Dame Chris is loving the great Portsmouth panto project

He was there last year in Aladdin and there a couple of years before that in Cinderella – all part of the great panto project at the venue.

“I had a really, really great time last year and what I loved about it was that I had helped start the project in year one with Cinderella. Then I went away and did another show in between and then I came back last year and it was really good to see the energy and to see the place again when we did Aladdin. It went really well and it was very well received and the great thing is that the audiences are growing. It's really good to be back. When we did Cinderella here it was the first panto here in a long time. It was just really unexpected to have a pantomime again at the New Theatre Royal. That’s the project and it's really growing.”

And Chris would love to keep on coming back to Portsmouth: “It is something that we have been talking about but really we just take it year by year. The main goal is the project and to make sure that the audiences keep turning up and that they are really enjoying the panto here and that they keep on coming back.”

The crucial thing, as Chris sees it, in the success of any panto is the people: “That's the main thing. It's about having a venue that has got good people who are good at working with people and enjoy being together and enjoy the energy that we can create. And you really feel it here from everyone, the marketing team and the crew and the tech people. And it's lovely to come back and see faces that you know and the venue is great. I love the fact that it feels intimate. It's big but there is that intimacy. I prefer theatres that are narrower and where the audiences are closer to you – and you get that feeling here. I have done shows at the London Palladium which is amazing but it doesn't have that same feel that you get here at the New Theatre Royal.

“I played ugly sister for ten years but last year was my first dame and they're completely different. The thing it seems to me is that when you are ugly sister you are the comedy but you are also the villain and your role is to come on, cause carnage, walk off and leave everyone else to deal with it but as the dame you are more responsible to the show. The dame is the mum. You've got the energy and you've got the comedy and you guide the softer moments but you also feel responsible for the whole show. The mumsiness is a character trait but it is also about being mum to the show itself. You've got to look after the show. You have the big moments but you're looking at the show overall and you've got to find the right balance between telling the story and being the character.

“Last year I was learning the whole time. Usually as the ugly sister the jokes have been set up for you before you walk on stage but this time you're much more responsible for bringing that element to the show – and you can't be as rude as you are as an ugly sister because that's just not the role but I did love the moments when you can break out of the character and react to the audience.”

The cast is Chris Aukett as Dame Dorothea; Lewes Roberts as the Prince/Beast; Christian James as Potty Pierre; Breanna Bradshaw as Beauty; Rachel Stanley as Malevolent; Becky Vere as Fairy Formidable; and Brendan Hooper as Jean Jacques. Tickets from the venue.