Dame Jack is back for his tenth Pompey Panto this Christmas

“My tenth panto here! I can hardly believe it. But it wasn't always playing the dame. I started with Abanazar. That was my first panto at the Kings but I had always wanted to do dame and I knew at some point that I would try to do it but I always thought that I was too young. But then Paul Hendy of Evolution Productions gave me the opportunity to go down to Yeovil and do dame and he offered me dame every year at Yeovil but I said I really wanted to get back to home to Portsmouth. I spoke to the theatre and they said that their dame was just moving on and so I got the opportunity and the rest is history.

“For me the essence of dame is that you are a man in a frock. I always used to adore Les Dawson. Drag dames I don't know if I particularly agree with but I know that they've got their place and there are some great drag queen dames out there. But the point is when you are a drag queen, you're impersonating a woman. My approach is that I am a fat man in a dress!

“I love to push it. I'm known as the unpredictable dame. I like to push the boundaries a bit. And I do think that the Portsmouth audiences do expect that. If they know that I'm going to be on stage then they're going to want me to be a bit cheeky. And I do love to involve the audience. For me it's all about the audience, about them coming out and having a great time and I do pick on people. I do like to pick on my man in the front row and I've picked on so many now that I can hardly remember them. I'm just a tart! But I do get requests, people saying ‘My husband is in the front row! I want you to pick him please!’ But it's always very difficult to remember that. You have just got to go with the flow.”

It is important too to include something new each year. Last year the innovation was the man-cam, a way of picking out a chap in the audience and projecting his face onto the big screen: “There were a couple of times where the guy was not very happy to be picked and decided to give me the middle finger which is not great because they're there on the big screen and it's a family show but generally I managed to win people around. I just like to push people a bit but obviously if they get too uncomfortable, then I find someone else!

“But it is important to think of new things and to create new things. We're bringing the man-cam back this year and we're going to be taking it further. This is all about the fun.”

But on the more serious side, as Jack says the panto is absolutely crucial to the whole year for the venue: “It's the lifeline of the venue, as it is with many other venues. Pantos are such a huge thing and that's the reason why venues want to do them and that's why we wanted to produce our own panto and not have to give money away to a producer. We wanted to do it in-house.”

The Southsea cast is Lorraine Stanley – Queen Rat; George Sampson – Dick Whittington; Jack Edwards – Dame Dolly; Silly Billy – Joe Rowntree; Dick Whittington’s Cat – Jacob Bailey; Alice Fitzwarren – Imogen Bailey; and Fairy BowBells – Julia Worsley. Tickets from the venue.