What makes a good panto dame?

David was at the Regis Centre in 1992. He was back there in 1995 for an old-time music hall summer season – which was when he met his partner. 26 years later, they are still together. 26 years later, David is finally back on the Regis Centre stage – as Dame Trott in Jack and the Beanstalk this Christmas.

Jack and the Beanstalk tells the story of Jack, his brother Silly Billy and his mother as they attempt to beat the evil giant in the sky and save the village.

The venue is promising “a spectacular pantomime featuring a superb cast, brilliant scenery and costumes, amazing special effects and lots and lots of laughs”, the first time Jack and the Beanstalk has been performed at the Alex.

David did his first dame in 1995, starting off with Mother Goose: “And I think over the years, you just build up the character. You add to it each year. It is like going back to an old friend.

“This time, because it is Dame Trott in Jack in the Beanstalk, it is a very motherly dame, the mother of Jack and Silly Billy. She is a typical mum. She is funny but she has got a heart of gold. She is prissy, but she loves her sons and would do anything for them. And there is a moment of lovely pathos when they have to sell the cow…”

There are certain key elements to playing a dame: “The children have got to realise that it is a man in a dress. It is not funny laughing at a pretty lady falling over on her bottom or showing her bloomers, but it is OK to laugh at a man playing a mother so long as she is a kind mother.