Behind the scenes of Yorkshire's pantomime season - home of characters and capers

Dozens of pantomimes are being staged across Yorkshire, professional and amateur, with the former giving work to hundreds of performers. In fact, there are more pantomimes in the county than anywhere else in Britain. It can also lay claim to giving a home to the man who was called “the pantomime king”, Francis Laidler. Born in Thornaby in 1867, Laidler moved south to Bradford in 1902, and, as the Edwardian era began, he became involved with the world of theatres, first buying and running the Princess. In the March of 1914, he opened the Alhambra, and he staged his first panto at the end of the year (at the Princess) – which was an enormous hit, not least because, with war raging in Europe, the nation needed cheering up.

Laidler is remembered today with a plaque on the Alhambra, which describes him as “a millionaire philanthropist, who loved to make children happy”. His first Alhambra panto was Mother Goose, in 1930. Just part of his innovative showmanship was that his pantomimes would open in Bradford, play for the season (very often they would have a run of three or four months) and then be re-staged in the following year in some other UK town or city.

His last Bradford pantomime was in 1954 – Red Riding Hood. He died one day before his 88th birthday, and his widow, Gwladys, took over the reins, continuing the Laidler panto tradition for many more years. Gwladys was a seasoned performer herself, and had been a very popular principal boy. Laidler also owned, and presented pantomime, at the Theatre Royal in Leeds, and the Keighley Hippodrome – as well as at two rather better-known venues, the London Coliseum and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

“He had an amazing instinct for what his audiences wanted – and expected,” says Paul Laidlaw, who himself appeared as a dame for over a quarter of a century. Paul, 72, who studied music at the University of York, was persuaded one year to become the musical director of a panto at the Theatre Royal. He’s still working today, although he’s given up putting on the panto frocks. “Make a graceful exit when you’re still ahead,” he advises, but he adds that he couldn’t possibly just sit at home, and he is not only the resident conductor of Scarborough’s internationally acclaimed Spa Orchestra but also much in demand as an adviser to many of the county’s musical groups.

“Pantomime is really hard work. It may look so easy, but you can take it from me that it’s not. It’s got to look smooth, slick, a lot of fun – which, of course, it is, but, if you’ve got a show which runs for a month and a half, and there are several days when there are three performances, you must be really fit to sustain that commitment,” says Paul.

“And don’t forget that the dame will have about ten or maybe more changes of heavy costume – you have to keep your wits about you, and the people backstage, helping with the costumes and the scenery, are just as important. Don’t forget that, with a straight play, there are, perhaps, three different sets. In a panto, scene follows scene in quick succession – it’s a theatrical whirlwind!”

Damian Williams is celebrating his 16th year as dame at the Lyceum’s Beauty and the Beast in Sheffield this year. “It’s always like returning home,” he says. “The audiences are superb, I’m now a fully adopted Yorkshireman – should that be Yorkshirewoman? – and yes, it is indeed the highlight of my year. And when the final curtain comes down, I am always many, many pounds the lighter in weight.”

Marcus Romer, who is directing Dick Whittington in Harrogate, can remember the moment that he fell totally in love with pantomime. “I was five years old, and I was taken to see the legend that is Ken Dodd in Blackpool. I really had no idea who he was at all but I can recall that everyone in the audience thought that he was the funniest thing that they’d ever seen.

“But for me, the fuse was lit when the lady playing the Wicked Queen made an entrance from the back of the stalls, right next to the seat where I was perched. On stage, she’d been bathed in an ominous green light, but, under the overhang of the circle, she was there, without the illumination on her, and, just before her cue to run toward the stage, she turned and winked at me. That split-second moment made the whole thing so very special, and I’ve been hooked on panto ever since”.

He and Paul Laidlaw both use the same expression, “duty of care”. Performers must remember, says Marcus, “that they are opening a door to a lot of youngsters who have never been to the theatre before. That audience has no idea of what to expect, and you have to make their visit memorable, turning the key in the lock of live entertainment, and into a room to which you hope that they will return, time after time. Fail them, deliver a third-rate walk-through, and you have lost them forever.”

Billy Pearce, at the Bradford Alhambra, is another of those pantomime stalwarts, and has clocked up 23 years. So far. This year, he’s Buttons in Cinderella.

Then there are the record-breaking quartet in York, at the Grand Opera House, where the legendary Berwick Kaler leads the team of David Leonard, Suzy Cooper and Martin Barrass in Robinson Crusoe and the Pirates of the River Ouse. They have been enthralling their audiences for decades, and this season sees Berwick celebrate no less than 43 years as a dame, making him the longest-serving one in history. His dame costumes are in pride of place at London's V&A museum – including a pair of his boots.

Down the road in Harrogate, Tim Stedman has 20 years to catch up. Tim is always the comic foil to the dame, and this year he’s Idle Jack in Dick Whittington, adored (just as is Billy Pearce) by audiences for a full 23 years.

The “rookie” this year, the newcomer to the art of panto, is Samantha Giles, loved on screen for Emmerdale, and much besides.

“It’s my very first experience of playing the ‘nasty’ in the show”, she says. “It’s first time that I’ve been in a pantomime, and I’m the Wicked Stepmother, opposite Billy in Bradford. It’s a rather strange experience, making the audience hate you to the core, being thoroughly nasty.

“And I’ve found out that panto needs a lot of stamina – my costume is so heavy. To be totally fit, I’ve been going to the gym to work out. It may well look lovely, light-hearted, a lot of fun – and it is – but to deliver the delight, there’s so much hard work put in,” she says.

“My admiration for people like Billy and all the Yorkshire panto icons knows no bounds.”