must have put into the dancing must have paid off. Or they're in your DNA, aren't they?

Omari Douglas
Yeah, I think I think so. But I just hadn't really had a chance to sort of like employ those skills, like sort of on that level of exposure before or at least feel like that I had, because obviously the brilliance about being in the room with people like Emma and Etta are give you like a sort of great deal of autonomy over sort of like what you want to bring to it, to what you're doing. So, I mean, you know, with no disrespect to the world that I had come from before, but there, you know, a lot of things are prescribed to you when you're given sort of things to do, whereas this felt like a real moment of kind of going like, wow, I can actually take ownership of it. But you say that about it being a tangible skill. And honestly, I feel like an even sort of before Wise Children, I think sort of my introduction to Emma's world and sort of working with Mike and people like that, I was like just in awe every day of being in a room with people who came from so many different worlds. And and, you know, and like, you know, we've had so many conversations, like, you know, myself with you and and with Mike and that kind of thing. And just sort of it definitely allowed me to sort of find like a new level of confidence that I hadn't had before, but not even so much confidence, just more of like a bravery to actually kind of mess up and also have more bravery to go like, I actually really want to just like keep adding to my skill set and and and just sort of just keep training basically, because, you know, I feel like that I've had good opportunities to be able to do that by, you know, like working with people, working with people like you and sort of like, you know, even going, you know, we've spoken about John Wright, and I told you about when I went to go into that workshop with him and I sort of took I've taken that as just like a really, really, really formative experience. And I think, you know, because a lot of the time I sort of go, gosh, did I did I do the right course like when I was training? Should I have, like, maybe gotten like more down to straight acting? And I go, no, actually I don't think so, because I don't think I would have the sort of broadness of skills that I do have without doing that, you know, that musical theatre degree. But I think what is great is like being able to sort of have this sort of bravery to go like, no, you can keep training, like you can keep trying to add to your skills.

Paul Hunter
And I think I think you're absolutely right, Omari. I think it's such a you know, as one carries on in this, I won't say career because that seems a crazy word to use. But in this kind of world that we're in, I think it becomes more important to sometimes think about. Saying yes to something that you don't know how to do or that feels a bit, do you know what I mean, out of your comfort zone? You know, it's interesting because of course, you've had that training, I'm sure it's clearly benefited you, but you've managed to make huge transitions. And I couldn't talk to you without touching on It's A Sin, my favourite show over the last year and as you know, I can't mention that without mentioning my daughter, who's obsessed with my 14 year old daughter. But first of all, how did that come about? Was that just something from your agent saying you've got this meeting or.

Omari Douglas
Yeah, I, so it sort of came about a couple of a couple of months after we finished touring because we sort of finished in the April of 2019, I think it was. And then, yeah, a couple of months after that, my agent just kind of came through and said, like Andy Pryor, who was casting the show, is working on Russell T. Davies new sort of television project, which is going to be this five part miniseries about sort of a group of friends in London during at the height of the AIDS epidemic. And I it was I really hadn't done many screen auditions before. I I'd done a few and sort of I guess that was sort of a time where we were all starting to sort of do self tapes and that kind of thing. So I was like a rookie in sort of like two senses, like sort of in the screen world at first and then also like having to do these self tape thing. So it was like, oh gosh, what's this? But then luckily I went into the room actually for the first time and I met Andy and yeah, he's one of those casting directors who he's just very generous and sort of like really looks for like just sort of the actual, like, spirit in a person, and who is willing to invest time. And and that was just really wonderful and and comforting. So, yeah, that came about. And as you said, like, we it's good to be sort of a little bit scared of a project in a way. So if you want to feel like you're that you're going to challenge yourself. And then I mean, again, when I was at those auditions for It's a Sin, I mean, I was auditioning with a good friend of mine. I also saw, like, plenty of people who I was like, I've seen you. I've seen you on stage. I seen you on the telly. Why on earth are they going to give me this job? Like I was literally just like I I don't have the same level of experience, but. Yeah. And then eventually sort of like came to me, which was amazing. And I was just sort of like, oh my God, this is huge. I've actually got to do this.

Paul Hunter
But well, I mean, you were absolutely as I said. But I have to say on this podcast, you were brilliant in it. I'm as you all were, I'm intrigued with the central characters. Was there, because you were so credible as a group of friends, that's what you know, that was the glue of the show. Like I could believe you in this flat in Brixton. And we all wanted to come out and hang out with you in that flat in Brixton. Was there a sense that Russell T Davies was looking for actors who somehow were closer to their part they were going to play or not? Really.

Omari Douglas
I think they I mean, I said this so many times, like, the thing that blows my mind is that, like we hadn't met until we got to the read through on the very first day. Yeah. Yeah. None of us had met. So, like, that was just clearly like their instincts are just very, very, very good. But yeah, like I think they were just able to sort of like know whether someone was able to sort of like capture the essence of of of the character within this sort of short space of time that they were trying to get to know them before they were casting them in the roles. But what was also amazing was just the chemistry between us all was very natural. And I also think that there was like a shared sense of everyone having the same feeling about sort of being in this position, because no one and, you know, even for people like, you know, Ollie who have had like long sort of like careers in acting like prior to him being a musician, everyone felt very like everyone was very vulnerable about the fact that, like they that we were all taken on this huge thing, that there was like a shared excitedness and nervousness about, so I think that's what gave it that energy. I think I think.

Paul Hunter
It's interesting as well as if I think back on it, it was a great ensemble of actors, you know, you guys at the heart of it, and then the older actors around it, the parents. And I thought it felt weirdly, it felt it wasn't, it was very much television, but it felt like that sometimes what you get in theatre when you have a great ensemble all working together to to tell, in this case, a really powerful and important story. But as I said to you before, I really enjoyed the mix of tone in the piece. I loved the fact that it was funny at times. And and then even more poignant as a result. Was that was that there in the script from the very beginning when you first read it, did you feel that?

Omari Douglas
Yeah, that definitely like well, when we were auditioning, they only or at least I, I only read the first two episodes. And then as we got closer to the filming, they sort of like dripped the other three scripts to us. And yeah. From the beginning I because obviously when they said it's at the height of the AIDS epidemic, I read that first episode and I was like, but this is just like loads of friends, just like having an amazing time. And Russell just wanted us to lean into that. He just wanted us to have fun. And, you know, essentially, like, that is what kids were doing, though, like, you know, they can't foretell that all of this, you know, crazy stuff is going to happen to them. So, yeah, we were just really encouraged to lean into that. And then all of the other stuff will just play itself.

Paul Hunter
So, yeah, it's so true, I think of so many things that we do that we sometimes think we have to be hinting at something or telegraphing something. But as you say, him inviting you to sit in that world of having a great so that even at the end of that first episode, I don't do any spoilers if people haven't seen it. But even at the end of that first episode, it's very shocking. Then when you kind of realise what's up, you go oh my. And as someone who who came to London at that time for my generation, suddenly when of course, because you as an audience, you get seduced by you lot having a good time. So I'm assuming you must all be good pals now off off screen and hang out together and get together.

Omari Douglas
Oh my god completely. Yeah, I saw, I saw a few people. Yeah, I saw a few people last week and it's just yeah. It's just really, it's really amazing. Just sort of like hearing where everyone had come from and because again like as I was saying like that was there wasn't any sort of like ego. Everyone just shared this. There was a commonality which was that just everyone felt like that they were sort of doing something for that first time

Paul Hunter
that comes across in the show as well, that that definitely comes across, the generosity of it now, obviously, and brilliantly, I hope for you it opens up possibilities. And are you in rehearsal at the moment or about to be in rehearsal?

Omari Douglas
I've ust started Constellations kind of, sort of weird, yeah, because we're working with them, which is the Nick Payne play, and it's being sort of produced on a different model. Still directed by Michael Longhurst, who directed directed the original production at the Royal Court. But it's a really innovative model where there are four casts which plays into the world of the play, which is this idea with parallel universes in a multiverse and multiple possibilities. So I'm performing much later in the run from 30th of July. So I've done an initial week of rehearsals and then I'll sort of be back in from from early July.

Paul Hunter
I think it sounds fascinating, the different combinations and the different generations it's you and Russell Tovey and yours, isn't it?

Omari Douglas
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Paul Hunter
It's the kind of thing where I can imagine people going, oh, I want to go again. Do you know what I mean. If they saw you two and then you saw Peter Capaldi and Zoe Wanamaker it would be a very intriguing thing.

Omari Douglas
Yeah, it is

Paul Hunter
Well, I will obviously be coming along to see that Omari, and I want to do one more thing before we finish, if that's OK. I'm going to ask you some random questions and I want you to answer without thinking. Is that alright?

Omari Douglas
Yeah

Paul Hunter
OK, here we go. Dancing or singing?

Omari Douglas
Dancing.

Paul Hunter
Gin and tonic or Aperol Spritz.

Omari Douglas
Aperol Spritz.

Paul Hunter
Cheesecake or banoffee pie?

Omari Douglas
Cheesecake.

Paul Hunter
Broadway or the West End?

Omari Douglas
West End.

Paul Hunter
The Beach or the city?

Omari Douglas
The beach.

Paul Hunter
And this is, so you know, these are two songs I'm going to give you, The Only Way Is Up or Don't Leave Me This Way?

Omari Douglas
The Only Way Is Up.

Paul Hunter
New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro?

Omari Douglas
New Orleans.

Paul Hunter
Omari, it's been really lovely chatting to you, and I'm so thrilled it's going the way it is because you're very, very talented and a really disciplined performer, which sounds an odd thing to say, but it really counts and I hope to see very soon.

Omari Douglas
Thanks so much. I'll see you soon for sure.

Paul Hunter
Thanks Omari, all the best, bye.

Omari Douglas
Take care.