Iain Lauchlan is a familiar sight at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre during the Christmas period, not only appearing on stage as the beloved Dame in the annual pantomime, but also writing and directing the show. This year, he’ll be donning the frilly apron of Sarah the Cook to star in the venue’s production of Dick Whittington. What’s On spoke to him about his life in Pantoland...

Iain - You’ve been a regular fixture at the Belgrade for over 30 years. How did that come about? 
There’s something about the Belgrade. I love it as a theatre. It brought me south, actually. In 1980, I was an actor and did most of my work in Scotland, but I wanted to move south. Bob Hamlin was running the Belgrade at the time; it was his first season at the theatre. He saw me in a TV series which was networked from Scotland, and asked me to play John Shand in What Every Woman Knows to open the season. Basically, I never went back to Scotland!
I stayed for the panto, in which I was the back of the cow, and I played half the Giant - it was a two-headed, three-legged giant. That was my beginning, and Bob kept asking me back to do parts. I did some lovely shows -  Barefoot In The Park and A Little Night Music - then he offered me panto. He said “I’m offering you two pantos. Everybody only gets offered two - after two pantos, I change and move on to somebody else.” I said “That’s lovely, thank you very much,” - and I’m still here!  

You now write, direct and star in the panto. What’s your process when you write the show? 
Well, I like to try and do a fresh script each time with panto. You have to stick to the story - some companies don’t, but I like to. I finish the panto run in the first week of January, and then the synopsis for the next panto has to be in by the end of March. I do quite a full synopsis - about 20 odd pages, quite detailed. The show gets designed from the synopsis, so they have to know what’s going to be happening.
Dick Whittington is one of the biggies - it’s quite different from the others because it’s got a very strong storyline. Some of the pantos can take place anywhere really, whereas this one most definitely takes place in London. Dick can come from wherever you want - this year we’ve got him coming from Coventry. The thing about Dick Whittington is that there are so many locations, so it’s quite an expensive panto to stage!

Can you think of a moment when you were really proud to see one of your ideas come to life on the panto stage? 
It kind of happens every year. Once the actors get hold of it, take it off the page and actually make the moments work, it’s just so satisfying. There’s a particular one - I think it was Sleeping Beauty, and I played the nanny, Nanny Nora. I did the old Mary Poppins thing of bringing thousands of big things out of my bag when I arrived. I brought this tailor’s dummy out of my bag and set it up on the side of the stage. I put clothes on it and a wig. It was when Alexa had just come out, and I said “This is the Scottish Alexa; it’s actually called Morag, and you can ask it anything.” Morag had a real attitude! We had such a lot of fun out of that - that went 10 times better than I thought it would. 

This year’s cast includes Craig Hollingsworth, playing Idle Jack. It’s his 13th Belgrade panto. What’s your on-stage relationship like? 
Very good. I trust him a hundred percent, and I think he trusts me as well. We have a really fruitful relationship on stage - we just clicked. I auditioned him about 17 years ago. I was looking for a new comic, and he was a young lad at the time, with blonde tips in his hair - he’d just been doing Butlins, I think. I just loved him. I was very impressed with him when he auditioned - he had exactly what I wanted. We get on; we just know what each other is going to do. 

You perform in many different types of shows throughout the run - from school groups to the busy festive period. Do you have a favourite? 
I do love the busy time between Christmas and New Year, and leading up to Christmas, when everybody just wants to come out and have a nice time. The audience is truly different every night, and most audiences are just brilliant... 
But there’s nothing to beat the school shows! They’re the hardest of all because we have to be up and ready with the makeup on for 10 o’clock in the morning, which doesn’t really fit in with our lifestyle! But the reaction from the kids is just amazing. You get so much back from them - the volume of reaction from them is so loud, it’s great. 

You’re directing the show again this year.  How do you approach that particular task, especially when you’re appearing on stage at the same time? 
I don’t know if I could do it any other way now - I’ve been doing it that way for so long. I’ve got an assistant director, Vicki Stevenson, who is very good. She’s got her own dance school in Hinckley. She was one of my smallest Belgrade Babes when she was little - she came on stage at eight years old -  and she went right through the pantos every year. Then her oldest daughter was in it, and now her youngest daughter’s in it! She’s a really good assistant director, because she’ll sit back and leave me to do it, and then interject at the right time when I need help or when she doesn’t think something’s right. 
I have to think about Craig, because we have quite a lot of work together, and if I’m not around, he doesn’t have much chance to rehearse. My choreographer, Jenny Phillips, has been doing it for years. She’s very good as well - she will take care of all the children’s performances. It’s a really good team.

If someone was hoping to begin working in panto, what’s one piece of advice you’d give them? 
I audition new people every year - I like new people in the shows, as well as bringing people back. It’s very useful when people are a triple threat - who sing, dance and act - and I think any young person coming through and doing pantomime has to concentrate and try to do that. If you want to be a straight actor, you don’t particularly need to be a triple threat, but if you want to do pantomime, it’s very useful to be able to sing, move, and of course act. Once you can, people want you, and you’re a great addition to the cast.

Feature by Jessica Clixby

Dick Whittington shows at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre from Wednesday 20 November until Saturday 4 January