Iain Lauchlan is Coventry’s Mr Pantomime, writing, directing and performing in productions at the city’s Belgrade Theatre for more than three decades. The latest is Jack And The Beanstalk, a show that takes him back to where it all began - as he explains to What’s On…

Scottish actor, director, writer & producer Iain Lauchlan is an entertainment-industry veteran. With the best part of 50 years’ experience, he has a CV that features a selection of TV dramas and an array of well-known children’s programmes such as Play School, Fingermouse and Playdays. He’s also created shows including Boo, Fun Song Factory and the Bafta-winning Tweenies, and recently turned his hand to writing books for pre-school children.

But in his adopted home of Coventry (although he actually lives near Stratford-upon-Avon), he’s best known as the mainstay of the Belgrade Theatre’s annual pantomime, having written, directed and starred - as the dame, naturally - in more than 20 productions.

“I did my first one in 1988/89,” he tells me, in a gentle Scottish accent softened by decades of living south of the border. “Bob Hamlin, who was the artistic director at the time, asked me to write and direct a pantomime. He said ‘We only give people two pantos and then move on to something else,’ and I said that was fine... and here I am still doing it 30 years later!”

Iain first worked at the Belgrade more than 40 years ago, having come down from Kilmarnock to play John Shand in What Every Woman Knows, which opened the theatre’s 1980 season. He then stayed on to appear in that year’s panto, a certain Jack And The Beanstalk.

“I played half the giant, the back of the cow and was part of the chorus,” he chuckles. 
Although I’m keen to seize on the ‘full circle’ angle, this year’s show isn’t the first time he’s revisited the story. In fact, the 2022 production is a revival of a show he wrote in 2020, which was performed, with a truncated cast, to online audiences during the Covid pandemic. There’ll be plenty of changes in this year’s version but no drifting away from the familiar storyline, he insists.

“Making them different is always the challenge, especially Jack And The Beanstalk, which has a very set story with Jack and the cow and the giant and so on. It’s a very specific fairytale and people don’t want you to stray from that. It’s all the things in between that you try and make different - the comedy routines, the songs and the dances. And of course you don’t want to be repeating the dialogue and jokes, just in case people remember them!

“That’s the key really. We’ve always got the traditional comedy routines - the ghost gag, the slosh gag, the cow-milking routine and all that sort of stuff - but you always have to make them a little bit different.”
Varying the show is also important because the Belgrade’s annual panto has an incredibly loyal following, with families coming back year after year. Iain believes that such sterling support comes from an expectation of a quality production - not least because the theatre never relies on star names to bring in the punters.

“You have a responsibility to put on as good a show as you possibly can - for people who come regularly, because they have an expectation, and for people who are coming for the first time, because you want them to enjoy it and come back.

“Although some of the Birmingham pantomimes have a huge amount of money thrown at them and look fantastic, the storylines are often quite thin because they’re catering for all the star names. We don’t have that, so our storyline and characters have to be strong. You have to tell a really good story and have really good characters so that people latch on to them and care about them.”

Iain’s longevity in the role has helped create a connection with the audience - a poll once revealed that 90 per cent of theatre-goers didn’t care what the following year’s pantomime would be as long as he was doing it - but he believes being part of the festive furniture brings its own pressure.

“It worries me sometimes because it must be terrible for the people who don’t like me and don’t like what I do and are thinking ‘Oh no, not him again!’

“It’s always in the back of my mind that I’ve been here so long that people are bound to get fed up. But I really do try to make it a different experience each year and just fun… a couple of hours where people can forget all their problems and just enjoy themselves.”

Iain needn’t worry that people are getting tired of him - this year’s panto is the theatre’s fastest-selling on record, with more than 23,000 tickets already snapped up at the time of writing. 

“Oh really?” he says, when I tell him. “That’s very good! I was worried about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and all that sort of stuff… theatre tickets are a wee bit of a luxury, aren’t they?”
The annual panto is always an important part of the theatrical year in terms of income, but it’s also the chance to engage with youngsters (Iain also writes and directs a Santa show to introduce pre-schoolers to live theatre, this year called Santa’s Christmas Rescue) and people who don’t visit the theatre at any other time of the year. 

“That’s the trick of panto - it’s a family show and you have to try and cover all the age groups,” says Iain, who realises parents often “go to watch their children watching the show” but end up enjoying it themselves.

“It’s funny... you speak to people who say they hate panto, and then they’ll go and see it and think it’s a great night.”

And after 30-plus years, he knows that people who first saw one of his shows as children are now coming back with their own offspring.

“And kids who I’ve had in the panto as junior chorus, I’m meeting a lot of them who are now actors in the business! In fact, Vicki Stevenson, my assistant director this year, started out as an eight-year-old in my panto. 

She did quite a few years in the junior chorus, and then her older daughter did it, and now her younger daughter’s in it!”

Such family loyalty to his panto productions is clearly a source of great pride for Iain, who laughs when I point out how old it must make him feel.

“Oh yeah, absolutely. I can’t believe the years come round so quickly!”

by Steve Adams

Jack And The Beanstalk shows on the Coventry Belgrade’s main stage from Wednesday 23 November to Saturday 7 January. Santa’s Christmas Rescue runs from Thursday 8 to Saturday 24 December in the Belgrade’s B2 theatre