Meet the people who aim to make everyone smile during the festive season
WORDS: CHRISTABEL SMITH. PHOTOS: CRAIG FULLER, PAUL STEAD
Real life behind the photos
‘Panto brings out the child in us all’
Peter Gordon, 56, lives in Guildford with his wife Mel. As well as being in panto, he is a broadcaster, event host and media specialist.
I always know pantomime season is in mid-flow as I permanently have remnants of eyeliner on my eyelids. In December, my wife switches to black pillowcases so I don’t smear make-up on them.
I’m an unashamed show-off and have had an urge to perform since, allegedly, giving a rendition of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep on my nursery school teacher’s knee.
I was working as the breakfast show host of my local radio station when, in 2003, I was offered a pirate role in Woking’s Peter Pan. It was huge fun and I got the panto bug in a big way.
After pre-recording the voice of the mirror in Sleeping Beauty, Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre asked if I’d join the cast. The answer was: ‘Oh yes, I will!’ Back then, the dame was played by the late actor Royce Mills.
He’d chat about how to apply comedy make-up and so on.
I sometimes wonder if he’d been preparing me to step into his clunky dame’s shoes. Appearing as Dame Trott for the first time in 2006, I was quaking in my size nine Dr Martens. I’d do the breakfast show, then up to three performances a day. I’d never felt an adrenaline buzz like it. Now, almost 20 years on, appearing in panto is as much a part of my Christmas as turkey and figgy pudding. In fact, one year, in Cinderella, I did actually play a Christmas pudding!
The dame can establish a rapport with the audience like no other. There’s nothing to touch the sensation of hearing the roar of laughter as I appear on stage in an outlandish outfit. Dick Whittington in 2021 felt extra special, as the 2020 performance had been cancelled due to the pandemic. On Christmas Eve, it’s impossible not to feel the crackle of magic as excited kids arrive at the theatre dressed up as princesses or wielding flashing wands.
It’s not just the little ones’ eyes that are shining, either, because panto brings out the child in us all. You know where you are with ‘it’s behind you’ and corny jokes – its predictability is somehow reassuring. Plus, you’re guaranteed a happy ending, and who doesn’t want one of those?
✣ Peter is appearing as an ugly sister in this year’s Cinderella. For tickets and details of
