Delighted to be everyone's "big fat funny old auntie" in panto this Christmas

He is back in Jack and the Beanstalk which is at The Hawth from December 13-January 5.

“(Producers) Evolution took The Hawth on as one of their venues and I came here in a production of Cinderella. I was an ugly sister and usually they manage to get you to do another venue the next year but there wasn't the option. But fortunately I was asked to stay here and play the dame the following year and I've been here ever since. This is my 11th year and actually the lovely thing is that they have named a dressing room after me! There's a plaque on the door! It's lovely to be recognised!”

But it is the people that are the biggest pleasure of coming back: “Everybody that works here, the box office and the crew and the management, are all so pleased to see you and when you walk out on the stage, before you have even said a word, you've got the audience on your side. There was a lady that sent me a message on Instagram and she said ‘It's not Christmas until I've seen my big fat funny old auntie!’ By which she meant me. And that was lovely. It's lovely to be made to feel part of someone's Christmas in that way.”

Dame is the part that Michael had always wanted to play: “It was always my favourite part when I used to go to panto. I love the big colourful costumes and the chat and the fact that the dames are always so outrageous that they could get away with almost anything. It's just something that I always wanted to do, and I have been playing dame now for 25 years, the last 11 at the Hawth, which is remarkable really because I'm only 32!”

And in a way it's a part Michael was made to play: “I've also worked in hairdressing. My mother had a salon and she trained me and I did that for a while. I've been heavily influenced by the old ladies that sat under the hair dryers, their banter and their jokes and the fact that they mishear things. It's that whole Les Dawson Cissie and Ada thing.”

And Michael does believe that those characters still exist: “You don't get the old girls with rollers and wrap-around pinnies anymore but you still do see the old ladies standing with their arms are wrapped around them nattering by the garden wall and that's definitely something I draw on.”