Worst Panto Celebrity

trying to be kind about the Americans as panto must be so alien to them. Funnily enough I am always apprehensive about the Dame - I've seen female impersonators and drag queens get the Dame so wrong.

Just as an aside, in my day the speciality acts weren't properly incorporated either - as Billy Connolly memorably observed "Now that we are all alone, I think I'll play my xylophone".  

I've never seen any reeeally bad celebs in panto, all the ones I've seen have been the standard panto casting: kids' tv presenters, former soap stars, older pop singers etc who all pretty much "get it" and fit nicely alongside the veteran comedians/dames etc.

Sad about Joe Pasquale if that's the case though. I've always liked him.

I'd hate to see a modern-day "drag act" as a dame though, it's something of a different skillset entirely.

I'm also not a big fan of the dame being the Fairy Godmother or Wicked Queen. So many panto casts are male-heavy and it takes those roles away from older actresses who can do them brilliantly.

I remember walking past the Opera House in Manchester when Priscilla Presley was in Snow White. They were literally giving tickets away in the street , not something I’ve ever seen before although I know it happens .

Back in the 60s it was quite common for popular singers of the day to be advertised as the star name in a pantomime , but in fact they’d just be included as an interlude , to perform a few of their songs, but not really as part of the pantomime. I have a flyer for Dusty Springfield headlining one such pantomime in Liverpool, as far as I know she just made an appearance unrelated to the pantomime . I’d be interested to hear from anyone who saw any of these kind of pantomimes , Dusty Springfield apparently hated her first panto experience and never repeated it. Susan Maughan made at least one panto “guest star” experience (Southampton, with Little & Large when they were Syd & Eddie) but went on to become one of the finest principal boys in the business , a real class act .

Different for the lead comedian of course , which is what this thread is really about , there should be real engagement with the show , they are supposed to carry the show.

Frank Bruno was dreadful when I saw him in a panto . He didn’t actually do anything .

Surely he said "Know what I mean 'arry ?" a few times ? That's not nothing. 

Should be a separate thread for boxers on stage. John Conteh was in a production of Blood Brothers once for example. I recall poor old Brian Matthew on Radio 2 interviewing him to promote it and in his introduction he incorrectly listed Conteh's boxing titles and Conteh immediately complained about that just before the line to him mysteriously got cut off and the normally benign and soporific Matthew launched into a crazed rant about Conteh's questionable commitment to the arts and the general disgrace of non-actors appearing on stage taking work from Equity members. All good fun.  

Cliff and The Shadows had several successful runs at The Palladium.

Churchill the Dog.

He only had two words!

Susan Maughan was certainly in pantos well into the 1980's in main roles. I don't know if she ever did a guest spot unrelated to the main story.

Any excuse to sing ‘Bobbies Girl’.

I have a programme in my collection from the Gaumont (now Mayflower) Theatre, Southampton for the 1965-66 season which lists Susan Maughan as making a guest appearance, also Syd Little is on record as saying Susan Maughan didn’t want a “speaking” role that year, she had a singing spot in the ballroom scene (the article mistakenly says the year was 1969).

In Ian Botham's autobiography he lists a quote from a critic of 'the only thing more wooden than the beanstalk was Ian Botham'

I like Derek Griffiths. He did a season with the RSC - Feste in Twelfth Night I seem to recall - so overqualified for pantomime.

Panto is amongst the hardest work an actor can do. Two, sometimes three shows a day, six days a week. In comparison Shakespeare is a walk in the park.