BBC TV and radio presenter Allison Ferns turns to the dark side in panto

She will be the villain when Cinderella is staged at The DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole from December 20-30. The team behind it, E3 Production – based in Hove – say it will be “the biggest and certainly our most spectacular panto to date.”

Allison is delighted to be part of the fun again: “I used to do panto when I was a kid and they used to have panto at Brighton Theatre Royal. They were called the panto babes and we used to be waiting backstage for our turn in the spotlight and I remember you were looking at all the older people in the cast thinking ‘One day that will be me!’ So this has always been a dream for me. And so when I got the chance to do panto in Brighton, I did. We did Peter Pan and I got to be a mermaid and then last year we were at the Brighton Centre and we did Aladdin. And now this year I get to be the baddie for the first time! There's definitely a dark side! When I read through the script, I absolutely loved it and I just love being bad. The fact is that you just never get the opportunity and I think the thing about panto is that even when you are bad then everyone knows it will still be a happy ending in the end and there's always a nice moral to the story. But the great thing about being the baddie is that everybody can boo and hiss and shout at me. My kids are really looking forward to it. They are 11 and 13 and they're saying ‘Fantastic! We can boo and hiss mummy!”

And for Allison, the fact that she will be working so hard will simply add to the magic of it all this Christmas: “The children will come and watch me on Christmas Eve and then we get home and then the elves will deliver the presents. Panto is just such a traditional part of Christmas for so many families and it's just a big tradition for us. I just love it and I just happen to be in it!” And again it's a great outlet: “When you're doing a breakfast radio show you can't go on and start whinging and moaning but if you are being the baddie in panto you definitely can. On radio you just have to smile. And on the radio sometimes the news, as you know, can be all doom and gloom which means it's so great to have panto as a big escape and I get to sing and dance! And last year I was even lifted. It was all very Strictly Come Dancing! I had two male dancers lift me and they were twirling me around above their heads! It was a tough gig! But they didn't drop me once!”

Last year the show was in the Brighton Centre: “It was the most surreal experience being in the changing room and you're looking at all the pictures on all the walls of all these musical icons who have performed there. But this year it's going to be lovely to be back in the Hilton Brighton Metropole. It's a different feel to being in an arena. You get the intimacy you don't get in the Brighton Centre. When you're in the Brighton Centre you can't really see the audience but with this one it will be different and I'm looking forward to it.”