Jill Halfpenny is the latest big name to headline the pantomime at Newcastle Theatre Royal this year. Entertainment Editor Gordon Barr takes a look back at who else has starred in the festive celebrations there over the past ten years. Rock on, Tommy! They may not have spent much time in the jungle, but Cannon and Ball spent a good five weeks in the wilds of the North East a few years back. The double act played The Chinese Policemen in Aladdin during the 1996-97 pantomime, when their usual slapstick humour went down a treat with audiences. As Tommy Cannon said at the time: "You shouldn't take away the magic of panto from the kids. First of all you have to win them over. Then the parents relax and, if they end up shouting louder than the kids by the end of the show, you know you've done your job." They starred alongside Paul Usher, then most famous for Brookside, and more recently The Bill. But he seemed to make playing the bad guy an art form - both as an actor and in real life. He played baddie Abanazar, but for Paul, being in panto appeared to be a pain. "It is better than working," he said, "but I got a bit of a shock. "I brought my golf clubs up with me but I don't know what for. "And I agreed to do the pantomime before I knew how many shows I'd have to do." Thankfully, most who have appeared in panto at the Royal over the past decade seem to have loved every minute of it. David Essex made a cracking Robinson Crusoe in 1995-96, while the worst baddie of them all, Captain Hook, got all the boos and hisses in 1997-98. The pantomime was, of course, Peter Pan and the actor playing Hook was Leslie Grantham, before he came back from the dead in Eastenders as Den Watts. It was the fifth time he played Hook, and he told the Chronicle: "I don't think it is a typical pantomime - this is more of a Christmas show. "There's no dame, nor the usual amount of slapstick. But the kids love it." Smee was played in that panto by Joe Pasquale, another one to have since gone on to I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. For two years running, Phil Middlemiss, who played Des Barnes in Coronation Street, was the headliner, breaking box office records both times. In 1998-99 he starred as Buttons opposite Sophie Lawrence's Cinderella, and in 1999-2000 he starred in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Some of the tickets for the January performances were priced just £1 to celebrate the Millennium. Birds of a Feather met Midsomer Murders in 2000-01 when Lesley Joseph and John Nettles starred in Dick Whittington. Denise Welch proved a huge hit the following year in the same panto, as well as launching a crackdown on drink-driving. Then John Inman, Robin Asquith and Stu Francis topped the bill for Aladdin in 2002-03, which became another big earner for the Theatre Royal. Denise must have told husband Tim Healy about the delights of panto at the Royal, as he signed up for Peter Pan in 2003-04. Now he is wowing audiences in Billy Elliot: The Musical in London's West End. Last year saw the return of Lesley Joseph in Snow White. | 
Tyne Bridge Publishing
