Answer: not very much. Shown here, backstage at Watford Palace Theatre, is a completely wonderful prop from our show, The BFG. Centre piece of ActII, this giant puppet is now a stately 18 years old, and still proving a wow with chidlers up and down the country. Given that he spends years at a time in a dark, draughty, warehouse with no other giants for company, I think he does pretty well. It falls to your correspondent keep to him in fettle.
Fortunately he's very low-tech, as you can see, and needs only the occasional tweak to keep him in shape. A major innovation for this tour is the inclusion of two 99p rubber balls to provide some suspension for his giant shoulders (inspired by production saloon-car racing techniques, no less) and swapping a few nuts and bolts for meatier items better suited to the rigours of ten shows a week.
He is operated by his human counterpart, who climbs up inside him during the second half of the show, straps himself in, and proceeds to walk away with a scene set in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace. The puppet's head, arms, legs and even his opening mouth, are all operated directly by the actor. As you may imagine, mucking about with stuff like this on a daily basis, for a living, with a bunch of exceptionally talented actors and technicians for company, is brilliant fun.
