About Hillie
Nothing in Hillie’s early working life predicted her extraordinary future. She started work as an NHS radiographer often in busy accident and emergency departments. Seeing at first hand the suffering of so many fostered her compassionate nature which remained with Hillie throughout her long and varied career. Hillie the radiographer was hiding extraordinary talent and ambition. During her NHS training at Westminster Hospital, London, she studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music and before long she was in the BBC 2 production of ‘Peter Grimes’ conducted by Benjamin Britten, followed by the musical ‘The Great Waltz’ at Drury Lane, fourteen years as Princess in pantomime on stage and TV, operas and concert performances, starring in musical comedy and cabaret. She eventually formed her theatre company Edwardians Unlimited producing Variety and Old Time Music Hall shows nationwide. Gradually the health service was left behind, but her people skills remained and were further developed.
Few professions, she maintains, produce as many professional and personal crises as the theatre and she saw at firsthand how valuable common-sense counselling is for those in need.
Employing stars like Roy Hudd, Barbara Windsor, Nicholas Parsons, Leslie Crowther, Clive Dunn and Barry Cryer didn’t stop Hillie finding time to marry and raise two children. However the marriage foundered and she found herself a divorcee, bringing up her young daughter and son alone. The experience made her stronger and she decided to found a club where the newly single, like herself, could meet others and perhaps find new friendships and partners.
The result was Dinner Dates. From small beginnings in local restaurants it became one of the UK’s largest and most successful social events and holiday club for single people, with over 17,000 members and up to a dozen events each month where single people could meet in convivial surroundings. Dinner Dates called heavily on Hillie’s people skills in managing introductions, overcoming shyness, boosting self-confidence and coaching people back into the game of life.
Putting her experience with people to good use, Hillie became an agony aunt online and in magazines and newspapers, offering advice and a sympathetic ear to thousands. She later put pen to paper, writing three books on relationships.
Hillie became familiar to many through appearances on programmes including Esther Rantzen, Kilroy, The Big Breakfast, Richard & Judy, GMTV, The Vanessa Show, The Time The Place, Carlton’s After 5, and her own show on LBC.
Hillie sold Dinner Dates in 2011 and has now written Playing Cupid – a sharp, funny and honest memoir of building an introduction agency and witnessing every kind of bizarre intrigue imaginable. Playing Cupid is due to be published this September.
