Meet the actor going from baddy to Dame in Beauty and the Beast at Richmond's Georgian Theatre Royal

It was not just the perils of getting mascara stuck in the eye or managing quickfire costume changes – it was following in the footsteps of a well-established Dame with a loyal backing.

“I now understand how David Moyes must have felt taking over from Alex Ferguson at Manchester United,” says the Liverpudlian actor who’s transitting from baddy to Dame Minnie van Clamper in the Georgian Theatre Royal’s Beauty and the Beast at Richmond, after former Dame Gary Bridgens bowed out in 2019, after 10 years.

Nick, who previously played the “deliciously evil” Abanazar in Aladdin (2019), Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (2018), and the lion in The Wizard of Oz (2017) said: “It can be a bit like a poisoned chalice, especially taking over from a previous Dame who was so well established.

"A lot of people who came to see the panto every year, they got to know the Dame and a lot came because it was him. Because the audience know me from the previous three pantos, they are kind of on my side. They want me to do well.

“All my fears were allayed after the first show, I thought maybe this isn’t as terrifying a prospect as I’d thought.”

Like his predecessor, Nick says he plays himself, with a Scouse brow (thick eyebrows) but no false eyelashes. “It’s a little bit more camp but essentially I’m myself. You can’t pretend or put on a character. I suppose it’s a typical Liverpudlian sense of humour, self deprecating, slightly cutting, acerbic – certainly not a loveable, cuddly Dame.”

In essence a Liverpool working class housewife, with a “bit of hand on hip”, says Nick, who dons Cuban heels for the show.

One of the trickiest parts of the performance is a costume change – the transformation from traffic warden to a chest of drawers, which took two minutes to start with but has now been whittled down to just 20 seconds. “Everything comes off – even though it’s tied, it is loose tied,” says Nick, who admits he always needs help getting his bra on.

Whereas many shows revolve around the Dame, Nick insists he doesn’t like the spotlight on being just on him.

Apart from a 20-minute monologue, he says stage time is shared pretty evenly. “It’s what I agreed when I took the part, I didn’t want the whole thing centred round the Dame. Clare (Allen) the writer said ‘nor do I’.”

After two years off because of the pandemic, the show goes on – against a background of niggling fears that it could all be over if a member of the cast came down with Covid.

Those fears aside, he enjoys being the Dame on stage and “hopefully that comes across”. And whatever worries there may be out there, nothing he says is going to stop the kids shouting and screaming and having a great time.

Beauty and the Beast runs until January 9.