With less than 100 days until the special day is upon us, the cast for this year’s Eastbourne pantomime, Dick Whittington and his Cat, were in town to officially launch the show, with Todd Carty from EastEnders and The Bill leading the event, which marks the 17th pantomime produced by the acclaimed Eastbourne Theatres team.
The cast also includes a welcome return for Martyn Knight as Sarah the Cook and Eastbourne’s own Tucker as Idle Jack. The duo have delighted audiences since 2012 and the demand from panto-goer’s to see them return has been great.
At the launch party I was lucky enough to get to chat to Martyn and Tucker about their time in pantomime together and I started by asking Martyn about his first few pantos…
So Martyn, I know you first appeared in Eastbourne in Dick Whittington 13 years ago but can you remember, who was your first Dick?
(MK) My first Dick was… Oh my days… it was 2004. I’ve had three Dicks you see, two in successive years. Who was Dick? Do you know, I haven’t got a clue, but I’ve slept since then.
(Author’s note – Martyn’s first two Dicks were, as with this year, female. The first was Louise Davidson and they appeared in Potters Bar together in 2003. Martyn’s first Eastbourne Dick was Tiffany Graves in 2004 when they appeared alongside TV presenter Mark Curry, Dr Who sidekick Louise Jameson and West End star Tim Flavin.)
And how many years is it for you Tucker?
(Tucker) Go on Martyn, you tell him.
(MK) Four? – (Tucker) No – (MK) Five? – (Tucker) No – (MK) Is it six? – (Tucker) It is! Shall we count them? First was Sleeping Beauty, then Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Snow White last year and now, number six, Dick Whittington.
Do you look forward to pantomime, or do you dread it ?
(Tucker) Now I’m actually here at the launch and I’ve got my costume on, and seen Martyn, it’s all good. We’ve just filmed some lovely stuff downstairs and we picked it up just like that.
(MK) It’s so easy when you work this closely with someone that you really get on with.. so I’m really looking forward to finding someone like that! No, I’m joking. We really are good friends in the sense that we speak a few times through the year and we just pick up where we left off.
(Tucker) You can’t really have any sorrow each year when it’s all over because I know I’ll see him again. It’s never “goodbye”, it’s always “see you later”. And when we get back here, to this moment that we’re in, it’s just so natural.
When did it stop being “me” doing pantomime and start being “us” doing pantomime?
(MK) Very quickly but I have to admit, and this is the honest to god truth, when I first met Tucker I didn’t think I would take to him. I thought he was just too much and I that I wouldn’t be able to cope with him. The thing is, he has so much energy and he came bounding in and I thought, oh no!
(Tucker) I have this thing you see, in rehearsals, where I stop every minute, every moment, as say “what if we do this?”, “Why don’t we do that” or, “I’ve had a thought”.
(MK) I go and sit down then, cos I know this is going to take some time. But, the thing is, he is a comic genius. I read the lines and do what I can them but, because he is so good, he thrives on it. Mind you, there is the famous one, with the plank, that just never worked. We rehearsed and rehearsed it to get the timing right and it was cut after the very first performance!
(Tucker) You can fake many things in life, but I don’t think you can fake that we really like each other. It’s just there. It’s genuine. He glances at me and I glance at him and it just happens.
After chatting to the guys for a while, I sat with Grange Hill, Tucker’s Luck. Eastenders and The Bill star, Todd Carty to see how he feels about coming to Eastbourne as King Rat.
What is it about you that makes people want you for all these iconic TV roles?
Sometimes it’s a little bit of luck, being in the right place at the right time, and I do feel very lucky, but I think it’s also because it’s in my blood. I have been acting for so long, even before Grange Hill. I did my first advert when I was four, so I’ve not really known anything else. And when you work with certain people over such a long time you build up a good rapport and they can see that you sincerely love doing what you’re doing.
What comes across with you is your emotional connection to the role, it was the same with Dancing on Ice.
You know, DOI was just one of those things that comes along and, although my kids were quite young at the time, I thought I would see what they thought so I said “Boys, they want me to do Dancing on Ice”. Well, they looked at me and went so pale and said “Daddy, you’re going to kill yourself” and I said “That’s precisely what I was thinking!”
But, something inside me said, why not do something different, forgetting for a moment that it’s not on terra firma, but on ice. I remember, when we were being taught, that quite a few of the other contestents were really good and I was just so nervous all the time, even when we got to the live shows, which is ridiculous. I’ve done two live shows of The Bill, watched by 16 million people, but when I heard them say “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s Suzzie and Todd” my heart started pounding out of my chest and I thought – “What have I done??”
I loved it when it was over, but I didn’t particularly enjoy doing it because of the nerves but also because I was completely out of my comfort zone on ice. In the second live show I made the mistake of counting down to the end of the routine and, as I was concentrating so much on the counting, I caught the toe stop on the ice and that’s why I went crashing into the tunnel.
Is pantomime further into your comfort zone then?
Oh yes, panto is great, especially working with Chris Jordan. I’ve done about five or six for him and they are always so good. Some years I have been contracted to do a Christmas version of Spamalot, so that’s taken me away from pantomime, but when I do get to appear in panto I always get to play baddies, like Fleshcreep in Jack and the Beanstalk and my part this year, King Rat!
The launch was also attended by Katherine Glover (Dick Whittington), Felicity Morris (Cat) and Francesca Leyland (Alice Fitzwarren) and saw the cast visit local landmarks including The Town Hall – although the Mayor’s chains were kept safe from King Rat!
Come and find out if the streets around the Devonshire Park Theatre are paved with gold on this rip-roaring adventure which sees the cast transported from the streets of London across the seas to Morocco. With plenty of fun and stunning stage effects along the way, Dick Whittington is packed with songs and of course a live band but someone had better call environmental health as there are reports of a giant rodent on the loose…
Don’t miss the chance to be a part of the fun with Dick Whittington and his Cat at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne from 8th December until 14th January, tickets are priced from £14.50, the advice from the box office is to book now or risk missing your favourite seats as it’s already selling faster than last year’s smash hit Snow White. To book call the box office now on 01323 412000 or online eastbournetheatres.co.uk