How panto inspires the next generation of theatre-goers

She is the evil Mrs Blunderbore this Christmas in Jack and the Beanstalk at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre (December 14-January 5).

“I suppose it's because I am a strong Scottish woman! But actually I'm not playing her Scottish. It is just great fun to do but you usually get all these horrible rhyming couplets to learn. It's not like dialogue per se. You're not just chattering to somebody. You've got to learn all these couplets. But it is great to be strong and bossy and it's going to be good fun but it's remembering all those lines!”

Anne has done the big Scottish pantos and has now ventured south of the border for pantos including Woking and Nottingham and now Southampton, among a tally, she reckons, of about a dozen pantos in all: “Sometimes I can't do one because I've got a long contract. I do musicals and plays as well. I did one last year but I didn't do one the year before because I was on the road.

“But it pays the tax bill and it's fun and everybody is usually in a good mood. I don't have children so it's not imperative that I'm at home. It's hard work. It's demanding and your sleep pattern changes but it's lovely to do. The essence of pantomime is that you are going out to an audience where you really want to please all ages. The script writers and the designers have got to make sure that they please everybody from grandma right down to the little kiddies. It doesn't just target one age group. It's got to be the whole family, and then the lovely thing is that people come together as a family. You also get school groups that come along have great fun. But the other thing is that for children it is often the first time that they've had any experience of the theatre and you've got to make it interesting for them. I can remember going to see one big pantomime as a child and I was just so interested in looking at the dancers and the principal girl whereas my mum and her friends were all laughing at the dame and the comic. That's what I mean about panto appealing to everyone. Other people might absolutely love the costumes. You just want to inspire people so that they become interested in the theatre and in live entertainment.

“I remember doing a show where a man came to the stage door. It was a musical about Roy Orbison and this man came to the stage door and he told me that he'd never been to the theatre before because it didn't he didn't think it was for people like him. He told me that he only came because the show was about Roy Orbison.”

And that's a huge shame: “I think it is so important that parents and guardians take their children to see shows when they can, plays in community halls and nativities and so on just take them out there to enjoy live entertainment.”