“I feel incredibly flattered to be asked" - EastEnders legend is promising Pompey panto villainy at the Kings Theatre
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EastEnders favourite Shaun Williamson is delighted to be back in Portsmouth for this year's Pompey Panto – Aladdin running from December 5-31 at the Kings Theatre.
Two years ago he was in Southsea as Captain Hook, last year he was doing his Barrioke show, and now he returns to panto at a favourite venue.
“I feel incredibly flattered to be asked. That was my first time in Portsmouth two years ago and it's just such a lovely place. We had a great production and a great cast and what was so good about it was that it was what they call in-house.
“You can work for some big panto companies where they're doing 15 pantos across the country but with this one, it is all in the one theatre and everything you need is all in the same building and I loved it.”
The role of Hook was “meaty! Especially the crocodile! And it's great to be doing this one now. I think Peter Pan and Aladdin are right up there as classic pantos. It great to do both, and Abanazer and Hook are classic villains. Part of it is the same as it will be me but we've got a new director for this year and he is really pushing me in new directions.
“He is really making me analyse the character and think about the character during the rehearsal process… but without going too deep!”
Shaun will be Aba-Barry-Nazer, a little reference to his celebrated EastEnders character: “Aba-Barry-Nazer is bit of a frustrated actor. I wonder where they got that from! In fact he is more of a frustrated actor than he is a villain. It is just such a fun script. He is very frustrated about everything. He is very frustrated full stop. He wants power and he wants wealth and he wants the princess and he also wants to be a great actor.”
A big part of the pleasure is that Shaun will be getting all the boos as the villain of the piece in what will be something like his 21st panto: “I had a rest from panto last year. I was doing my Barrioke Show which is basically me duetting with me! I had a good time. It did well and it was successful but I missed the discipline of doing two or three shows in a day. You do that and you don't put on weight and you stay pretty fit! I also missed the company of other actors, of like-minded people doing this thing all together for two months.
“I just loved panto at The Kings. It's a beautiful Matcham theatre and it has got all the history and the in-house people mostly are still here two years later which I think proves the point. They don't want to leave. It's just a great place to be.
“I think panto is such an important thing in our lives. You go as a child and then you come back when you've got your own children and then you keep going when you're older. It is a bit like going back to a favourite holiday, isn't it really. It is a bit like going back to Bournemouth or Ibiza when you used to go there as a child.”
Shaun is looking forward one day to coming along to panto with his own grandchildren: “I'm just desperate to be a grandfather. My children are all in partnerships but there is just no sign at the moment of any grandchildren!”
As for Barry, as Shaun says, the EastEnders character certainly follows him around: “But I brought that on myself. I did all the Ricky Gervais stuff and so on. There was a time some years ago when I thought that I had had enough of Barry but then I realised that I am really lucky that I've got him, that I've got this place in this industry wherever it is on the ladder. I remember when I was doing Barry, there were only four channels.
“You got 10 million viewers just watching Dot Cotton fold the laundry and if there was a murder or something like that, you’d get 20 million viewers!”