About this time of year I like to check the marvelous its-behind-you.com and see who is putting bums on seats in the provinces for the Panto season this year. I have fond memories of seeing Les Dawson at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, going completely off script throughout, and the great John Inman as Mother Goose in Stockport had me in stitches. I’m kind of amazed it’s still going -so it’s kind of nice that in a world full of competing ‘experiences’ for kids who are probably taken to gigs or Glastonbury with their parents pre-teen (unheard of in my yoof) , or can see their favourite TV & film stuff recreated as high concept live events there’s still a place for this extremely broad, camp, end-of-the-pier showbiz silliness even if the thrill of ‘someone off the telly’ being there in person surely can’t have the same pulling power. It also provides gainful employment for TV and light entertainment staples of the 70s and 80s -so – The Grumbleweeds, The Krankies, Little Jimmy Osmond, Bernie Clifton, Ian Beale, Paul ‘Reggae Like it Used to Be’ Nicholas, Todd ‘Tucker’ Carty, Jeffrey ‘Do your funny Policeman Spike’ Holland – and many many more will be able to put a Goose on the table this year.
12 O’ Clock and no sign of Dick…It’s Panto Time!
TV’s Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale) appearing, seemingly alone, in pantomime in Swindon. I am so there.
A new Panto catchphrase (if new ones are allowed) – performer makes entrance to a collective chorus of ‘I thought you were dead!!!’
There are at least 3 or 4 names on that page I never expected to be treading the boards in Panto, or indeed anywhere on this mortal coil. Bonus points for Cannon and Ball both still being around as I was convinced at least one them was no longer with us.
Marti Pellow is a surprising one. I know he was a cheesy-grin pop star but I thought he was a thoughtful, serious type these days.
Yep, Bernie Clifton and Anita Dobson are cracking the boards here in Hull. I’d never go but I’m glad it exists. Bloody hard work apparently, even by theatre standards.
I’ve had dealings with both of them. Anita is a delight and a much better actress than she was ever given credit for given her success as Angie from Eastenders. And Bernie Clifton is genuinely one of the funniest blokes I’ve ever met.
I really really love going to the pantomime. Everyone seems to be having a blast and are certainly not averse to sending themselves up either. Love the in jokes and topical themes.
Unfortunately the rest of my family don’t share my love so I don’t get to go anymore. Can’t go on my own, a 53 year old man on their own at a panto would be a little odd.
I’ve just read that Berwick Kaler is hanging up his Dame’s costume after 40 years playing the rôle at York Theatre Royal.
” This years panto is a culmination of every pantomime I have ever done at York in as much as it has no story, no plot, and it’s absolute rubbish”
Seems a good reason to go.
@ Freddy-Steady could you not borrow a small child to accompany you.
Billy Pearce has been doing the Bradford Alhambra panto for almost as long (well getting towards 30 years tenure). It appears to be the only work he gets all year. He has got the dames’ dame with him this year – the extremely annoying Biggins (as he is known these days).
Thank you Hubes, but that would be a little odd too, wouldn’t it???
PS, like the honesty in the Dame’s statement!
Don’t know your circumstances, but surely you have friends with children you could ‘borrow’?
Hmm, good point. I’ve got surly teenagers as have most of my friends. They, the surly teenagers, are far too cool and surly to be seen dead at a panto with an adult. Perhaps I could borrow a child from school . Though that would still be odd!
Anyone want to lend me a small child? Though you might be concerned if they came back just saying “behind you!”
Call it tutoring in the ways of righteousness.
Many years ago, I played in the house band for the RAE players (Royal Aircraft Establishment) for their annual pantomime.
I can honestly say it’s the most fun I have ever had in my adult life.
A few years ago I went to panto in Canada – a local production, made by local people. And it was as good as that description implies. However, they paid for a professional actor who seemed to have some form of local fame to play the pantomime dame – and his presence turned it an entertaining evening because he was far and away the best performer up there. Not sure if this is common practice among “am dram” companies elsewhere, but I think it’s well worth considering paying for a trained actor to play the lead in your production because that will attract more bums on seats and they can probably help the local cast in what they do.
Mash up with I met my hero, in a vainglorious attempt to put life back into a failing marriage, perhaps revealing all along where I was going wrong, I took the ex-Mrs Path to the matinee. I forget the name but with Joan Collins and the Joan Collins Fanclub, aka Julian Clary, in the lead roles, it was actually quite droll. And I met Gilson Lavis in the ice-cream interval queue. Charming he was.
Robert Lindsay is a seriously good actor who can ham it up with the best of them. Richmond is in for a treat.
Amen. If all he’d ever done was GBH he’d still be up there with the greats.
“Onomato-fuckin’-poeia!”
We’re re-watching GBH at the moment, truly a masterpiece.
It’s all on All 4 (the channel 4 catch up service) for free right now.
The Doctor Who convention is Bleasdale in excelsis.
“Fornicate! Fornicate!”
Never heard of GBH. It sounds like a perfect present to buy for myself. Thanks for the tip.
Also starring Michael Palin and Lindsay Duncan.
How long have you been in exile KFD? It was on in early 1991 and was a big deal at the time. Superficially it’s about left-wing politics: it’s really about mental illness.
(Some AWers would no doubt deny that those are different things)
Re: GBH
Written by Alan Bleasdale.
Soundtrack by Elvis Costello.
Two good signs!
Watch out for the ever-wonderful John Shrapnel as Michael Palin’s GP.
“Only when I’m angry!”
Early on in my career I served the good people of Oxford half-time icecreams and showed them to their seats for what I still maintain is one the ultimate panto casts:
Alvin Stardust – reliable leading man
Lynsey De Paul – one for the dads there
Anne Charleston AKA Madge from Neighbours. Difficult to overstate how big Neighbours was in the late 80s.
Freddie – who played Simple Simon. And proudly had a rug job in the preshow publicity blitz.
…and the Dreamers.
And the Care Bears. Well why not.
For all the number who do it/used to do it, I don’t wonder that Aussie soapie stars doing UK panto are like those big name stars going to Japan to shoot TV commercials.
Madge I believe was the first, appearing as the Vegetable Fairy no less.
When I saw this in updates I thought that Madonna’s career had taken a strange turn.
Lined up by QDOS to play Widow Twanky in Wimbledon for 2021 I believe.
It was always going to happen.
Anita Harris in Windsor. She looks about 30. Anita Harris…….
Also I’m following a lot of these actors on Twitter. You get some great stories and photos. Robin Askwith is recommended
Yes! Robin Askwith’s agent turned down an offer of work from Quentin Tarantino because a) he was in panto and b) the agent had never heard of Tarantino.
Confessions of a Crap Bank Robber.
If we’re playing the “British light-entertainment stalwarts on Twitter” game, I highly recommend “Who’s Lionel With Today?” wherein Lionel Blair (I presume it’s really him) posts a daily picture of himself, er, with someone… often it’s a vintage 60’s snap with (say) Michael Caine, or the finalists of some 70s Tie-wearer of the year contest, though last week, we had “down the corner shop with someone buying bread rolls…”
Thanks. Added to my list. ….
We love the panto. We always go the weekend before Christmas, so we don’t consider the Christmas period to have started until we’ve seen the panto. It’s always a good one at Sheffield Lyceum, mainly due to the dame (Damian Williams) being so funny that they stopped having a second comic on the bill when Bobby Knutt retired from doing them. He plays it as the ‘fat bloke in a dress’ type, with a voice reminiscent of Tommy Cooper, who he played in a well regarded one-man show a few years ago. The Sheffield panto won panto of the year last year.
This year it’s Peter Pan again. Last time they did that one Captain Hook was played by Nigel Planer, but he didn’t really ham it up and play it panto style. This year it’s Barry off Eastenders, so I don’t think we’ll have the same problem this time. We don’t tend to get the big name guests they get in that there London (Wimbledon always seems to get the best ones), but we’ve had the likes of Phil Daniels, Toyah and, er, H from Steps. Actually, I’m being unkind to old H, as he was very good. But it’s Damien Williams’ that we all go to see.
I do know better than to book seats on the front row now though. A custard pie in the face from a Chuckle Brother saw to that. I didn’t live that one down in a hurry.
Shame on Nigel. Nicholas Craig would never miss such an opportunity.
Looks like it’s going to be Cinderella and the Ice Slipper in Ottawa this year for my daughter and me. When I was a kid I used to go to the Panto put on by the repertory group from the local steel works (which employed just about everybody in town), that was always an experience, you would not believe how loud and misbehaved most of the kids were. Shudders …