High School Monsterical

I tried. I held out for weeks, despite the desperate pleas of my daughter:

MILLIE: Please Mummy, but Hannah and Ava have seen it. And Hannah has completely fallen in love with Choy.

ME: Troy

MILLIE: Yes. Choy. I want to fall in love with Choy.

ME: Troy. You are too young for love.

MILLIE: I am five. I will love Choy.

But eventually, I gave in. It wasn’t the whining. Although that was annoying. It was the memory of my own deprived childhood. Not in the financial sense, but cultural deprivation – the memory of being banned from Dallas and Grease (too American), Eastenders (common), and Coronation Street (Northern and common). And thus spending my playtimes doing hopscotch on my own while Theresa Fraser led the rest of Year 3 in a re-enactment of Sue Ellen drunkedly fighting Pamela, or Rizzo stubbing out her cigarette under her stilettos.

So I did it. I bought High School Musical on DVD. And settled down for two hours of hideousness while Millie cheerled her way around the living room.

But something weird happened. It’s like Pringles – I think they put subliminal drugs in there. Because, once I’d popped, I couldn’t stop. After ten minutes, I was singing along. Then I was crying. Then I was telling Millie to shush because I was missing all the good bits.

Disney got me. And they got me good. I’m going to see HSM3 tomorrow! I’ll take Millie as an excuse. But she’s gone off Choy. She only really wants the pick and mix sweets in the foyer. It’s me who’s looking for the happy ending.

About Joanna Nadin

A former broadcast journalist and special adviser to the prime minister, since leaving politics I’ve written more than 80 books for children and adults, as well as speeches for politicians, and articles for newspapers and magazines like The Guardian, Red and The Amorist. I also lecture in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, and hold a doctorate in young adult literature. I’m a winner of the Fantastic Book Award and the Surrey Book Award, and have been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Booktrust Best Book award and Queen of Teen among others, and twice nominated for the Carnegie Medal, for Everybody Hurts, and for Joe All Alone, which is now a BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated BBC TV series. I've also worked with Sir Chris Hoy on the Flying Fergus series and ghost-written Angry Birds under another name. I like London, New York, Essex, tea, cake, Marmite, mint imperials, prom dresses, pubs, that bit in the West Wing where Donna tells Josh she wouldn’t stop for a red light if he was in an accident, junk shops, crisps, Cornwall, St Custard’s, Portuguese custard tarts, political geeks, pin-up swimsuits, the Regency, high heels, horses, old songs, my Grandma’s fur coat, vinyl, liner notes, the smell of old books, the feel of a velveteen monkey, Guinness, quiffs, putting my hand in a bin of chicken feed, the 1950s, burlesque, automata, fiddles, flaneuring, gigs in fields on warm summer nights, Bath, the bath.

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