'First time I've done panto as an adult is joyous'

Former EastEnders star and Olivier award winner, Nigel Harman, said doing his first panto since childhood is "joyous".

The 52-year-old is playing Fleshcreep in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre in Buckinghamshire.

Despite a career spanning stage and screen, he has not appeared in a professional pantomime since he was about 11.

"I am loving doing panto," he said, "at times it is riotous and the [audience] reaction is just amazing."

Harman was eight when, while at the Alexander Academy of Dance and Drama in Croydon, London, the principal introduced him to an agent who took him on.

"My mum and I made a pact that we would go to six auditions," he said, "and the sixth one was an OXO advert, which I got.

"That was it really and I've been doing this ever since, I don't think there's been a year since I was eight that I haven't worked."

But he has not been in a professional panto since he was 11 when he appeared as one of the Babes in the Wood at the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, where Richard Briers played the dame.

But, he said, it was his father who was the main pantomime influence.

"He loved panto," he said, "and we'd see three, four, sometimes five a year, and then he would write and direct them in the local village hall and I'd be in them growing up.

"Every year I did panto at the Woldingham Village Hall in Surrey, playing anything from Humpty Dumpty to Simple Simon to whatever [role] needed to be filled.

"So I'm no stranger to it at all but this is the first time someone's paid me to do panto as an adult."

In the intervening years, he became a household name in 2003 as EastEnders bad boy Dennis Rickman winning the Most Popular Newcomer award at the National Television Awards and then Best Newcomer at The British Soap Awards in 2004, before the character came to a grisly end in December 2005.

More recently he has been seen as Dr Max Christie in Casualty and is also well known for work including Downton Abbey and Hotel Babylon, plus he reached the semi-finals of Strictly Come Dancing in 2023 before withdrawing due to injury.

As a triple threat performer, his stage credits include the villainous Lord Farquaad in the original London production of Shrek The Musical, a role for which he won an Olivier Award, Sky Masterson in Michael Grandage's West End revival of Guys and Dolls and Simon Cowell in I Can't Sing: The X Factor Musical which he describes as "barking mad".

Amongst it all he has trained as a meditation teacher, even while filming Casualty, teaching online in his dressing room dressed in scrubs after a day on set.

This year saw him take on the role of Nazi official Otto Abetz in Farewell Mr Haffmann at the Park Theatre, London, so pantomime is a change.

His return to the genre after so long, was a combination of being "pretty much the first time [he had been] available" to do it and being aware of the Waterside "which has a very good reputation, especially when it comes to panto season".

"I had this idea that these were good people to be working with…. it was just serendipity, really, and everything just fell into place."

He also described himself as "a bit of a romantic about the theatre".

"I love being live, and I love the idea of kids coming to watch stuff," he said.

"My role in Shrek was to connect with the families and the audiences, and I really enjoy that.

"I do love being on stage. The TV world is great but where I find the most meat on the bone is when I'm on stage."

"And [in panto] I love the fact that each night is different, and it's also a bit nuts."

The crazy begins in rehearsals, which typically take only two or three weeks.

"I think doing panto is its own unique brand of torture in the rehearsal room," he said.

"I mean, we literally try everything once, and then it's like "that's it, that will do".

Taking advice from pantomime veterans, he was told that the school's matinees are "chaos" and sometimes you cannot even hear yourself speak, but you just have to "crack on".

Now well into the run, he said it is "going very well".

"It all gets a bit crazy but it's joyous," he said.

"The great thing about being this baddie is, the more I enjoy it, the more the audience enjoys it.

"People who have been to see it are so excited and misty-eyed because it's just an excuse to have a laugh, and it's the closest theatre form that is unapologetically full of joy and community.

"Yes we're playing parts and telling a crazy story but we're also hanging out with the audience and they're hanging out with us, so I think panto is unique in that respect which makes it very exciting to be a part of."

Looking back to his first panto experience as a child actor, and with the benefit of experience, he advises the "juvenile" performers at the Waterside, and anyone wanting to follow a similar path, to look after themselves and perform whenever possible.

"If it's what you want to do, just do it as often as you can and have fun," he said.

"Don't worry about what you're hoping to achieve from it because it's not important.

"What's important is doing what you love and if it is your passion to be a performer then just perform where you can, practise where you can and let the rest of it find you."

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.