Billy Jenkins is our Artful Dodger in Chichester's Oliver!

With book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, it comes freely adapted from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist in a new revision by Cameron Mackintosh.

“I have played the role quite a few times and it's when I first did it that Cameron saw me,” Billy says. “It's a weird story. I was playing it an amateur production and it went to Atlanta where all these amateurs could go and perform. We performed three songs and we were the only English people there. Everyone else was American and there were 10,000 kids and I did Consider Yourself and Cameron saw me from there and he said he would really like me to be in the show when he got it back up in the West End. We were going to do it but I ended up doing a bit of Les Mis playing Gavroche but then Covid hit and everything shut down and I thought that was it for the whole of Oliver Twist, that it was done and not coming back. But then I got an audition for a ten-part TV series called Dodger which is about the Artful Dodger and how he became the Artful Dodger. I ended up doing that and we had Christopher Eccleston as Fagin. It was really good fun and we ended up through doing three specials as well so I've certainly done a lot of Dodge!”

And now, of course, there’s the Chichester Festival Theatre production: “It is so cool to be doing this new version now and what is interesting is that obviously now the Artful Dodger is a bit older than he is usually played and I think that's cool too. He's usually 12 or 13 or something like that but in this he is 16 and he takes Oliver under his wing. It's more of a twist. He is more of Fagin’s lieutenant, the second guy in command

“Obviously you've got to be dodgy to be the Artful Dodger but the thing with Dodge is that he is very cheeky and he is very gifted with his words and his speech. He is very quick. And people tend to just see the cheeky chappie but in fact he's got a really kind heart. He is very kind in looking after Oliver who was on the street. He is trying to get someone else in Fagin’s gang but he loves the gang because he feels it's his family. When I did Dodger in the TV show, it was about him growing up and how he became the Artful Dodger and it's a similar story to Oliver's.

“You could say that Fagin is manipulative but I think Fagin is really genuinely giving the kids work and giving them somewhere to be and I do think he does care about the kids and he's got a really good close bond with Dodge. Dodge sees him like a father figure. He is not my blood but he is the father figure that Dodge has always wanted. There is a lovely bit at the end of the show that shows how close Dodge and Fagin are. They don't usually do it in the show but we do it in ours and it's a really nice ending.”

Tickets from Chichester Festival Theatre.