As 2025 closes, we can reflect in a rather seasonal way and cite pantomime, that great British theatrical entertainment tradition with Dames, ‘Look-behind-you’s’, dastardly villains and happy endings, often involving a dashing Prince, as (yes, really) ongoing evidence of the value of Public Relations (PR).
Our local beat is Bromley in south London and clearly the Trafalgar Theatre Group and both pantomime and other productions and individual stars get the value of PR, even as they also, rightly, employ social media and even more traditional marketing with posters, flyers, and listings.
Our Founder Darren founded (a panto tongue-twister for you, there) not just In Tune PR, but other initiatives including the Bromley Buzz podcast, which aims ‘to fill the communications wasteland of Bromley’, now almost 5 years and some 264 episodes ago.
The Churchill Theatre – now part of the Trafalgar Group – was one of the very first local organisations to collaborate with the podcast, providing a succession of shows to preview and review, and stars to interview, notably Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale, Eastenders); Johannes Radebe (Strictly Come Dancing); Rula Lenska (too many credits to mention); and most recently the fabulous Su Pollard (Hi-De-Hi), currently Mrs Potty in The Beauty and the Beast. Interview here. Su was both incredibly nice to meet, and also incredibly encouraging and professional, very keen to celebrate the show she is in and fellow actors and professionals associated with it.
We say, often, that social media is not enough, and the presence of fellow media such as Rosie’s Reviews (also in the interview link alongside Su), as just one example, underlines it. A lot of the shows visiting the Churchill have their own PR outsources, such as Alison Duguid PR.
One of the observations it is easy to make, working as we do across sectors, and often with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME’s) is how the ones that obviously don’t do all-round marketing get stuck and don’t progress. They don’t do PR, and become onse-dimensional in their marketing, and other, more complete, businesses, overtake them. Maybe they just don’t have what it takes to succeed.
Or, perhaps, oh yes they do, but they haven’t realised it yet.
For those businesses, making adding PR into their business model would make a great New Year’s Resolution.
P.S., Su shared the Bromley Buzz podcast interview to her 31.9k Instagram followers. Bless her and her Instagram.
Darren Weale, 18 December 2025
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